John 17 | What's the connection?

44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
-Acts 2:44-47

At the heart of Jesus' prayer is a prayer for unity. The desire is for the believer to be unified with the Lord, and in being unified with the Lord, being unified with one another. In His prayer He is not so concerned with their physical safety as He is with their spiritual. Unity has a major part to play in that.

As you can see in the passage above, deep unity was something that could be experienced by the believer. Not only could it be, it was something they did experience. What was the result? The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved (v.47). The importance of this message continued to make its waves through the Church as well. As Paul writes to Ephesus and Corinth, he again emphasizes the importance of unity. In fact, we are instructed to endeavor to keep the unity of the saints. In the face of persecution, hatred, contentions, false teachers, and those who sow discord among brethren, we do see unity being preserved in the Church as we continue in reading Scripture.

More than the unity between man, we see the faithfulness of God pulling through as the believer is unified with the Lord. We see the Lord continuing to direct the Church through the book of Acts. We see the mission of Jesus being carried out fruitfully and effectively. We see the response to the Spirit being sent. All of these reflect back on Jesus' prayer. And even today, as we are those who believe because of the faithfulness of that early Church, we see our unity with the Lord grow into our unity with one another.

What connections are you making?