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Andrew Murray
"The mystery which hath been hid from ages, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."--Colossians 1:26,27
"I am the vine, ye are the branches."--John 15:5
"Tis
only a little Branch,
A thing so fragile and weak,
But that little Branch hath a message true
To give, could it only speak.
"I'm only a little Branch,
I live by a life not mine,
For the sap that flows through my tendrils small
Is the life-blood of the Vine.
"No power indeed have I
The fruit of myself to bear,
But since I'm part of the living Vine,
Its fruitfulness I share.
"Dost thou ask how I abide?
How this life I can maintain?--
I am bound to the Vine by life's strong band,
And I only need remain.
"Where first my life was given,
In the spot where I am set,
Upborne and upheld as the days go by,
By the stem which bears me yet.
"I fear not the days to come,
I dwell not upon the past,
As moment by moment I draw a life,
Which for evermore shall last.
"I bask in the sun's bright beams,
Which with sweetness fills my fruit,
Yet I own not the clusters hanging there,
For they all come from the root."
A life which is not my own,
But another's life in me:
This, this is the message the Branch would speak,
A message to thee and me.
Oh, struggle not to "abide,"
Nor labor to "bring forth fruit,"
But let Jesus unite thee to Himself,
As the Vine Branch to the root.
So simple, so deep, so strong
That union with Him shall be:
His life shall forever replace thine own,
And His love shall flow through thee.
For His Spirit's fruit is love,
And love shall thy life become,
And for evermore on His heart of love
Thy spirit shall have her home.
I have felt drawn to try to write
what young Christians might easily apprehend, as a help to them
to take up that position in which the Christian life must be a
success. It is as if there is not one of the principal
temptations and failures of the Christian life that is not met
here. The nearness, the all-sufficiency, the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus, the naturalness, the fruitfulness of a life of faith,
are so revealed, that it is as if one could with confidence say,
Let the parable enter into the heart, and all will be right.
May the blessed Lord give the
blessing. May He teach us to study the mystery of the Vine in the
spirit of worship, waiting for God's own teaching.
Preface
The Vine John 15:1
The Husbandman John 15:1
The Branch John 15:2
The Fruit John 15:2
More Fruit John 15:2
The Cleansing John 15:2
The Pruning Knife John 15:3
Abide John 15:4
Except Ye Abide John 15:4
I the Vine John 15:5
Ye the Branches John 15:5
Much Fruit John 15:5
You can do Nothing John 15:5
Withered Branches John 15:6
Whatsoever ye Will John 15:7
If ye Abide John 15:7
The Father Glorified John 15:8
True Disciples John 15:8
The Wonderful Love John 15:9
Abide in My Love John 15:9
Obey and Abide John 15:10
Ye, even as I John 15:10
Joy John 15:11
Love One Another John 15:12
Even as I have Loved You John 15:12
Christ's Friendship: Its Origin
John 15:13
Christ's Friendship: Its Evidence
John 15:14
Christ's Friendship: Its Intimacy
John 15:15
Election John 15:16
Abiding Fruit John 15:16
Prevailing Prayer John 15:16
I am the True Vine--John 15:1
All earthly things are the shadows
of heavenly realities--the expression, in created, visible forms,
of the invisible glory of God. The Life and the Truth are in
Heaven; on earth we have figures and shadows of the heavenly
truths. When Jesus says: "I am the true Vine," He tells
us that all the vines of earth are pictures and emblems of
Himself. He is the divine reality, of which they are the created
expression. They all point to Him, and preach Him, and reveal Him.
If you would know Jesus, study the vine.
How many eyes have gazed on and
admired a great vine with its beautiful fruit. Come and gaze on
the heavenly Vine till your eye turns from all else to admire Him.
How many, in a sunny clime, sit and rest under the shadow of a
vine. Come and be still under the shadow of the true Vine, and
rest under it from the heat of the day. What countless numbers
rejoice in the fruit of the vine! Come, and take, and eat of the
heavenly fruit of the true Vine, and let your soul say: "I
sat under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet
to my taste."
I am the true Vine.--This is
a heavenly mystery. The earthly vine can teach you much about
this Vine of Heaven. Many interesting and beautiful points of
comparison suggest themselves, and help us to get conceptions of
what Christ meant. But such thoughts do not teach us to know what
the heavenly Vine really is, in its cooling shade, and its life-giving
fruit. The experience of this is part of the hidden mystery,
which none but Jesus Himself, by His Holy Spirit, can unfold and
impart.
I am the true Vine.--The
vine is the living Lord, who Himself speaks, and gives, and works
all that He has for us. If you would know the meaning and power
of that word, do not think to find it by thought or study; these
may help to show you what you must get from Him to awaken desire
and hope and prayer, but they cannot show you the Vine. Jesus
alone can reveal Himself. He gives His Holy Spirit to open the
eyes to gaze upon Himself, to open the heart to receive Himself.
He must Himself speak the word to you and me.
I am the true Vine.--And
what am I to do, if I want the mystery, in all its heavenly
beauty and blessing, opened up to me? With what you already know
of the parable, bow down and be still, worship and wait, until
the divine Word enters your heart, and you feel His holy presence
with you, and in you. The overshadowing of His holy love will
give you the perfect calm and rest of knowing that the Vine will
do all.
I am the true Vine.--He who
speaks is God, in His infinite power able to enter into us. He is
man, one with us. He is the crucified One, who won a perfect
righteousness and a divine life for us through His death. He is
the glorified One, who from the throne gives His Spirit to make
His presence real and true. He speaks--oh, listen, not to His
words only, but to Himself, as He whispers secretly day by day:
"I am the true Vine! All that the Vine can ever be to its
branch, "I will be to you."
Holy Lord Jesus, the heavenly Vine
of God's own planting, I beseech Thee, reveal Thyself to my soul.
Let the Holy Spirit, not only in thought, but in experience, give
me to know all that Thou, the Son of God, art to me as the true
Vine.
And My Father is the Husbandman--John 15:1
A vine must have a husbandman to
plant and watch over it, to receive and rejoice in its fruit.
Jesus says: "My Father is the husbandman." He was
"the vine of God's planting." All He was and did, He
owed to the Father; in all He only sought the Father's will and
glory. He had become man to show us what a creature ought to be
to its Creator. He took our place, and the spirit of His life
before the Father was ever what He seeks to make ours: "Of
him, and through him, and to him are all things." He became
the true Vine, that we might be true branches. Both in regard to
Christ and ourselves the words teach us the two lessons of
absolute dependence and perfect confidence.
My Father is the Husbandman.--Christ
ever lived in the spirit of what He once said: "The Son can
do nothing of himself." As dependent as a vine is on a
husbandman for the place where it is to grow, for its fencing in
and watering and pruning. Christ felt Himself entirely dependent
on the Father every day for the wisdom and the strength to do the
Father's will. As He said in the previous chapter (14:10): "The
words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the
Father abiding in Me doeth his works." This absolute
dependence had as its blessed counterpart the most blessed
confidence that He had nothing to fear: the Father could not
disappoint Him. With such a Husbandman as His Father, He could
enter death and the grave. He could trust God to raise Him up.
All that Christ is and has, He has, not in Himself, but from the
Father.
My Father is the Husbandman.--That
is as blessedly true for us as for Christ. Christ is about to
teach His disciples about their being branches. Before He ever
uses the word, or speaks at all of abiding in Him or bearing
fruit, He turns their eyes heavenward to the Father watching over
them, and working all in them. At the very root of all Christian
life lies the thought that God is to do all, that our work is to
give and leave ourselves in His hands, in the confession of utter
helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He
gives all we need. The great lack of the Christian life is that,
even where we trust Christ, we leave God out of the count. Christ
came to bring us to God. Christ lived the life of a man exactly
as we have to live it. Christ the Vine points to God the
Husbandman. As He trusted God, let us trust God, that everything
we ought to be and have, as those who belong to the Vine, will be
given us from above.
Isaiah said: "A vineyard of
red wine; I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment;
lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Ere we
begin to think of fruit or branches, let us have our heart filled
with the faith: as glorious as the Vine, is the Husbandman. As
high and holy as is our calling, so mighty and loving is the God
who will work it all. As surely as the Husbandman made the Vine
what it was to be, will He make each branch what it is to be. Our
Father is our Husbandman, the Surety for our growth and fruit.
Blessed Father, we are Thy
husbandry. Oh, that Thou mayest have honor of the work of Thy
hands! O my Father, I desire to open my heart to the joy of this
wondrous truth: My Father is the Husbandman. Teach me to know and
trust Thee, and to see that the same deep interest with which
Thou caredst for and delightedst in the Vine, extends to every
branch, to me too.
Every Branch in me that Beareth Not Fruit,
He taketh It away--John 15:2
Here we have one of the chief words
of the parable--branch. A vine needs branches: without
branches it can do nothing, can bear no fruit. As important as it
is to know about the Vine, and the Husbandman, it is to realize
what the branch is. Before we listen to what Christ has to say
about it, let us first of all take in what a branch is, and what
it teaches us of our life in Christ. A branch is simply a bit of
wood, brought forth by the vine for the one purpose of serving it
in bearing its fruit. It is of the very same nature as the vine,
and has one life and one spirit with it. Just think a moment of
the lessons this suggests.
There is the lesson of entire
consecration. The branch has but one object for which it
exists, one purpose to which it is entirely given up. That is, to
bear the fruit the vine wishes to bring forth. And so the
believer has but one reason for his being a branch--but one
reason for his existence on earth --that the heavenly Vine
may through him bring forth His fruit. Happy the soul that knows
this, that has consented to it, and that says, I have been
redeemed and I live for one thing--as exclusively as the natural
branch exists only to bring forth fruit, I too; as exclusively as
the heavenly Vine exists to bring forth fruit, I too. As I have
been planted by God into Christ, I have wholly given myself to
bear the fruit the Vine desires to bring forth.
There is the lesson of perfect
conformity. The branch is exactly like the vine in every
aspect--the same nature, the same life, the same place, the same
work. In all this they are inseparably one. And so the believer
needs to know that he is partaker of the divine nature, and has
the very nature and spirit of Christ in him, and that his one
calling is to yield himself to a perfect conformity to Christ.
The branch is a perfect likeness of the vine; the only difference
is, the one is great and strong, and the source of strength, the
other little and feeble, ever needing and receiving strength.
Even so the believer is, and is to be, the perfect likeness of
Christ.
There is the lesson of absolute
dependence. The vine has its stores of life and sap and
strength, not for itself, but for the branches. The branches are
and have nothing but what the vine provides and imparts. The
believer is called to, and it is his highest blessedness to enter
upon, a life of entire and unceasing dependence upon Christ. Day
and night, every moment, Christ is to work in him all he needs.
And then the lesson of undoubting
confidence. The branch has no cure; the vine provides all; it
has but to yield itself and receive. It is the sight of this
truth that leads to the blessed rest of faith, the true secret of
growth and strength: "I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me."
What a life would come to us if we
only consented to be branches! Dear child of God, learn the
lesson. You have but one thing to do: Only be a branch--nothing
more, nothing less! Just be a branch; Christ will be the Vine
that gives all. And the Husbandman, the mighty God, who made the
Vine what it is, will as surely make the branch what it ought
to be.
