John 17 and Sexuality in the Church: Clarity, Unity, Prayer

January 25, 2023 Tom Creedy

If you follow the news or are active on social media, it’s probably not escaped your notice that the Bishops of the Church of England have managed to frustrate both sides and every shade of the debate over sexuality. 

On the one hand, bishops are claiming to be making no change to the Church of England’s doctrine of marriage. On the other hand, they want to introduce prayers of blessing for relationships that fall outside the church’s understanding of godly relationships, including same sex marriages. With parliamentarians weighing in, threats to leave, and the global Anglican Communion watching, how can Christians in the UK respond to what is going on?

It's more important than ever for us to understand what the Bible says, think about what unity looks like, and pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ whatever their denomination.

At IVP we’ve been publishing books around issues of sexuality and of church unity for a long time – including calm and thoughtful commentary on the relevant biblical texts.

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Praying for Unity

Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is a timely Scripture for us today. Here’s verses 15-19:

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by^[d] the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

This is a prayer – and our first response to this kind of situation should be to pray. It is a prayer for unity – and with Jonathan Lamb’s reminder from his book Essentially One that there are four characteristics to the unity that Jesus prays for:

1. A shared experience of life – “To be ‘in Christ’ is to be graciously included in the communicative activity of the Father and the Son through the Spirit”
2. A common commitment to truth – “This defines Christian unity and is essential for its cohesiveness and its credibility”
3. A powerful witness to Christ – “In a world full of enmity and conflict, such Christian unity can be a powerful witness to Christ”
4. A joyful anticipation of heaven – “We can be sure that Jesus’ prayer will be answered”.

The current questions over sexuality have damaged the shared experience of life for Christians in the Church of England, shattered their common commitment to truth, damaged the UK Church’s witness to Christ, and take our eyes off the ball, off the hope that we have in Jesus.

Is the Bible clear on sexuality?

Yet the Bible is clear on this issue. Far from being a restrictive lie, we really do get to share (As Glynn Harrison puts it) ‘A Better Story’. Our sexuality has a purpose, as Ed Shaw explores in ‘Purposeful Sexuality’, even if it comes with a cost, as he so movingly recounts in ‘The Plausibility Problem’.

But the disagreement over sexuality is actually a disagreement over the authority of the Bible, and thus God’s authority to determine our identity. That’s what Andrew Bunt explores in ‘Finding Your Best Identity’, while for thinking about the trustworthiness of the Bible and the importance of truth Amy Orr-Ewing’s ‘Why Trust the Bible’ and Kristi Mair’s ‘More Truth’ remain helpful.

Uniting around truth

Clarity on this issue – the authority of Scripture and what it teaches about human sexuality – means we can pray confidently for unity. For those of us outside the Church of England, our recent collection of essays and testimonies, ‘God’s Church for God’s World’, makes for great prayer fuel, as well as helpful reading for those pondering the future of their ministries within Anglicanism.

Today, the 25^th of January 2023, is the final day of the Week of Prayer for Christian unity. Why not pray the prayer below, or your own words?

Lord Jesus, you are truth and grace incarnate, and we are so grateful for your clarity and love. Help the leaders of the Chruch of England to return to the clarity of scriptrue and the beautiful story that marriage and sexuality points to – the marvellous drama of salvation. Help us in our own lives and our own churches to have hard conversations, speak truth, and always have a reason for the hope that is in us. For friends and family who might think and live differently, give us grace and truth. For our own sins and blind spots, convict us. Lord, restore your church, that the world might see that you are good, and call on your name. Amen