THE KING’S BUSINESS
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in fruit bearing, he is removed, from his outward and seeming union, he is “taken away.” It will therefore •st.and each one of us in good stead to ask'ourselves very earnestly and prayerfully, “Am I bearing fruit?” The branch that does not bear fruit, while it is in the vine in the sense that it has an outward connection with it, is not in real vital union with it. The sap of the vine, the life of Christ, is not really flowing into it, it does not describe a regenerate man. But even the branch that bears fruit needs the husbandman’s care, it needs to be pruned, or cleansed, that it may bear still more fruit, and the faithful husbandman will cleanse it by the Word of God (v. 3). But there are also other forms of cleansing sometimes, cleansing by pruning, the pruning of severe discipline and suffering (cf. Heb. 12:9-11). If we are disposed to chafe underneath the chastening of the Lord, underneath the cleansing work of the husbandman, let us never forget that this is the way we shall be brought to largest fruitage. God, for our own sake, wishes us not only, to bear fruit, but to bear more fruit, and we ought to desire that too. We ought to be satis fied with nothing short of the largest pos sible fruitage, and that is only possible through wise pruning. V, 3. "Now (Already) ye are clean through (because of) the word which I have spoken unto y o u The disciples were already "clean through the word," i.e., they were regenerate men (cf. 1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18). There was one exception to this in the apostolic company, that is, Judas Iscariot (ch. 13:10, 11). But the.Word of God not . only cleanses in that it is the instrument through which we are born again, but it continually cleanses by our daily contact with it (Ps. 119:9, 11), therefore, if we desire the fullest measure of that cleansing that brings ever increas ing fruitfulness, we should bring our lives into constant contact with the Word, Which is G°d’s chosen instrument for cleansing us. We bring it into contact With the Word by the daily study of the
Word, and daily meditation upon it. This same thought, that increasing forgetful ness comes from cleansing through the Wprd, is found in Ps. 1:2, 3. Neglect of the Word is the explanation of the small fruitage of many a life. If We will not bring our lives as -we should into contact with the Word, the husbandman may have to use .other methods of cleansing the branch (Job. 33:14:33 R. V.). What, these other methods of cleansing are are sug gested in Heb. 12: 6 , 11. Thé cleansing, pro cess is not always pleasant, but if we shrink from it we should remember that it means larger fruitage. v. 4. “Abide in me; and I in you: (.) As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more,(so neither) can ye, except ye abide in me" The whole secret of continuous fruitful-, ness is abiding in Christ. We have no real life, of our own, all the true, life that there is in us is simply the inflow .of Jesus Christ into us. If anything occurs to impede the inflow, of; the life of Christ, to that extent we become unfruitful. I f the inflow of the life, of Christ is alto-, gether stopped, the result is death. What does it mean to “abide" in Christ;? Many very mystical and misty explanations have been given to this,; explanations that leave- the average student of the Bible in a great fog. But, if one will- note carefully just what Jesus is talking about,-then . what abiding in Christ means becomes very clear and very simple. To abide in Christ: is simply to have the same relation to Jesus, as the living and continuously fruit bearing branch has-to its vine. This branch , has no independent life .of its own, it draws, all its sap, its life,, and fruit bearing energy from the vine, it simply lets the life of the vine continuously flow in, and the buds and leaves and blossoms and clusters that appear on the branch are simply manifes tations, not of any independent life of its own, but the life of the vine that flows into it. Just so we abide in Christ when we renounce any independent life or power that we have, or imagine that we have, and
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