Lord Jesus, I pray Thee, reveal to
me the heavenly mystery of the branch, in its living union with
the Vine, in its claim on all its fullness. And let Thy all-sufficiency,
holding and filling Thy branches, lead me to the rest of faith
that knows that Thou workest all.
Every Branch in me That Beareth Not Fruit,
He Taketh It Away--John 15:2
Fruit.--This is the next great word
we have: the Vine, the Husbandman, the branch, the fruit. What
has our Lord to say to us of fruit? Simply this--that fruit is
the one thing the branch is for, and that if it bear not fruit,
the husbandman takes it away. The vine is the glory of the
husbandman; the branch is the glory of the vine; the fruit is the
glory of the branch; if the branch bring not forth fruit, there
is no glory or worth in it; it is an offense and a hindrance; the
husbandman takes it away. The one reason for the existence of a
branch, the one mark of being a true branch of the heavenly Vine,
the one condition of being allowed by the divine Husbandman to
share the life the Vine is--bearing fruit.
And what is fruit? Something that
the branch bears, not for itself, but for its owner; something
that is to be gathered, and taken away. The branch does indeed
receive it from the vine sap for its own life, by which it grows
thicker and stronger. But this supply for its own maintenance is
entirely subordinate to its fulfillment of the purpose of its
existence--bearing fruit. It is because Christians do not
understand or accept of this truth, that they so fail in their
efforts and prayers to live the branch life. They often desire it
very earnestly; they read and meditate and pray, and yet they
fail, they wonder why? The reason is very simple: they do not
know that fruit-bearing is the one thing they have been saved
for. Just as entirely as Christ became the true Vine with the
one object, you have been made a branch too, with the one object
of bearing fruit for the salvation of men. The Vine and the
branch are equally under the unchangeable law of fruit-bearing as
the one reason of their being. Christ and the believer, the
heavenly Vine and the branch, have equally their place in the
world exclusively for one purpose, to carry God's saving love to
men. Hence the solemn word: Every branch that beareth not fruit,
He taketh it away.
Let us specially beware of one
great mistake. Many Christians think their own salvation is the
first thing; their temporal life and prosperity, with the care of
their family, the second; and what of time and interest is left
may be devoted to fruit-bearing, to the saving of men. No wonder
that in most cases very little time or interest can be found. No,
Christian, the one object with which you have been made a member
of Christ's Body is that the Head may have you to carry out His
saving work. The one object God had in making you a branch is
that Christ may through you bring life to men. Your personal
salvation, your business and care for your family, are
entirely subordinate to this. Your first aim in life, your
first aim every day, should be to know how Christ desires to
carry out His purpose in you.
Let us begin to think as God thinks.
Let us accept Christ's teaching and respond to it. The one object
of my being a branch, the one mark of my being a true branch, the
one condition of my abiding and growing strong, is that I bear
the fruit of the heavenly Vine for dying men to eat and live. And
the one thing of which I can have the most perfect assurance is
that, with Christ as my Vine, and the Father as my Husbandman, I
can indeed be a fruitful branch.
Our Father, Thou comest seeking
fruit. Teach us, we pray Thee, to realize how truly this is the
one object of our existence, and of our union to Christ. Make it
the one desire of our hearts to be branches, so filled with the
Spirit of the Vine, as to bring forth fruit abundantly.
And Every Branch That Beareth Fruit, He
Cleanseth, That it May Bear More Fruit--John 15:2
The thought of fruit is so
prominent in the eye of Him who sees things as they are, fruit is
so truly the one thing God has set His heart upon, that our Lord,
after having said that the branch that bears no fruit is taken
away, at once adds: and where there is fruit, the one desire of
the Husbandman is more fruit. As the gift of His grace, as the
token of spiritual vigor, as the showing forth of the glory of
God and of Christ, as the only way for satisfying the need of the
world, God longs and fits for, more fruit.
More Fruit--This is a very
searching word. As churches and individuals we are in danger of
nothing so much as self-contentment. The secret spirit of
Laodicea--we are rich and increased in goods, and have need of
nothing--may prevail where it is not suspected. The divine
warning--poor and wretched and miserable--finds little response
just where it is most needed.
Let us not rest content with the
thought that we are taking an equal share with others in the work
that is being done, or that men are satisfied with our efforts in
Christ's service, or even point to us as examples. Let our only
desire be to know whether we are bearing all the fruit Christ is
willing to give through us as living branches, in close and
living union with Himself, whether we are satisfying the loving
heart of the great Husbandman, our Father in Heaven, in His
desire for more fruit.
More Fruit--The word comes
with divine authority to search and test our life: the true
disciple will heartily surrender himself to its holy light, and
will earnestly ask that God Himself may show what there may be
lacking in the measure or the character of the fruit he bears. Do
let us believe that the Word is meant to lead us on to a fuller
experience of the Father's purpose of love, of Christ's fullness,
and of the wonderful privilege of bearing much fruit in the
salvation of men.
More Fruit--The word is a
most encouraging one. Let us listen to it. It is just to the
branch that is bearing fruit that the message comes: more fruit.
God does not demand this as Pharaoh the task-master, or as Moses
the lawgiver, without providing the means. He comes as a Father,
who gives what He asks, and works what He commands. He comes to
us as the living branches of the living Vine, and offers to work
the more fruit in us, if we but yield ourselves into His hands.
Shall we not admit the claim, accept the offer, and look to Him
to work it in us?
"That it may bear more fruit":
do let us believe that as the owner of a vine does everything to
make the fruitage as rich and large as possible, the divine
Husbandman will do all that is needed to make us bear more fruit.
All He asks is, that we set our heart's desire on it, entrust
ourselves to His working and care, and joyfully look to Him to do
His perfect work in us. God has set His heart on more fruit;
Christ waits to work it in us; let us joyfully look up to our
divine Husbandman and our heavenly Vine, to ensure our bearing
more fruit.
Our Father which art in Heaven,
Thou art the heavenly Husbandman. And Christ is the heavenly Vine.
And I am a heavenly branch, partaker of His heavenly life, to
bear His heavenly fruit. Father, let the power of His life so
fill me, that I may ever bear more fruit, to the glory of Thy
name.
Every Branch That Beareth Fruit, He
Cleanseth It, That It May Bear More Fruit--John 15:2
There are two remarkable things
about the vine. There is not a plant of which the fruit has so
much spirit in it, of which spirit can be so abundantly distilled
as the vine. And there is not a plant which so soon runs into
wild wood, that hinders its fruit, and therefore needs the most
merciless pruning. I look out of my window here on large
vineyards: the chief care of the vinedresser is the pruning. You
may have a trellis vine rooting so deep in good soil that it
needs neither digging, nor manuring, nor watering: pruning it
cannot dispense with, if it is to bear good fruit. Some tree
needs occasional pruning; others bear perfect fruit without any:
the vine must have it. And so our Lord tells us, here at the very
outset of the parable, that the one work the Father does to the
branch that bears fruit is: He cleanseth it, that it may bear
more fruit.
Consider a moment what this pruning
or cleansing is. It is not the removal of weeds or thorns, or
anything from without that may hinder the growth. No; it is the
cutting off of the long shoots of the previous year, the removal
of something that comes from within, that has been produced by
the life of the vine itself. It is the removal of something that
is a proof of the vigor of its life; the more vigorous the growth
has been, the greater the need for the pruning. It is the honest,
healthy wood of the vine that has to be cut away. And why?
Because it would consume too much of the sap to fill all the long
shoots of last year's growth: the sap must be saved up and used
for fruit alone. The branches, sometimes eight and ten feet long,
are cut down close to the stem, and nothing is left but just one
or two inches of wood, enough to bear the grapes. It is when
everything that is not needful for fruit-bearing has been
relentlessly cut down, and just as little of the branches as
possible has been left, that full, rich fruit may be expected.
What a solemn, precious lesson! It
is not to sin only that the cleansing of the Husbandman here
refers. It is to our own religious activity, as it is developed
in the very act of bearing fruit. It is this that must be cut
down and cleansed away. We have, in working for God, to use our
natural gifts of wisdom, or eloquence, or influence, or zeal. And
yet they are ever in danger of being unduly developed, and then
trusted in. And so, after each season of work, God has to bring
us to the end of ourselves, to the consciousness of the
helplessness and the danger of all that is of man, to feel that
we are nothing. All that is to be left of us is just enough to
receive the power of the life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit. What
is of man must be reduced to its very lowest measure. All that is
inconsistent with the most entire devotion to Christ's service
must be removed. The more perfect the cleansing and cutting away
of all that is of self, the less of surface over which the Holy
Spirit is to be spread, so much the more intense can be the
concentration of our whole being, to be entirely at the disposal
of the Spirit. This is the true circumcision of the heart, the
circumcision of Christ. This is the true crucifixion with Christ,
bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus in the body.
Blessed cleansing, God's own
cleansing! How we may rejoice in the assurance that we shall
bring forth more fruit.
O our holy Husbandman, cleanse and
cut away all that there is in us that would make a fair show, or
could become a source of self-confidence and glorying. Lord, keep
us very low, that no flesh may glory in Thy presence. We do trust
Thee to do Thy work.
Already Ye Are Clean Because of the Word I
Have Spoken Unto You--John 15:3
What is the pruning knife of this
heavenly Husbandman? It is often said to be affliction. By no
means in the first place. How would it then fare with many who
have long seasons free from adversity; or with some on whom God
appears to shower down kindness all their life long? No; it is
the Word of God that is the knife, shaper than any two-edged
sword, that pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and
spirit, and is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the
heart. It is only when affliction leads to this discipline of the
Word that it becomes a blessing; the lack of this heart-cleansing
through the Word is the reason why affliction is so often
unsanctified. Not even Paul's thorn in the flesh could become a
blessing until Christ's Word--"My strength is made perfect
in weakness"--had made him see the danger of self-exaltation,
and made him willing to rejoice in infirmities.
The Word of God's pruning knife.
Jesus says: "Ye are already clean, because of the word I
have spoken unto you." How searchingly that word had been
spoken by Him, out of whose mouth there went a sharp two-edged
sword, as he had taught them! "Except a man deny himself,
lose his life, forsake all, hate father and mother, he cannot be
My disciple, he is not worthy of Me"; or as He humbled their
pride, or reproved their lack of love, or foretold their all
forsaking Him. From the opening of His ministry in the Sermon on
the Mount to His words of warning in the last night, His Word had
tried and cleansed them. He had discovered and condemned all
there was of self; they were now emptied and cleansed, ready for
the incoming of the Holy Spirit.
It is as the soul gives up its own
thoughts, and men's thoughts of what is religion, and yields
itself heartily, humbly, patiently, to the teaching of the Word
by the Spirit, that the Father will do His blessed work of
pruning and cleansing away all of nature and self that mixes with
our work and hinders His Spirit. Let those who would know all the
Husbandman can do for them, all the Vine can bring forth through
them, seek earnestly to yield themselves heartily to the blessed
cleansing through the Word. Let them, in their study of the Word,
receive it as a hammer that breaks and opens up, as a fire that
melts and refines, as a sword that lays bare and slays all that
is of the flesh. The word of conviction will prepare for the word
of comfort and of hope, and the Father will cleanse them through
the Word.
