JOHN 17 AND EPHESIANS 3

^[p. 99] JOHN 17 AND EPHESIANS 3

I do not think that John 17 is the same as Ephesians 3. I think in John “I in you” is different from “the Christ dwelling in your heart by faith” (Ephesians 3). In John it is more what you find in John’s epistle. It is Himself — the eternal life; I quote from John 14: 20. There it is Himself, their present acquaintance with Himself. He was leaving them, and He comforts them by saying that in “that day” (when the Spirit came) they should know Him as He was at that moment, though absent, whereas in Ephesians (though you would, of course, not lose what you have in John) you are in union with Him, and your individuality is merged, because He is now everything to you, His heart doth safely trust in you, and all that He is interested in personally, and as He is interested, is your interest — the Christ, dwells in your heart by faith.

All His interests as “the Christ” dwell in your heart by faith. In John you are consoled for His absence in knowing Him as He is this moment in you. In Ephesians you are swayed and directed by Him dwelling in your heart as to His interests personally.

I hope that I have in some measure explained the difference to you.

I have been much interested in John 17 — the Lord’s desires for us — and in the thought of its having been given to the church since the break up of 2 Timothy: for John’s gospel is considered to be the latest scripture that was written. His desire that we all should be one remains as true to His heart as if it were an accomplished fact; and hence we never can lose sight of it or overlook it. But His other desires for us — to be kept in the Father’s name and to be sanctified — precede the expression of His desire for our oneness, and therefore this latter cannot be without the preceding ones. The more we are answering to His first two desires, the more we are helping towards the third.