As One
To glorify is to show honor or to reveal the amazing character of someone.
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. ”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. - John 17:1-11
When Jesus prays to the Father to have his glory revealed, he is showing his disciples that he and God are one, and it is through him, Jesus, that the character of God is revealed.
He then hands over the task of revealing God's character to his disciples. He wants them, and us, to be one with each other the way he is one with God.
And in doing so, we reveal what it is like to be one with God, for Jesus has made us one with him.
I know it sounds confusing the way John puts it, but I think the lesson here is quite simple. We can be like God if we love one another and love God as He loves us.
One way to do this, I think, is to go out and lift up someone in glory. Someone we work with or meet on the street can be a good place to start. All we need to do is see God in them, and then show them praase.
If we can do that, we can come close to knowing what God is like.
More to come...