All ye who are branches of the true
Vine, each time you read or hear the Word, wait first of all on
Him to use it for His cleansing of the branch. Set your heart
upon His desire for more fruit. Trust Him as Husbandman to work
it. Yield yourselves in simple childlike surrender to the
cleansing work of His Word and Spirit, and you may count upon it
that His purpose will be fulfilled in you.
Father, I pray Thee, cleanse me
through Thy Word. Let it search out and bring to light all that
is of self and the flesh in my religion. Let it cut away every
root of self-confidence, that the Vine may find me wholly free to
receive His life and Spirit. O my holy Husbandman, I trust Thee
to care for the branch as much as for the Vine. Thou only art my
hope.
Abide in Me, and I in You--John 15:4
When a new graft is placed in a
vine and it abides there, there is a twofold process that takes
place. The first is in the wood. The graft shoots its little
roots and fibers down into the stem, and the stem grows up into
the graft, and what has been called the structural union is
effected. The graft abides and becomes one with the vine, and
even though the vine were to die, would still be one wood with it.
Then there is the second process, in which the sap of the vine
enters the new structure, and uses it as a passage through which
sap can flow up to show itself in young shoots and leaves and
fruit. Here is the vital union. Into the graft which abides in
the stock, the stock enters with sap to abide in it.
When our Lord says: "Abide in
me, and I in you," He points to something analogous to this.
"Abide in me": that refers more to that which we have
to do. We have to trust and obey, to detach ourselves from all
else, to reach out after Him and cling to Him, to sink ourselves
into Him. As we do this, through the grace He gives, a character
is formed, and a heart prepared for the fuller experience: "I
in you," God strengthens us with might by the Spirit in the
inner man, and Christ dwells in the heart by faith.
Many believers pray and long very
earnestly for the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of
Christ, and wonder that they do not make more progress. The
reason is often this, the "I in you" cannot come
because the "abide in me" is not maintained. "There
is one body and one spirit"; before the Spirit can fill,
there must be a body prepared. The graft must have grown into the
stem, and be abiding in it before the sap can flow through to
bring forth fruit. It is as in lowly obedience we follow Christ,
even in external things, denying ourselves, forsaking the world,
and even in the body seeking to be conformable to Him, as we thus
seek to abide in Him, that we shall be able to receive and enjoy
the "I in you." The work enjoined on us: "Abide
in me," will prepare us for the work undertaken by Him:
"I in you."
In--The two parts of the injunction
have their unity in that central deep-meaning word "in."
There is no deeper word in Scripture. God is in all. God dwells
in Christ. Christ lives in God. We are in Christ. Christ is in us:
our life taken up into His; His life received into ours; in a
divine reality that words cannot express, we are in Him and He in
us. And the words, "Abide in me and I in you," just
tell us to believe it, this divine mystery, and to count upon our
God the Husbandman, and Christ the Vine, to make it divinely true.
No thinking or teaching or praying can grasp it; it is a divine
mystery of love. As little as we can effect the union can we
understand it. Let us just look upon this infinite, divine,
omnipotent Vine loving us, holding us, working in us. Let us in
the faith of His working abide and rest in Him, ever turning
heart and hope to Him alone. And let us count upon Him to fulfill
in us the mystery: "Ye in me, and I in you."
Blessed Lord, Thou dost bid me
abide in Thee. How can I, Lord, except Thou show Thyself to me,
waiting to receive and welcome and keep me? I pray Thee show me
how Thou as Vine undertaketh to do all. To be occupied with Thee
is to abide in Thee. Here I am, Lord, a branch, cleansed and
abiding--resting in Thee, and awaiting the inflow of Thy life and
grace.
As the Branch Cannot Bear Fruit of Itself,
Except It Abide In the Vine; No More Can Ye, Except Ye Abide in
Me--John 15:4
We know the meaning of the word except.
It expresses some indispensable condition, some inevitable law.
"The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it
abide in the vine. No more can ye, except ye abide in me."
There is but one way for the branch to bear fruit, there is no
other possibility, it must abide in unbroken communion with the
vine. Not of itself, but only of the vine, does the fruit come.
Christ had already said: "Abide in me"; in nature the
branch teaches us the lesson so clearly; it is such a wonderful
privilege to be called and allowed to abide in the heavenly Vine;
one might have thought it needless to add these words of warning.
But no--Christ knows so well what a renunciation of self is
implied in this: "Abide in me"; how strong and
universal the tendency would be to seek to bear fruit by our own
efforts; how difficult it would be to get us to believe that
actual, continuous abiding in Him is an absolute necessity! He
insists upon the truth: Not of itself can the branch bear
fruit; except it abide, it cannot bear fruit. "No
more can ye, except ye abide in me."
But must this be taken literally?
Must I, as exclusively, and manifestly, and unceasingly, and
absolutely, as the branch abides in the vine, be equally given up
to find my whole life in Christ alone? I must indeed. The except
ye abide is as universal as the except it abide. The no
more can ye admits of no exception or modification. If I am
to be a true branch, if I am to bear fruit, if I am to be what
Christ as Vine wants me to be, my whole existence must be as
exclusively devoted to abiding in Him, as that of the natural
branch is to abiding in its vine.
Let me learn the lesson. Abiding is
to be an act of the will and the whole heart. Just as there are
degrees in seeking and serving God, "not with a perfect
heart," or "with the whole heart," so there may be
degrees in abiding. In regeneration the divine life enters us,
but does not all at once master and fill our whole being. This
comes as matter of command and obedience. There is unspeakable
danger of our not giving ourselves with our whole heart to abide.
There is unspeakable danger of our giving ourselves to work for
God, and to bear fruit, with but little of the true abiding, the
wholehearted losing of ourselves in Christ and His life. There is
unspeakable danger of much work with but little fruit, for lack
of this one thing needful. We must allow the words, "not of
itself," "except it abide," to do their work of
searching and exposing, of pruning and cleansing, all that there
is of self-will and self-confidence in our life; this will
deliver us from this great evil, and so prepare us for His
teaching, giving the full meaning of the word in us: "Abide
in me, and I in you."
Our blessed Lord desires to call us
away from ourselves and our own strength, to Himself and His
strength. Let us accept the warning, and turn with great fear and
self-distrust to Him to do His work. "Our life is hid with
Christ in God!" That life is a heavenly mystery, hid from
the wise even among Christians, and revealed unto babes. The
childlike spirit learns that life is given from Heaven every day
and every moment to the soul that accepts the teaching: "not
of itself," "except it abide," and seeks its all
in the Vine. Abiding in the Vine then comes to be nothing more
nor less than the restful surrender of the soul to let Christ
have all and work all, as completely as in nature the branch
knows and seeks nothing but the vine.
Abide in Me. I have heard, my Lord,
that with every command, Thou also givest the power to obey. With
Thy "rise and walk," the lame man leaped, I accept Thy
word, "Abide in me," as a word of power, that gives
power, and even now I say, Yea, Lord, I will, I do abide in Thee.
I am The Vine, Ye Are The Branches--John
15:5
In the previous verse Christ had
just said: "Abide in me." He had then announced the
great unalterable law of all branch-life, on earth or in Heaven:
"not of itself"; "except it abide." In the
opening words of the parable He had already spoken: "I am
the vine." He now repeats the words. He would have us
understand--note well the lesson, simple as it appears, it is the
key of the abiding life--that the only way to obey the command,
"Abide in me," is to have eye and heart fixed upon
Himself. "Abide in me...I am the true vine." Yea, study
this holy mystery until you see Christ as the true Vine, bearing,
strengthening, supplying, inspiring all His branches, being
and doing in each branch all it needs, and the abiding will
come of itself. Yes, gaze upon Him as the true Vine, until you
feel what a heavenly Mystery it is, and are compelled to ask the
Father to reveal it to you by His Holy Spirit. He to whom God
reveals the glory of the true Vine, he who sees what Jesus is and
waits to do every moment, he cannot but abide. The vision of
Christ is an irresistible attraction; it draws and holds us like
a magnet. Listen ever to the living Christ still speaking to you,
and waiting to show you the meaning and power of His Word: "I
am the vine."
How much weary labor there has been
in striving to understand what abiding is, how much fruitless
effort in trying to attain it! Why was this? Because the
attention was turned to the abiding as a work we have to do,
instead of the living Christ, in whom we were to be kept abiding,
who Himself was to hold and keep us. we thought of abiding as a
continual strain and effort--we forget that it means rest from
effort to one who has found the place of his abode. Do notice how
Christ said, "Abide in Me; I am the Vine that brings forth,
and holds, and strengthens, and makes fruitful the branches.
Abide in Me, rest in Me, and let Me do My work. I am the true
Vine, all I am, and speak, and do is divine truth, giving the
actual reality of what is said. I am the Vine, only consent and
yield thy all to Me, I will do all in thee."
And so it sometimes comes that
souls who have never been specially occupied with the thought of
abiding, are abiding all the time, because they are occupied with
Christ. Not that the word abide is not needful; Christ
used it so often, because it is the very key to the Christian
life. But He would have us understand it in its true sense--"Come
out of every other place, and every other trust and occupation,
come out of self with its reasonings and efforts, come and rest
in what I shall do. Live out of thyself; abide in Me. Know that
thou art in Me; thou needest no more; remain there in Me."
"I am the Vine." Christ
did not keep this mystery hidden from His disciples. He revealed
it, first in words here, then in power when the Holy Spirit came
down. He will reveal it to us too, first in the thoughts and
confessions and desires these words awaken, then in power by the
Spirit. Do let us wait on Him to show us all the heavenly meaning
of the mystery. Let each day, in our quiet time, in the inner
chamber with Him and His Word, our chief thought and aim be to
get the heart fixed on Him, in the assurance: all that a vine
ever can do for its branches, my Lord Jesus will do, is doing,
for me. Give Him time, give Him your ear, that He may whisper and
explain the divine secret: "I am the vine."
Above all, remember, Christ is the
Vine of God's planting, and you are a branch of God's grafting.
Ever stand before God, in Christ; ever wait for all grace from
God, in Christ; ever yield yourself to bear the more fruit the
Husbandman asks, in Christ. And pray much for the revelation of
the mystery that all the love and power of God that rested on
Christ is working in you too. "I am God's Vine," Jesus
says; "all I am I have from Him; all I am is for you; God
will work it in you."
I am the Vine. Blessed Lord,
speak Thou that word into my soul. Then shall I know that all Thy
fullness is for me. And that I can count upon Thee to stream it
into me, and that my abiding is so easy and so sure when I forget
and lose myself in the adoring faith that the Vine holds the
branch and supplies its every need.
I Am The Vine, Ye Are the Branches--John
15:5
Christ had already said much of the
branch; here He comes to the personal application: "Ye are
the branches of whom I have been speaking. As I am the Vine,
engaged to be and do all the branches need, so I now ask you, in
the new dispensation of the Holy Spirit whom I have been
promising you, to accept the place I give you, and to be My
branches on earth." The relationship He seeks to establish
is an intensely personal one: it all hinges on the two little
words I and You. And it is for us as intensely personal as for
the first disciples. Let us present ourselves before our Lord,
until He speak to each of us in power, and our whole soul feels
it: "I am the Vine; you are the branch."
Dear disciple of Jesus, however
young or feeble, hear the voice. "You are the branch."
