WHAT DOES JOHN 10:30 MEAN?

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30, NET).

This is one verse of the Bible that has been sorely misinderstood and misinterpreted by many people.

Modalists (or Oneness Pentecostals) quickly add John 14:7-11 to this verse and say Jesus Christ and the Father are one and the same person. On their part, Trinitarians say that what Christ was saying in John 10:30 is that He and the Father (plus the Holy Spirit) make up the one God. Are they correct? Let us examine the following points:

• The words “are one” [Greek: “esmen hen”] used here in John 10:30 is also used by Paul in 1 Cor. 3:8 where he wrote “Now he who plants [Paul] and he who waters [Apollos] are one and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labour” (NKJV). The words “are one” used in this verse is rendered in the NIV as “have one purpose”. So, we know that the use of the words “are one” by Paul does not mean that He and Apollos are one and the same person. As far as their different service in the Corinthian church is concerned, they are for one purpose – the growth and maturation of the members of the Corinthian church.

In the same way, the use of the words “are one” by Jesus Christ does not at all imply that He and the Father are one and the same person. It simply means that He and the Father, though different persons from each other, have the same purpose – to keep the believers in Him from being destroyed by anyone and to give them eternal life (John 10: 28 – 29).

• The concept of “being one” is also used in other places in the Bible. An example is John 17:20-22. It reads:

“My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” (NIV emphases added throughout).

It is obvious that Jesus Christ was not praying to God to make the believers in Him one big being. It is clear He was praying to God that they’ll be one in mind and purpose just as He and the Father are one in mind and purpose.

There are many other scriptures where “being one” simply connote unity, unanimity, or oneness of purpose. Paul counselled the believers in Rome to glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ “with one mind and one mouth” (Rom. 15:6). To the Corinthians he wrote, “be of one mind” (2 Cor. 13:11). To the Philippians he wrote, that they should “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27). He stressed this unity again in Phil. 2:2 by urging them to “be of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose”.

Even in the Old Testament, this oneness is seen when prophet Micaiah was told that the other prophets “declared good unto the king with one mouth”. The messenger who made this statement was telling Micaiah that all the other prophets were unanimous in their prophecies; all of them prophesied the same thing. Micaiah was therefore told to let his own prophecy not be different (1 King 22:13). When God said in Gen. 11:6 that Nimrod and his people are one, it is obvious God was saying that they had unity of mind and purpose in building the Tower of Babel.

• The pronoun “we” used by Jesus Christ in reference to Himself and the Father (John 14:23; 17: 11, 22) is proof that Jesus Christ does not mean that He was the Father nor was the Father the Christ when the phrase “are one” was used in John 10:30.
• Many Bible passages have irrefutably revealed that God and His Son are two different persons. The following are just a few of them: Ps. 45:6-7; Dan. 7:9-13; Matt. 17:5; 26:42; Mark 13:32; Luke 9:26; John 5:23, 26; 6:46; 8:29; 14:1, 6, 28; 20:17; Acts 2:22-24, 32, 36; 3:26; 4:30; 5:30; 7:55-56; Rom. 8:34; 1 Cor. 11:3; 15: 24-28; Eph. 1:3, 17; 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 9:24; Rev. 3:12; 11:15; 21:22-23.
• Our Lord Jesus Christ said the Father is His God (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 20:17; Rev. 3:12). This solemn truth was affirmed many times by the apostles (Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31; Eph. 1:3, 17; 1 Pet. 1:3). If this truth is accepted by anyone, it becomes illogical to accept any notion that Christ and God are one and the same person.
• Many interpretation errors have been committed when people take a verse or passage and formulate doctrines on it without having recourse to the immediate and the larger biblical contexts in which the passage is found. To correctly interpret the Bible, we must apply the proven rules of Bible interpretation also known as biblical exegesis or hermeneutics. Failure to apply proper rules of interpretation at all times is responsible for the erroneous interpretation of John 10:30 by many people.

Conclusion

The oneness of God and our Lord Jesus Christ in John 10:30 refers to the oneness of their mind and purpose in giving eternal life to all believers and in keeping them from evil to the end of the age. John 10:30 does not in any way teach the false doctrines of Modalists and Trinitarians. If the Father is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:17), it is crystal clear that our Lord Jesus Christ and the one who is His God cannot be one and the same person. Moreover, the words “esmen hen” [are one] are used by Paul in 1 Cor. 3:8 for Apollos and himself. If anyone will not interpret that passage as meaning that the two of them are one and the same person, there is no reason whatsoever for such a Bible teacher to teach that John says in John 10:30 that God and His Son are one and the same person.