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How can we be one today with our fellow believers in Christ, in terms of how we gather together for fellowship in our local churches?

The Lord surely desires for us be one; that is what He prayed for on the night He was betrayed:

That they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe You have sent Me.
— John 17:21

Yet, tragically, today Christians are so divided from each other in their different gatherings that it doesn’t even seem possible for this prayer to be fulfilled. Still, because the Lord asked this of the Father, we surely do believe His prayer will be fulfilled.

So, again we must ask, how can we be one?

The answer, of course, is in the Bible. And when we genuinely take the Bible as the authority for what we believe, and study what it says in this regard, we will see that in the New Testament, the believers simply came together in the name of Christ as the church in their locality, so that there was only one church, no more (unlike today) in any locality. In this way they were one with all their fellow believers in the place where they lived, and by extension, one with all the other believers throughout the world, even though they could not practically be in fellowship with the saints in other places.

So, in the New Testament, the only name we ever see attached to a church is the name of a locality: “the church in Jerusalem” (Acts 8:1); the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1); “the church of God in Corinth” (1 Cor. 1:2); “the church of the Thessalonians” (1 Thess. 1:1); and of course, the seven churches in Revelation, where the city simply equals the church in God’s sight (Rev. 1:11).

This, then, is the New Testament way to keep the oneness with our fellow believers. It is not the oneness of any sect, man, work, or teaching (cf. 1 Cor 1:10-13), but the unique oneness of “the fellowship of God’s Son” that God has called us into as the believers in Christ (1 Cor. 1:9). It is only when we take this way for our church fellowship that the Lord’s prayer for the believers to be one on the earth can finally be fulfilled.

And so in this episode we consider the basis of locality as the genuine ground upon which we should gather together with our fellow believers today.

Length: 48 minutes

To download the pamphlet we use as
the basis for this study, go to this page:
“What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?”
To view the pamphlet online,
go to the “Look Inside” page.

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RESOURCES
Pamphlet: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?”
Look Inside: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?”

Previous Episodes in this Series: “What Is the Church?”

Episode #134, on 1 Corinthians 2: “What Is the Church? (6): The Fellowship of God’s Son & the Need to be Spiritual”

Video: “How I Found the New Testament Fellowship.”

Books
E.H. Broadbent, The Pilgrim Church
Witness Lee, The Life and Way for the Practice of the Church Life
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life

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BIBLE VERSES REFERENCED…

 In this Series:
Ephesians 1:22-23: The Body, the fullness of Christ.
Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13: The many members of Christ.
John 1:12-13, 3:3-8, 2 Peter 1:4: Born anew with the divine life and nature.
Ephesians 2:19, 1 Corinthians 1:9: God’s family and the fellowship of God’s Son.
Revelation 1:10-13: The seven churches as the golden lampstands.

In this Episode:
Matthew 9:17: Needing a new wineskin.
Matthew 19:8: “For the hardness of your heart.”
John 7:17: Willing to know God’s will.
1 Corinthians 1:10-13: Beginning to divide.

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Recorded…
in Chicago, Illinois on Friday, 30 May 2025