You must be nothing less. Let no false humility, no carnal
fear of sacrifice, no unbelieving doubts as to what you feel able
for, keep you back from saying: "I will be a branch, with
all that may mean--a branch, very feeble, but yet as like the
Vine as can be, for I am of the same nature, and receive of the
same spirit. A branch, utterly helpless, and yet just as
manifestly set apart before God and men, as wholly given up to
the work of bearing fruit, as the Vine itself. A branch, nothing
in myself, and yet resting and rejoicing in the faith that knows
that He will provide for all. Yes, by His grace, I will be
nothing less than a branch, and all He means it to be, that
through me, He may bring forth His fruit."
You are the branch.--You
need be nothing more. You need not for one single moment
of the day take upon you the responsibility of the Vine. You need
not leave the place of entire dependence and unbounded confidence.
You need, least of all, to be anxious as to how you are to
understand the mystery, or fulfill its conditions, or work out
its blessed aim. The Vine will give all and work all. The Father,
the Husbandman, watches over your union with and growth in the
Vine. You need be nothing more than a branch. Only a branch! Let
that be your watchword; it will lead in the path of continual
surrender to Christ's working, of true obedience to His every
command, of joyful expectancy of all His grace.
Is there anyone who now asks:
"How can I learn to say this aright, `Only be a branch!' and
to live it out?" Dear soul, the character of a branch, its
strength, and the fruit it bears, depend entirely upon the Vine.
And your life as branch depends entirely upon your apprehension
of what our Lord Jesus is. Therefore never separate the two words:
"I the Vine--you the branch." Your life and strength
and fruit depend upon what your Lord Jesus is! Therefore worship
and trust Him; let Him be your one desire and the one occupation
of your heart. And when you feel that you do not and cannot know
Him aright, then just remember it is part of His responsibility
as Vine to make Himself known to you. He does this not in
thoughts and conceptions--no--but in a hidden growth within the
life that is humbly and restfully and entirely given up to wait
on Him. The Vine reveals itself within the branch; thence comes
the growth and fruit, Christ dwells and works within His branch;
only be a branch, waiting on Him to do all; He will be to thee
the true Vine. The Father Himself, the divine Husbandman, is able
to make thee a branch worthy of the heavenly Vine. Thou shalt not
be disappointed.
Ye are the branches. This
word, too Lord! O speak it in power unto my soul. Let not the
branch of the earthly vine put me to shame, but as it only lives
to bear the fruit of the vine, may my life on earth have no wish
or aim, but to let Thee bring forth fruit through me.
He That Abideth in Me, and I in Him, the
Same Bringeth Forth Much Fruit--John 15:5
Our Lord had spoken of fruit, more
fruit. He now adds the thought: much fruit. There is in the Vine
such fullness, the care of the divine Husbandman is so sure of
success, that the much fruit is not a demand, but the simple
promise of what must come to the branch that lives in the double
abiding--he in Christ, and Christ in him. "The same bringeth
forth much fruit." It is certain.
Have you ever noticed the
difference in the Christian life between work and fruit? A
machine can do work: only life can bear fruit. A law can compel
work: only love can spontaneously bring forth fruit. Work implies
effort and labor: the essential idea of fruit is that it is the
silent natural restful produce of our inner life. The gardener
may labor to give his apple tree the digging and manuring, the
watering and the pruning it needs; he can do nothing to produce
the apple: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy."
The healthy life bears much fruit. The connection between work
and fruit is perhaps best seen in the expression, "fruitful
in every good work." (Col. 1:10). It is only when good works
come as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit that they are
acceptable to God. Under the compulsion of law and conscience, or
the influence of inclination and zeal, men may be most diligent
in good works, and yet find that they have but little spiritual
result. There can be no reason but this--their works are man's
effort, instead of being the fruit of the Spirit, the restful,
natural outcome of the Spirit's operation within us.
Let all workers come and listen to
our holy Vine as He reveals the law of sure and abundant
fruitfulness: "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit." The gardener cares for one thing--the
strength and healthy life of his tree: the fruit follows of
itself. If you would bear fruit, see that the inner life is
perfectly right, that your relation to Christ Jesus is clear and
close. Begin each day with Him in the morning, to know in truth
that you are abiding in Him and He in you. Christ tells that
nothing less will do. It is not your willing and running, it is
not by your might or strength, but--"by my Spirit, saith the
Lord." Meet each new engagement, undertake every new work,
with an ear and heart open to the Master's voice: "He that
abideth in me, beareth much fruit." See you to the abiding;
He will see to the fruit, for He will give it in you and through
you.
O my brother, it is Christ must do
all! The Vine provides the sap, and the life, and the strength:
the branch waits, and rests, and receives, and bears the fruit.
Oh, the blessedness of being only branches, through whom the
Spirit flows and brings God's life to men!
I pray you, take time and ask the
Holy Spirit to give you to realize the unspeakably solemn place
you occupy in the mind of God. He has planted you into His Son
with the calling and the power to bear much fruit. Accept
that place. Look much to God, and to Christ, and expect joyfully
to be what God has planned to make you, a fruitful branch.
Much fruit! So be it,
blessed Lord Jesus. It can be, for Thou art the Vine. It shall
be, for I am abiding in Thee. It must be, for Thy Father is the
Husbandman that cleanses the branch. Yea, much fruit, out of the
abundance of Thy grace.
Apart From Me Ye Can Do Nothing--John 15:5
In everything the life of the
branch is to be the exact counterpart of that of the Vine. Of
Himself Jesus had said: "The Son can do nothing of himself."
As the outcome of that entire dependence, He could add: "All
that the Father doeth, doeth the Son also likewise." As Son
He did not receive His life from the Father once for all, but
moment by moment. His life was a continual waiting on the Father
for all He was to do. And so Christ says of His disciples: "Ye
can do nothing apart from me." He means it literally. To
everyone who wants to live the true disciple life, to bring forth
fruit and glorify God, the message comes: You can do nothing.
What had been said: "He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same beareth much fruit," is here enforced by the
simplest and strongest of arguments: "Abiding in Me is
indispensable, for, you know it, of yourselves you can do nothing
to maintain or act out the heavenly life."
A deep conviction of the truth of
this word lies at the very root of a strong spiritual life. As
little as I created myself, as little as I could raise a man from
the dead, can I give myself the divine life. As little as I can
give it myself, can I maintain or increase it: every motion is
the work of God through Christ and His Spirit. It is as a man
believes this, that he will take up that position of entire and
continual dependence which is the very essence of the life of
faith. With the spiritual eye he sees Christ every moment
supplying grace for every breathing and every deepening of the
spiritual life. His whole heart says Amen to the word: You can do
nothing. And just because he does so, he can also say: "I
can do all things in Christ who strengtheneth me." The sense
of helplessness, and the abiding to which it compels, leads to
true fruitfulness and diligence in good works.
Apart from me ye can do nothing.--What
a plea and what a call every moment to abide in Christ! We have
only to go back to the vine to see how true it is. Look again at
that little branch, utterly helpless and fruitless except as it
receives sap from the vine, and learn that the full conviction of
not being able to do anything apart from Christ is just what you
need to teach you to abide in your heavenly Vine. It is this that
is the great meaning of the pruning Christ spoke of--all that is
self must be brought low, that our confidence may be in Christ
alone. "Abide in me"--much fruit! "Apart from me"--nothing!
Ought there to be any doubt as to what we shall choose?
The one lesson of the parable is--as
surely, as naturally as the branch abides in the vine, You can
abide in Christ. For this He is the true Vine; for this God
is the Husbandman; for this you are a branch. Shall we not cry to
God to deliver us forever from the "apart from me," and
to make the "abide in me" an unceasing reality? Let
your heart go out to what Christ is, and can do, to His divine
power and His tender love to each of His branches, and you will
say evermore confidently: "Lord! I am abiding; I will bear
much fruit. My impotence is my strength. So be it. Apart from
Thee, nothing. In Thee, much fruit."
Apart from Me--you nothing.
Lord, I gladly accept the arrangement: I nothing--Thou all. My
nothingness is my highest blessing, because Thou art the Vine,
that givest and workest all. So be it, Lord! I, nothing, ever
waiting on Thy fullness. Lord, reveal to me the glory of this
blessed life.
If a Man Abide Not in Me, He is Cast Forth
as a Branch, and is Withered; and They Gather Them, and Cast Them
into the Fire, and They are Burned--John 15:6
The lessons these words teach are
very simple and very solemn. A man can come to such a connection
with Christ, that he counts himself to be in Him, and yet he can
be cast forth. There is such a thing as not abiding in Christ,
which leads to withering up and burning. There is such a thing as
a withered branch, one in whom the initial union with Christ
appears to have taken place, and in whom yet it is seen that his
faith was but for a time. What a solemn call to look around and
see if there be not withered branches in our churches, to look
within and see whether we are indeed abiding and bearing fruit!
And what may be the cause of this
"not abiding." With some it is that they never
understood how the Christian calling leads to holy obedience and
to loving service. They were content with the thought that they
had believed, and were safe from Hell; there was neither motive
nor power to abide in Christ--they knew not the need of it. With
others it was that the cares of the world, or its prosperity,
choked the Word: they had never forsaken all to follow Christ.
With still others it was that their religion and their faith was
in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God. They trusted
in the means of grace, or in their own sincerity, or in the
soundness of their faith in justifying grace; they had never come
even to seek an entire abiding in Christ as their only safety. No
wonder that, when the hot winds of temptation or persecution
blew, they withered away: they were not truly rooted in Christ.
Let us open our eyes and see if
there be not withered branches all around us in the churches.
Young men, whose confessions were once bright, but who are
growing cold. Or old men, who have retained their profession, but
out of whom the measure of life there once appeared to be has
died out. Let ministers and believers take Christ's words to
heart, and see, and ask the Lord whether there is nothing to be
done for branches that are beginning to wither. And let the word Abide
ring through the Church until every believer has caught it--no
safety but in a true abiding in Christ.
Let each of us turn within. Is our
life fresh, and green, and vigorous, bringing forth its fruit in
its season? (See Ps. 1:3; 92:13, 14; Jer. 17:7, 8.) Let us accept
every warning with a willing mind, and let Christ's "if a
man abide not" give new urgency to His "abide in me."
To the upright soul the secret of abiding will become ever
simpler, just the consciousness of the place in which He has put
me; just the childlike resting in my union with Him, and the
trustful assurance that He will keep me. Oh, do let us believe
there is a life that knows of no withering, that is ever green;
and that brings forth fruit abundantly!
Withered! O my Father, watch
over me, and keep me, and let nothing ever for a moment hinder
the freshness that comes from a full abiding in the Vine. Let the
very thought of a withered branch fill me with holy fear and
watchfulness.
If Ye Abide in Me, and My Words Abide in You, Ask Whatsoever Ye Will, and it Shall be Done Unto You--John 15:7
The Whole place of the branch in
the vine is one of unceasing prayer. Without intermission it is
ever calling: "O my vine, send the sap I need to bear Thy
fruit." And its prayers are never unanswered: it asks what
it needs, what it will, and it is done.
The healthy life of the believer in
Christ is equally one of unceasing prayer. Consciously or
unconsciously, he lives in continual dependence. The Word of his
Lord, "You can do nothing," has taught him that not
more unbroken than the continuance of the branch in the vine,
must be his asking and receiving. The promise of our text gives
us infinite boldness: "Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall
be done unto you."
