“I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30 KJV)
As you might imagine, the Jews that actually heard Jesus say this had a real problem with it. We know this in part because in the next verse they pick up stones to stone him. Thankfully, that wasn’t permitted, but it highlights something very telling. The entirety of human nature actually has a problem with this! Why? Part of ingesting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is that it made us individuals. No longer able to be one with either God or each other in the sense that Jesus means it here. We can read self help books until we’re blind or listen to counselors until we’re deaf, but for all the betterment that we think we’ve attained, it’s an individual betterment.
The people present of that day probably had enough because they interpreted that statement as an equality with God. While that statement does reflect an equality with God, equality is only the bottom rung on that latter. Oneness is an interesting animal in that it’s not collectivism. It’s not a tightly knit group that is group think on steroids. At the same time, while individual free will is there, it’s a care for and concern with the other. John 8 paints a picture of this that you really have to think through. Jesus and the Father are separate enough entities that they qualify as two witnesses, yet if you’ve seen the one; you’ve seen the other. We see in John 17:11 (and John 17:22) a similar oneness that he desires between each of us. A oneness that need not forsake our individualness, but by caring for the other, waiting for the other, looking to do good to the other, treating the other like we would like to be treated, and more; we gain (not lose) more of ourselves while gaining a oneness with the other. All while developing what little we can see of the oneness that is to come while still in this world.
Oneness is also challenging because it’s nearly impossible to manage. People like self help formulas because they have steps that they can do. Oneness involves more surrender than management. Listening to the Lord and letting Him point out the needs of others, the cares of others, and seeing what they are really hungry for underneath the present circumstances is probably as good a start as any. Notice as you read through scripture how many times that idea of loving your neighbor and forgiveness (as you have been forgiven) keeps coming up. These are frameworks for something that He is building in us.
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:” (Mark 12:29 KJV)