The promise is given in direct
connection with fruit-bearing. Limit it to yourself and your own
needs, and you rob it of its power; you rob yourself of the power
of appropriating it. Christ was sending these disciples out, and
they were ready to give their life for the world; to them He gave
the disposal of the treasures of Heaven. Their prayers would
bring the Spirit and the power they needed for their work.
The promise is given in direct
connection with the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit is not
mentioned in the parable, just as little as the sap of the vine
is mentioned. But both are meant all through. In the chapter
preceding the parable, our Lord had spoken of the Holy Spirit, in
connection with their inner life, being in them, and revealing
Himself within them (14:15-23). In the next chapter He speaks of
the Holy Spirit in connection with their work, coming to them,
convincing the world, and glorifying Him (16:7-14). To avail
ourselves of the unlimited prayer promises, we must be men who
are filled with the Spirit, and wholly given up to the work and
glory of Jesus. The Spirit will lead us into the truth of its
meaning and the certainty of its fulfillment.
Let us realize that we can only
fulfill our calling to bear much fruit, by praying much. In
Christ are hid all the treasures men around us need; in Him all
God's children are blessed with all spiritual blessings; He is
full of grace and truth. But it needs prayer, much prayer, strong
believing prayer, to bring these blessings down. And let us
equally remember that we cannot appropriate the promise without a
life given up for men. Many try to take the promise, and then
look round for what they can ask. This is not the way; but the
very opposite. Get the heart burdened with the need of souls, and
the command to save them, and the power will come to claim the
promise.
Let us claim it as one of the
revelations of our wonderful life in the Vine: He tells us that
if we ask in His name, in virtue of our union with Him,
whatsoever it be, it will be done to us. Souls are perishing
because there is too little prayer. God's children are feeble
because there is too little prayer. We bear so little fruit
because there is so little prayer. The faith of this promise
would make us strong to pray; let us not rest till it has entered
into our very heart, and drawn us in the power of Christ to
continue and labor and strive in prayer until the blessing comes
in power. To be a branch means not only bearing fruit on earth,
but power in prayer to bring down blessing from Heaven. Abiding
fully means praying much.
Ask what ye will. O my Lord,
why is it that our hearts are so little able to accept these
words in their divine simplicity? Oh, give me to see that we need
nothing less than this promise to overcome the powers of the
world and Satan! Teach us to pray in the faith of this Thy
promise.
If Ye Abide in Me, and My Words, Abide in You, Ask Whatsoever Ye Will, and it Shall be Done Unto You--John 15:7
The reason the Vine and its
branches are such a true parable of the Christian life is that
all nature has one source and breathes one spirit. The plant
world was created to be to man an object lesson teaching him his
entire dependence upon God, and his security in that dependence.
He that clothes the lilies will much more cloth us. He that gives
the trees and the vines their beauty and their fruits, making
each what He meant it to be, will much more certainly make us
what He would have us to be. The only difference is what God
works in the trees is by a power of which they are not conscious.
He wants to work in us with our consent. This is the nobility of
man, that he has a will that can cooperate with God in
understanding and approving and accepting what He offers to do.
If ye abide--Here is the
difference between the branch of the natural and the branch of
the spiritual Vine. The former abides by force of nature: the
latter abides, not by force of will, but by a divine power given
to the consent of the will. Such is the wonderful provision God
has made that, what the power of nature does in the one case, the
power of grace will do in the other. The branch can abide in the
Vine.
If ye abide in me...ask
whatsoever ye will--If we are to live a true prayer life,
with the love and the power and the experience of prayer marking
it, there must be no question about the abiding. And if we abide,
there need be no question about the liberty of asking what we
will, and the certainty of its being done. There is the one
condition: "If ye abide in me." There must be no
hesitation about the possibility or the certainty of it. We must
gaze on that little branch and its wonderful power of bearing
such beautiful fruit until we truly learn to abide.
And what is its secret? Be wholly
occupied with Jesus. Sink the roots of your being in faith and
love and obedience deep down into Him. Come away out of every
other place to abide here. Give up everything for the
inconceivable privilege of being a branch on earth of the
glorified Son of God in Heaven. Let Christ be first. Let Christ
be all. Do not be occupied with the abiding--be occupied with
Christ! He will hold you, He will keep you abiding in Him. He
will abide in you.
If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you--This He gives as the equivalent of the other
expression: "I in you. If my words abide in you"--that
is, not only in meditation, in memory, in love, in faith--all
these words enter into your will, your being, and constitute your
life--if they transform your character into their own likeness,
and you become and are what they speak and mean--ask what ye
will; it shall be done unto you. Your words to God in prayer will
be the fruit of Christ and His words living in you.
Ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you--Believe in the truth of this promise. Set
yourself to be an intercessor for men; a fruit-bearing
intercessor, ever calling down more blessing. Such faith and
prayer will help you wonderfully to abide wholly and unceasingly.
If ye abide. Yes, Lord, the
power to pray and the power to prevail must depend on this
abiding in Thee. As Thou art the Vine, Thou art the divine
Intercessor, who breathest Thy spirit in us. Oh, for grace to
abide simply and wholly in Thee, and ask great things!
Herein is My Father Glorified, that Ye Bear
Much Fruit--John 15:8
How can we glorify God? Not by
adding to His glory or bringing Him any new glory that He has not.
But simply by allowing His glory to shine out through us, by
yielding ourselves to Him, that His glory may manifest itself in
us and through us to the world. In a vineyard or a vine bearing
much fruit, the owner is glorified, as it tells of his skill and
care. In the disciple who bears much fruit, the Father is
glorified. Before men and angels, proof is given of the glory of
God's grace and power; God's glory shines out through him.
This is what Peter means when he
writes: "He that ministers, let him minister as of the
ability that God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified
through Jesus Christ." As a man works and serves in a power
which comes from God alone, God gets all the glory. When we
confess that the ability came from God alone, he that does the
work, and they who see it, equally glorify God. It was God who
did it. Men judge by the fruit of a garden of what the gardener
is. Men judge of God by the fruit that the branches of the Vine
of His planting bears. Little fruit brings little glory to God.
It brings no honor to either the Vine or the Husbandman. "That
ye bear much fruit, herein is my Father glorified."
We have sometimes mourned our lack
of fruit, as a loss to ourselves and our fellow men, with
complaints of our feebleness as the cause. Let us rather think of
the sin and shame of little fruit as robbing God of the glory He
ought to get from us. Let us learn the secret of bringing glory
to God, serving of the ability which God giveth. The full
acceptance of Christ's Word, "You can do nothing"; the
simple faith in God, who worketh all in all; the abiding in
Christ through whom the divine Husbandman does His work and gets
much fruit--this is the life that will bring glory to God.
Much fruit--God asks it; see
that you give it. God can be content with nothing less; be you
content with nothing less. Let these words of Christ--fruit, more
fruit, much fruit--abide in you, until you think as He does, and
you be prepared to take from Him, the heavenly Vine, what He has
for you. Much fruit: herein is my Father glorified. Let the very
height of the demand be your encouragement. It is so entirely
beyond your power, that it throws you more entirely upon Christ,
your true Vine. He can, He will, make it true in you.
Much fruit--God asks because
he needs. He does not ask fruit from the branches of His Vine for
show, to prove what He can do. No; He needs it for the salvation
of men: it is in that He is to be glorified. Throw yourself in
much prayer on your Vine and your Husbandman. Cry to God and your
Father to give you fruit to bring to men. Take the burden of the
hungry and the perishing on you, as Jesus did when He was moved
with compassion, and your power in prayer, and your abiding, and
your bearing much fruit to the glory of the Father will have a
reality and a certainty you never knew before.
The Father glorified.
Blessed prospect--God glorifying Himself in me, showing forth the
glory of His goodness and power in what He works in me, and
through me. What a motive to bear much fruit, just as much as He
works in me! Father, glorify Thyself in me.
Herein is My Father Glorified, that Ye Bear
Much Fruit: So Shall Ye Be My Disciples--John 15:8
And are those who do not bear much
fruit not disciples? They may be, but in a backward and immature
stage. Of those who bear much fruit, Christ says: "These are
My disciples, such as I would have them be--these are true
disciples." Just as we say of someone in whom the idea of
manliness is realized: That is a man! So our Lord tells who are
disciples after His heart, worthy of the name: Those who bear
much fruit. We find this double sense of the word disciple
in the Gospel. Sometimes it is applied to all who accepted
Christ's teaching. At other times it includes only the inner
circle of those who followed Christ wholly, and gave themselves
to His training for service. The difference has existed
throughout all ages. There have always been a smaller number of
God's people who have sought to serve Him with their whole heart,
while the majority have been content with a very small measure of
the knowledge of His grace and will.
And what is the difference between
this smaller inner circle and the many who do not seek admission
to it? We find it in the words: much fruit. With many
Christians the thought of personal safety, which at their first
awakening was a legitimate one, remains to the end the one aim of
their religion. The idea of service and fruit is always a
secondary and very subordinate one. The honest longing for much
fruit does not trouble them. Souls that have heard the call to
live wholly for their Lord, to give their life for Him as He gave
His for them, can never be satisfied with this. Their cry is to
bear as much fruit as they possibly can, as much as their Lord
ever can desire or give in them.
Bear much fruit: so shall ye be
My disciples--Let me beg every reader to consider these words
most seriously. Be not content with the thought of gradually
doing a little more or better work. In this way it may never come.
Take the words, much fruit, as the revelation of your
heavenly Vine of what you must be, of what you can be. Accept
fully the impossibility, the utter folly of attempting it in your
strength. Let the words call you to look anew upon the Vine, an
undertaking to live out its heavenly fullness in you. Let them
waken in you once again the faith and the confession: "I am
a branch of the true Vine; I can bear much fruit to His glory,
and the glory of the Father."
We need not judge others. But we
see in God's Word everywhere two classes of disciples. Let there
be no hesitation as to where we take our place. Let us ask Him to
reveal to us how He ask and claims a life wholly given up to Him,
to be as full of His Spirit as He can make us. Let our desire be
nothing less than perfect cleansing, unbroken abiding, closest
communion, abundant fruitfulness--true branches of the true Vine.
The world is perishing, the church
is failing, Christ's cause is suffering, Christ is grieving on
account of the lack of wholehearted Christians, bearing much
fruit. Though you scarce see what it implies or how it is to
come, say to Him that you are His branch to bear much fruit; that
you are ready to be His disciple in His own meaning of the word.
My disciples. Blessed Lord,
much fruit is the proof that Thou the true Vine hast in me a true
branch, a disciple wholly at Thy disposal. Give me, I pray Thee,
the childlike consciousness that my fruit is pleasing to Thee,
what Thou countest much fruit.
Even as the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also
Have Loved you--John 15:9
Here Christ leaves the language of
parable, and speaks plainly out of the Father. Much as the
parable could teach, it could not teach the lesson of love. All
that the vine does for the branch, it does under the compulsion
of a law of nature: there is no personal living love to the
branch. We are in danger of looking to Christ as a Saviour and a
supplier of every need, appointed by God, accepted and trusted by
us, without any sense of the intensity of personal affection in
which Christ embraces us, and our life alone can find its true
happiness. Christ seeks to point us to this.
And how does He do so? He leads us
once again to Himself, to show us how identical His own life is
with ours. Even as the Father loved Him, He loves us. His life as
vine dependent on the Father was a life in the Father's love;
that love was His strength and His joy; in the power of that
divine love resting on Him He lived and died. If we are to live
like Him, as branches to be truly like our Vine, we must share in
this too. Our life must have its breath and being in a
heavenly love as much as His. What the Father's love was to
Him, His love will be to us. If that love made Him the true Vine,
His love can make us true branches. "Even as the Father hath
loved me, so have I loved you."
Even as the Father hath loved Me--And
how did the Father love Him? The infinite desire and delight of
God to communicate to the Son all He had Himself, to take the Son
into the most complete equality with Himself, to live in the Son
and have the Son live in Him--this was the love of God to Christ.
It is a mystery of glory of which we can form no conception, we
can only bow and worship as we try to think of it. And with such
a love, with this very same love, Christ longs in an infinite
desire and delight to communicate to us all He is and has, to
make us partakers of His own nature and blessedness, to live in
us and have us live in Himself.
And now, if Christ loves us with
such an intense, such an infinite divine love, what is it that
hinders it triumphing over every obstacle and getting full
possession of us? The answer is simple. Even as the love of the
Father to Christ, so His love to us is a divine mystery, too high
for us to comprehend or attain to by any effort of our own. It is
only the Holy Spirit who can shed abroad and reveal in its all-conquering
power without intermission this wonderful love of God in Christ.
It is the vine itself that must give the branch its growth and
fruit by sending up its sap. It is Christ Himself must by His
Holy Spirit dwell in the heart; then shall we know and have in us
the love that passeth knowledge.
As the Father loved Me, so have
I loved you--Shall we not draw near to the personal living
Christ, and trust Him, and yield all to Him, that He may love
this love into us? Just as he knew and rejoiced every hour--the
Father loveth Me--we too may live in the unceasing consciousness--as
the Father loved Him, so He loves me.
As the Father loved Me, so have
I loved you. Dear Lord, I am only beginning to apprehend how
exactly the life of the Vine is to be that of the branch too.
Thou art the Vine, because the Father loved Thee, and poured His
love through Thee. And so Thou lovest me, and my life as branch
is to be like Thine, a receiving and a giving out of heavenly
love.
Even as the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also
Have Loved You: Abide Ye in My Love--John 15:9
Abide in My love--We speak of a
man's home as his abode. Our abode, the home of our soul, is to
be the love of Christ. We are to live our life there, to be at
home there all the day: this is what Christ means our life to be,
and really can make it. Our continuous abiding in the Vine is to
be an abiding in His love.
You have probably heard or read of
what is called the higher, or the deeper life, of the richer or
the fuller life, of the life abundant. And you possibly know that
some have told of a wonderful change, by which their life of
continual failure and stumbling had been changed into a very
blessed experience of being kept and strengthened and made
exceeding glad. If you asked them how it was this great blessing
came to them, many would tell you it was simply this, that they
were led to believe that this abiding in Christ's love was meant
to be a reality, and that they were made willing to give up
everything for it, and then enabled to trust Christ to make it
true to them.
The love of the Father to the Son
is not a sentiment--it is a divine life, an infinite energy, an
irresistible power. It carried Christ through life and death and
the grave. The Father loved Him and dwelt in Him, and did all for
Him. So the love of Christ to us too is an infinite living power
that will work in us all He delights to give us. The feebleness
of our Christian life is that we do not take time to believe that
this divine love does really delight in us, and will possess and
work all in us. We do not take time to look at the Vine bearing
the branch so entirely, working all in it so completely. We
strive to do for ourselves what Christ alone can, what Christ,
oh, so lovingly, longs to do for us.
And this now is the secret of the
change we spoke of, and the beginning of a new life, when the
soul sees this infinite love willing to do all, and gives itself
up to it. "Abide ye in my love." To believe that, it is
possible so to live moment by moment; to believe that everything
that makes it difficult or impossible will be overcome by Christ
Himself; to believe that Love really means an infinite longing to
give itself wholly to us and never leave us; and in this faith to
cast ourselves on Christ to work it in us; this is the secret of
the true Christian life.
And how to come to this faith? Turn
away from the visible if you would see and possess the invisible.
Take more time with Jesus, gazing on Him as the heavenly Vine,
living in the love of the Father, wanting you to live in His love.
Turn away from yourself and your efforts and your faith, if you
would have the heart filled with Him and the certainty of His
love. Abiding means going out from everything else, to occupy one
place and stay there. Come away from all else, and set your heart
on Jesus, and His love, that love will waken your faith and
strengthen it. Occupy yourself with that love, worship it, wait
for it. You may be sure it will reach out to you, and by its
power take you up into itself as your abode and your home.
Abide in My love. Lord
Jesus, I see it, it was Thy abiding in Thy Father's love that
made Thee the true Vine, with Thy divine fullness of love and
blessing for us. Oh, that I may even so, as a branch, abide in
Thy love, for its fullness to fill me and overflow on all around.
If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide In My Love--John 15:10
In our former meditation reference
was made to the entrance into a life of rest and strength which
has often come through a true insight into the personal love of
Christ, and the assurance that that love indeed meant that He
would keep the soul. In connection with that transition, and the
faith that sees and accepts it, the word surrender or consecration
is frequently used. The soul sees that it cannot claim the
keeping of this wonderful love unless it yields itself to a life
of entire obedience. It sees too that the faith that can trust
Christ for keeping from sinning must prove its sincerity by
venturing at once to trust Him for strength to obey. In that
faith it dares to give up and cut off everything that has
hitherto hindered it, and to promise and expect to live a life
that is well pleasing to God.
This is the thought we have here
now in our Saviour's teaching. After having in the words, "Abide
in my love," spoken of a life in His love as a necessity,
because it is at once a possibility and an obligation, He states
what its one condition is: "If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love." This is surely not meant to close
the door to the abode of His love which he had just opened up.
Not in the most distant way does it suggest the thought which
some are too ready to entertain, that as we cannot keep His
commandments, we cannot abide in His love. No; the precept is a
promise: "Abide in my love," could not be a precept if
it were not a promise. And so the instruction as to the way
through this open door points to no unattainable ideal; the love
that invites to her blessed abode reaches out the hand, and
enables us to keep the commandments. Let us not fear, in the
strength of our ascended Lord, to take the vow of obedience, and
give ourselves to the keeping of His commandments. Through His
will, loved and done, lies the path to His love.
Only let us understand well what it
means. It refers to our performance of all that we know to be
God's will. There may be things doubtful, of which we are not
sure. A sin of ignorance has still the nature of sin in it. There
may be involuntary sins, which rise up in the flesh, which we
cannot control or overcome. With regard to these God will deal in
due tome in the way of searching and humbling, and if we be
simple and faithful, give us larger deliverance than we dare
expect. But all this may be found in a truly obedient soul.
Obedience has reference to the positive keeping of the
commandments of our Lord, and the performance of His will in
everything in which we know it. This is a possible degree of
grace, and it is the acceptance in Christ's strength of such
obedience as the purpose of our heart, of which our Saviour
speaks here. Faith in Christ as our Vine, in His enabling and
sanctifying power, fits us for this obedience of faith, and
secures a life of abiding in His love.
If ye keep My commandments, ye
shall abide in My love--It is the heavenly Vine unfolding the
mystery of the life He gives. It is to those abiding in Him to
whom He opens up the secret of the full abiding in His love. It
is the wholehearted surrender in everything to do His will, that
gives access to a life in the abiding enjoyment of His love.
Obey and abide. Gracious
Lord, teach me this lesson, that it is only through knowing Thy
will one can know Thy heart, and only through doing that will
one can abide in Thy love. Lord, teach me that as worthless as is
the doing in my own strength, so essential and absolutely
indispensable is the doing of faith in Thy strength, if I would
abide in Thy love.
If Ye Keep My Commandments, Ye Shall Abide in My Love, Even as I have Kept My Father's Commandments, and Abide in His Love--John 15:10
We have had occasion more than once
to speak of the perfect similarity of the vine and the branch in
nature, and therefore in aim. Here Christ speaks no longer in a
parable, but tells us plainly out of how His own life is the
exact model of ours. He had said that it is alone by obedience we
can abide in His love. He now tells that this was the way in
which He abode in the Father's love. As the Vine, so the branch.
His life and strength and joy had been in the love of the Father:
it was only by obedience He abode in it. We may find our life and
strength and joy in His love all the day, but it is only by an
obedience like His we can abide in it. Perfect conformity to the
Vine is one of the most precious of the lessons of the branch. It
was by obedience Christ as Vine honored the Father as Husbandman;
it is by obedience the believer as branch honors Christ as Vine.
Obey and abide--That was the
law of Christ's life as much as it is to be that of ours. He was
made like us in all things, that we might be like Him in all
things. He opened up a path in which we may walk even as He
walked. He took our human nature to teach us how to wear it, and
show us how obedience, as it is the first duty of the creature,
is the only way to abide in the favor of God and enter into His
glory. And now He comes to instruct and encourage us, and asks us
to keep His commandments, even as He kept His Father's
commandments and abides in His love.
The divine fitness of this
connection between obeying and abiding, between God's
commandments and His love, is easily seen. God's will is the very
center of His divine perfection. As revealed in His commandments,
it opens up the way for the creature to grow into the likeness of
the Creator. In accepting and doing His will, I rise into
fellowship with Him. Therefore it was that the Son, when coming
into the world, spoke: "I come to do thy will, O God"!
This was the place and this would be the blessedness of the
creature. This was what he had lost in the Fall. This was what
Christ came to restore. This is what, as the heavenly Vine, He
asks of us and imparts to us, that even as He by keeping His
Father's commandments abode in His love, we should keep His
commandments and abide in His love.
Ye, even as I--The branch
cannot bear fruit except as it has exactly the same life as the
Vine. Our life is to be the exact counterpart of Christ's life.
It can be, just in such measure as we believe in Him as the Vine,
imparting Himself and His life to His branches. "Ye, even as
I," the Vine says: one law, one nature, one fruit. Do let us
take from our Lord the lesson of obedience as the secret of
abiding. Let us confess that simple, implicit, universal
obedience has taken too little the place it should have. Christ
died for us as enemies, when we were disobedient. He took us up
into His love; now that we are in Him, His Word is: "Obey
and abide; ye, even as I." Let us give ourselves to a
willing and loving obedience. He will keep us abiding in His love.
Ye, even as I. O my blessed
Vine, who makest the branch in everything partake of Thy life and
likeness, in this too I am to be like Thee: as Thy life in the
Father's love through obedience, so mine in Thy love! Saviour,
help me, that obedience may indeed be the link between Thee and
me.
These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled--John 15:11
If any one asks the question,
"How can I be a happy Christian?" our Lord's answer is
very simple: "These things," about the Vine and the
branches, "I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be fulfilled." "You cannot have
My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and
My joy will be in you." All healthy life is a thing of joy
and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His
joy in full measure.
To many Christians the thought of a
life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort.
They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as
we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in
us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to
them: "I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for
all; I ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me,
and allows Me to do all. I engage to make and keep the branch
all that it ought to be." Ought it not to be an infinite
and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work all, and to know
that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love who
is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?
That My joy may be in you--We
are to have Christ's own joy in us. And what is Christ's own joy?
There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had
just spoken of the Father's love and His own abiding in it, and
of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing
but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy
of receiving His Father's love and abiding in it, and then the
joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is
this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the
Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving and living for
those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches:
abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear
fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as
the Vine, His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love,
the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love.
And that your joy may be
fulfilled--That it may be complete, that you may be filled
with it. How sad that we should so need to be reminded that as
God alone is the fountain of all joy, "God our exceeding
joy," the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much
of God, as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion
is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And
why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not
believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ
and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out
His love on a dying world.
Oh, that Christ's voice might reach
the heart of every young Christian, and persuade him to believe
that His joy is the only true joy, that His joy can become ours
and truly fill us, and that the sure and simple way of living in
it is--only this--to abide as branches in Him our heavenly Vine.
Let the truth enter deep into us--as long as our joy is not full,
it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright;
every desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more
simply and more fully in His love.
My joy--your joy. In this
too it is: as the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch.
Thy joy is our joy--Thy joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed
Lord, fill me with Thy joy--the joy of being loved and blessed
with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing others.
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One
Another--John 15:12
God is love. His whole nature and
perfection is love, living not for Himself, but to dispense life
and blessing. In His love He begat the Son, that He might give
all to Him. In His love He brought forth creatures that He might
make them partakers of His blessedness.
Christ is the Son of God's love,
the bearer, the revealer, the communicator of that love. His life
and death were all love. Love is His life, and the life He gives.
He only lives to love, to live out His life of love in us, to
give Himself in all who will receive Him. The very first thought
of the true Vine is love--living only to impart His life to the
branches.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
love. He cannot impart Christ's life without imparting His love.
Salvation is nothing but love conquering and entering into us; we
have just as much of salvation as we have of love. Full salvation
is perfect love.
No wonder that Christ said: "A
new commandment I give unto you"; "This is my
commandment"--the one all-inclusive commandment--"that
ye love one another." The branch is not only one with the
vine, but with all its other branches; they drink one spirit,
they form one body, they bear one fruit. Nothing can be more
unnatural than that Christians should not love one another, even
as Christ loved them. The life they received from their heavenly
Vine is nothing but love. This is the one thing He asks above all
others. "Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples...love
one another." As the special sort of vine is known by the
fruit it bears, the nature of the heavenly Vine is to be judged
of by the love His disciples have to one another.
See that you obey this commandment.
Let your "obey and abide" be seen in this. Love your
brethren as the way to abide in the love of your Lord. Let your
vow of obedience begin here. Love one another. Let your
intercourse with the Christians in your own family be holy,
tender, Christlike love. Let your thoughts of the Christians
round you be, before everything, in the spirit of Christ's love.
Let your life and conduct be the sacrifice of love--give your
self up to think of their sins or their needs, to intercede for
them, to help and to serve them. Be in your church or circle the
embodiment of Christ's love. The life Christ lives in you is
love; let the life in which you live it out be all love.
But, man, you write as if all this
was so natural and simple and easy. Is it at all possible thus to
live and thus to love? My answer is: Christ commands it: you must
obey. Christ means it: you must obey, or you cannot abide in His
love.
But I have tried and failed. I see
no prospect of living like Christ. Ah! that is because you have
failed to take in the first word of the parable--"I am the
true Vine: I give all you need as a branch, I give all I myself
have." I pray you, let the sense of past failure and present
feebleness drive you to the Vine. He is all love. He loves to
give. He gives love. He will teach you to love, even as He loved.
Love one another. Dear Lord
Jesus, Thou art all love; the life Thou gavest us is love; Thy
new commandment, and Thy badge of discipleship is, "Love one
another." I accept the charge: with the love with which Thou
lovest me, and I love Thee, I will love my brethren.
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One
Another, Even as I Have Loved You--John 15:12
This is the second time our Lord
uses the expression--Even as I. The first time it was of
His relation to the Father, keeping His commandments, and abiding
in His love. Even so we are to keep Christ's commandments, and
abide in His love. The second time He speaks of His relation to
us as the rule of our love to our brethren: "Love one
another, as I have loved you." In each case His disposition
and conduct is to be the law for ours. It is again the truth we
have more than once insisted on--perfect likeness between the
Vine and the branch.
Even as I--But is it not a
vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love
the brethren, even as He kept His Father's, and as He loved us?
And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement?
Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our
strength, or without a full apprehension of the truth of the Vine
and its branches. But if we understand that the "even as I"
is just the one great lesson of the parable, the one continual
language of the Vine to the branch, we shall see that it is not
the question of what we feel able to accomplish, but of what
Christ is able to work in us. These high and holy commands--"Obey,
even as I! Love, even as I"--are just meant to bring us to
the consciousness of our impotence, and through that to waken us
to the need and the beauty and the sufficiency of what is
provided for us in the Vine. We shall begin to hear the Vine
speaking every moment to the branch: "Even as I. Even as I:
My life is your life; and have a share in all My fullness; the
Spirit in you, and the fruit that comes from you, is all just the
same as in Me. Be not afraid, but let your faith grasp each
"Even as I" as the divine assurance that because I live
in you, you may and can live like Me."
But why, if this really be the
meaning of the parable, if this really be the life a branch may
live,who do so few realize it? Because they do not know the
heavenly mystery of the Vine. They know much of the parable and
its beautiful lessons. But the hidden spiritual mystery of the
Vine in His divine omnipotence and nearness, bearing and
supplying them all the day--this they do not know, because they
have not waited on God's Spirit to reveal it to them.
Love one another, even as I have
loved you--"Ye, even as I." How are we to begin if
we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we
need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we
have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of
His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be
cleansed from all that is of self, and detached from all that is
in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the
glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this "even
as I" is in very deed what Christ is ready to make true, the
very life the Vine will maintain in the branch wholly dependent
upon Him.
Even as I. Ever again it is,
my blessed Lord, as the Vine, so the branch--one life, one
spirit, one obedience, one joy, one love.
Lord Jesus, in the faith that
Thou art my Vine, and that I am Thy branch, I accept Thy
command as a promise, and take Thy "even as I" as the
simple revelation of what Thou dost work in me. Yea, Lord, as
Thou hast loved, I will love.
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a
Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends--John 15:13
In the three following verses our
Lord speaks of His relation to His disciples under a new aspect--that
of friendship. He point us to the love in which it on His side
has its origin (v.13): to the obedience on our part by which it
is maintained (v.14); and then to the holy intimacy to which it
leads (v.15).
Our relation to Christ is one of
love. In speaking of this previously, He showed us what His love
was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father
had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation--lay
down His life for us. "Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends." Christ does
indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of
all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to
believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not
only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine
life which we need to receive within us. Christ and His love are
inseparable; they are identical. God is love, and Christ is love.
God and Christ and the divine love can only be known by having
them, by their life and power working within us. "This is
eternal life, that they know thee"; there is no knowing God
but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the
knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must
drink of its living stream, we must have it shed forth by the
Holy Spirit in us.
"Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man give his life for his friends." The life is
the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the
life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man
gives his life, he hold nothing back, he gives all he has and is.
It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning
His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placed Himself at
our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to
be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession.
He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act,
that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself
ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to
possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is
what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in
their wonderful identification, in their perfect union.
It is as we know something of this,
not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and
life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as
branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost
Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine,
who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root
of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us.
Great is the mystery of godliness!
Let us confess our ignorance and unbelief. Let us cease from our
own understanding and our own efforts to master it. Let us wait
for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us
trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take
possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own.
His life for His friends.
How wonderful the lessons of the Vine, giving its very life to
its branches! And Jesus gave His life for His friends. And that
love gives itself to them and in them. My heavenly Vine, oh,
teach me how wholly Thou longest to live in me!
Ye Are My Friends, if Ye Do the Things Which
I Command You--John 15:14
Our Lord has said what He gave as
proof of His friendship: He gave His life for us. He now tells us
what our part is to be--to do the things which He commands. He
gave His life to secure a place for His love in our hearts to
rule us; the response His love calls us to, and empowers us for,
is that we do what He commands us. As we know the dying love, we
shall joyfully obey its commands. As we obey the commands, we
shall know the love more fully. Christ had already said: "If
ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." He
counts it needful to repeat the truth again: the one proof of our
faith in His love, the one way to abide in it, the one mark of
being true branches is--to do the things which He commands us. He
began with absolute surrender of His life for us. He can ask
nothing less from us. This alone is a life in His friendship.
This truth, of the imperative
necessity of obedience, doing all that Christ commands us, has
not the place in our Christian teaching and living that Christ
meant it to have. We have given a far higher place to privilege
than to duty. We have not considered implicit obedience as a
condition of true discipleship. The secret thought that it is
impossible to do the things He commands us, and that therefore it
cannot be expected of us, and a subtle and unconscious feeling
that sinning is a necessity have frequently robbed both precepts
and promises of their power. The whole relation to Christ has
become clouded and lowered, the waiting on His teaching, the
power to hear and obey His voice, and through obedience to enjoy
His love and friendship, have been enfeebled by the terrible
mistake. Do let us try to return to the true position, take
Christ's words as most literally true, and make nothing less the
law of our life: "Ye are my friends, if ye do the things
that I command you." Surely our Lord asks nothing less than
that we heartily and truthfully say: "Yea, Lord, what Thou
dost command, that will I do."
These commands are to be done as a
proof of friendship. The power to do them rests entirely in the
personal relationship to Jesus. For a friend I could do what I
would not for another. The friendship of Jesus is so heavenly and
wonderful, it comes to us so as the power of a divine love
entering in and taking possession, the unbroken fellowship with
Himself is so essential to it, that it implies and imparts a joy
and a love which make the obedience a delight. The liberty to
claim the friendship of Jesus, the power to enjoy it, the grace
to prove it in all its blessedness--all come as we do the things
He commands us.
Is not the one thing needful for us
that we ask our Lord to reveal Himself to us in the dying love in
which He proved Himself our friend, and then listen as He says to
us: "Ye are My friends." As we see what our Friend has
done for us, and what as unspeakable blessedness it is to have
Him call us friends, the doing His commands will become the
natural fruit of our life in his love. We shall not fear to say:
"Yea, Lord, we are Thy friends, and do what Thou dost
command us."
If ye do. Yes, it is in
doing that we are blessed, that we abide in His love, that we
enjoy His friendship. "If ye do what I command you!" O
my Lord, let Thy holy friendship lead me into the love of all Thy
commands, and let the doing of Thy commands lead me ever deeper
into Thy friendship.
No Longer Do I Call You Servants; for the
Servant Knoweth Not What His Lord Doeth: But I Have Called You
Friends; for All Things That I Heard From My Father, I Have Made
Known Unto You--John 15:15
The highest proof of true
friendship, and one great source of its blessedness, is the
intimacy that holds nothing back, and admits the friend to share
our inmost secrets. It is a blessed thing to be Christ's servant;
His redeemed ones delight to call themselves His slaves. Christ
had often spoken of the disciples as His servants. In His great
love our Lord now says: "No longer do I call you servants";
with the coming of the Holy Spirit a new era was to be
inaugurated. "The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth"--he
has to obey without being consulted or admitted into the secret
of all his master's plans. "But, I have called you friends,
for all things I heard from my Father I have made known unto you."
Christ's friends share with Him in all the secrets the Father has
entrusted to Him.
Let us think what this means. When
Christ spoke of keeping His Father's commandments, He did not
mean merely what was written in Holy Scripture, but those special
commandments which were communicated to Him day by day, and from
hour to hour. It was of these He said: "The Father loveth
the Son, and showeth him all things that he doeth, and he will
show him greater things." All that Christ did was God's
working. God showed it to Christ, so that He carried out the
Father's will and purpose, not, as man often does, blindly and
unintelligently, but with full understanding and approval. As one
who stood in God's counsel, He knew God's plan.
And this now is the blessedness of
being Christ's friends, that we do not, as servants, do His will
without much spiritual insight into its meaning and aim, but are
admitted, as an inner circle, into some knowledge of God's more
secret thoughts. From the Day of Pentecost on, by the Holy
Spirit, Christ was to lead His disciples into the spiritual
apprehension of the mysteries of the kingdom, of which He had
hitherto spoken only by parables.
Friendship delights in fellowship.
Friends hold council. Friends dare trust to each other what they
would not for anything have others know. What is it that gives a
Christian access to this holy intimacy with Jesus? That gives him
the spiritual capacity for receiving the communications Christ
has to make of what the Father has shown Him? "Ye are my
friends if ye do what I command you." It is loving obedience
that purifies the soul. That refers not only to the commandments
of the Word, but to that blessed application of the Word to our
daily life, which none but our Lord Himself can give. But as
these are waited for in dependence and humility, and faithfully
obeyed, the soul becomes fitted for ever closer fellowship, and
the daily life may become a continual experience: "I have
called you friends; for all things I have heard from my Father, I
have made known unto you."
I have called you friends.
What an unspeakable honor! What a heavenly privilege! O Saviour,
speak the word with power into my soul: "I have called you
My friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all
that passes between my Father and Me."
Ye Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, and
Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit--John 15:16
The branch does not choose the
vine, or decide on which vine it will grow. The vine brings forth
the branch, as and where it will. Even so Christ says: "Ye
did not choose me, but I chose you." But some will say is
not just this the difference between the branch in the natural
and in the spiritual world, that man has a will and a power of
choosing, and that it is in virtue of his having decided to
accept Christ, his having chosen Him as Lord, that he is now a
branch? This is undoubtedly true. And yet it is only half a truth.
The lesson of the Vine, and the teaching of our Lord, points to
the other half, the deeper, the divine side of our being in
Christ. If He had not chosen us, we had never chosen Him. Our
choosing Him was the result of His choosing us, and taking hold
of us. In the very nature of things, it is His prerogative as
Vine to choose and create His own branch. We owe all we are to
"the election of grace." If we want to know Christ as
the true Vine, the sole origin and strength of the branch life,
and ourselves as branches in our absolute, most blessed, and most
secure dependence upon Him, let us drink deep of this blessed
truth: "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you."
And with what view does Christ say
this? That they may know what the object is for which He chose
them, and find, in their faith in His election, the certainty of
fulfilling their destiny. Throughout Scripture this is the great
object of the teaching of election. "Predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his son." (to be branches in the
image and likeness of the Vine). "Chosen that we should be
holy." "Chosen to salvation, through sanctification of
the Spirit." "Elect in sanctification of the Spirit
unto obedience." Some have abused the doctrine of election,
and others, for fear of its abuse, have rejected it, because they
have overlooked this teaching. They have occupied themselves with
its hidden origin in eternity, with the inscrutable mysteries of
the counsels of God instead of accepting the revelation of its
purpose in time, and the blessings it brings into our Christian
life.
Just think what these blessings are.
In our verse Christ reveals His twofold purpose in choosing us to
be His branches: that we may bear fruit on earth, and have power
in prayer in Heaven. What confidence the thought that He has
chosen us for this gives, that He will not fail to fit us for
carrying out His purpose! What assurance that we can bear fruit
that will abide, and can pray so as to obtain! What a continual
call to the deepest humility and praise, to the most entire
dependence and expectancy! He would not choose us for what we are
not fit for, or what He could not fit us for. He has chosen us;
this is the pledge, He will do all in us.
Let us listen in silence of soul to
our holy Vine speaking to each of us: "You did not choose Me!"
And let us say, "Yea, Lord, but I chose You! Amen, Lord!"
Ask Him to show what this means. In Him, the true Vine, your life
as branch has its divine origin, its eternal security, and the
power to fulfill His purpose. From Him to whose will of love you
owe all, you may expect all. In Him, His purpose, and His power,
and His faithfulness, in His love let me abide.
I chose you. Lord, teach me
what this means--that Thou hast set Thy heart on me, and chosen
me to bear fruit that will abide, and to pray prayer that will
prevail. In this Thine eternal purpose my soul would rest itself
and say: "What He chose me for I will be, I can be, I shall
be."
I Chose You, and Appointed You, That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide--John 15:16
There are some fruits that will not
keep. One sort of pears or apples must be used at once; another
sort can be kept over till next year. So there is in Christian
work some fruit that does not last. There may be much that
pleases and edified, and yet there is no permanent impression
made on the power of the world or the state of the Church. On the
other hand, there is work that leaves its mark for generations or
for eternity. In it the power of God makes itself lastingly felt.
It is the fruit of which Paul speaks when he describes the two
styles of ministry: "My preaching was not in persuasive
words of wisdom, but in demonstrations of the Spirit and of
power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God." The more of man with his wisdom and
power, the less of stability; the more of God's Spirit, the more
of a faith standing in God's power.
Fruit reveals the nature of the
tree from which it comes. What is the secret of bearing fruit
that abides? The answer is simple. It is as our life abides in
Christ, as we abide in Him, that the fruit we bear will abide.
The more we allow all that is of human will and effort to be cut
down short and cleansed away by the divine Husbandman, the more
intensely our being withdraws itself from the outward that God
may work in us by His Spirit; that is, the more wholly we abide
in Christ, the more will our fruit abide.
What a blessed thought! He chose
you, and appointed you to bear fruit, and that your fruit should
abide. He never meant one of His branches to bring forth fruit
that should not abide. The deeper I enter into the purpose of
this His electing grace, the surer my confidence will become that
I can bring forth fruit to eternal life, for myself and others.
The deeper I enter into this purpose of His electing love, the
more I will realize what the link is between the purpose from
eternity, and the fruit to eternity: the abiding in Him. The
purpose is His, He will carry it out; the fruit is His, He will
bring it forth; the abiding is His, He will maintain it.
Let everyone who professes to be a
Christian worker, pause. Ask whether you are leaving your mark
for eternity on those around you. It is not your preaching or
teaching, your strength of will or power to influence, that will
secure this. All depends on having your life full of God and
His power. And that again depends upon your living the truly
branchlike life of abiding--very close and unbroken fellowship
with Christ. It is the branch, that abides in Him, that brings
forth much fruit, fruit that will abide.
Blessed Lord, reveal to my soul, I
pray Thee, that Thou hast chosen me to bear much fruit. Let this
be my confidence, that Thy purpose can be realized--Thou didst
choose me. Let this be my power to forsake everything and give
myself to Thee. Thou wilt Thyself perfect what Thou hast begun.
Draw me so to dwell in the love and the certainty of that eternal
purpose, that the power of eternity may posses me, and the fruit
I bear may abide.
That ye may bear fruit. O my
heavenly Vine, it is beginning to dawn upon my soul that fruit,
more fruit--much fruit--abiding fruit is the one thing Thou hast
to give me, and the one thing as branch I have to give Thee! Here
I am. Blessed Lord, work out Thy purpose in me; let me bear much
fruit, abiding fruit, to thy glory.
I Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide: That Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask of the Father in My Name, He May Give It You--John 15:16
In the first verse of our parable,
Christ revealed Himself as the true Vine, and the Father as the
Husbandman, and asked for Himself and the Father a place in the
heart. Here, in the closing verse, He sums up all His teaching
concerning Himself and the Father in the twofold purpose for
which He had chosen them. With reference to Himself, the Vine,
the purpose was, that they should bear fruit. With reference to
the Father, it was, that whatsoever they should ask in His name,
should be done of the Father in Heaven. As fruit is the great
proof of the true relation to Christ, so prayer is of our
relation to the Father. A fruitful abiding in the Son, and
prevailing prayer to the Father, are the two great factors in the
true Christian life.
That whatsoever ye shall ask of
the Father in my name, he may give it you.--These are the
closing words of the parable of the Vine. The whole mystery of
the Vine and its branches leads up to the other mystery--that whatsoever
we ask in His name the Father gives! See here the reason of
the lack of prayer, and of the lack of power in prayer. It is
because we so little live the true branch life, because we so
little lose ourselves in the Vine, abiding in Him entirely, that
we feel so little constrained to much prayer, so little confident
that we shall be heard, and so do not know how to use His name as
the key to God's storehouse. The Vine planted on earth has
reached up into Heaven; it is only the soul wholly and intensely
abiding in it, can reach into Heaven with power to prevail much.
Our faith in the teaching and the truth of the parable, in the
truth and the life of the Vine, must prove itself by power in
prayer. The life of abiding and obedience, of love and joy, of
cleansing and fruit-bearing, will surely lead to the power of
prevailing prayer.
Whatsoever ye shall ask--The
promise was given to disciples who were ready to give themselves,
in the likeness of the true Vine, for their fellow men. This
promise was all their provision for their work; they took it
literally, they believed it, they used it, and they found it true.
Let us give ourselves, as branches of the true Vine, and in His
likeness, to the work of saving men, of bringing forth fruit to
the glory of God, and we shall find a new urgency and power to
pray and to claim the "whatsoever ye ask." We shall
waken to our wonderful responsibility of having in such a promise
the keys to the King's storehouses given us, and we shall not
rest till we have received bread and blessing for the perishing.
"I chose you, that ye may
bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may abide; that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you."
Beloved disciple, seek above everything to be a man of prayer.
Here is the highest exercise of your privilege as a branch of the
Vine; here is the full proof of your being renewed in the image
of God and His Son; here is your power to show how you, like
Christ, live not for yourself, but for others; here you enter
Heaven to receive gifts for men; here your abiding in Christ has
led to His abiding in you, to use you as the channel and
instrument of His grace. The power to bear fruit for men has been
crowned by power to prevail with God.
"I am the vine, my Father is
the Husbandman." Christ's work in you is to bring you so to
the Father that His Word may be fulfilled in you: "At that
day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not that I will pray the
Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you." The
power of direct access to the Father for men, the liberty of
intercession claiming and receiving blessing for them in faith,
is the highest exercise of our union with Christ. Let all who
would truly and fully be branches give themselves to the work of
intercession. It is the one great work of Christ the Vine in
Heaven, the source of power for all His work. Make it your one
great work as branch: it will be the power of all your work.
In My name. Yes, Lord, in
Thy name, the new name Thou hast given Thyself here, the true
Vine. As a branch, abiding in Thee in entire devotion, in full
dependence, in perfect conformity, in abiding fruitfulness, I
come to the Father, in Thee, and He will give what I ask. Oh, let
my life be one of unceasing and prevailing intercession! Amen!