| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 27 |
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Jesus reminded His disciples that He had been acting as their Husbandman and Caretaker. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” For three years He had been teaching them, speaking to them words of correction, of counsel, of exhortation, and these words had trimmed off the faults, the evil habits, and the sinful things from their lives, leaving them now clean. The word of God is the knife which is used in pruning the branches. This word, Paul says, is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Every time we read the Bible as we should, thoughtfully, yielding our life to its sway, the knife cuts off some twig or branch which is marring our life or hindering its usefulness. We never should shrink from the impact of the words of God, but should let them cut deep as they will into our life, exposing hidden faults, secret sins, and unlovely dispositions.
Since the branches draw life from the vine, it is essential that their attachment shall always be complete. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit itself, except in abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” We might as well try to grow plants without roots as to have a Christian life without attachment to Christ. The kinds of fruits Christian lives should bear are indicated by Paul as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance. These fruits can grow only when the life of Christ is in the heart. A branch torn from a vine at once withers and dies. Two trees grew in the same yard. One spring, when the time for leaves came, it was noticed that while one of the trees put forth its foliage as usual, the other stood dark and bare, with neither bud nor leaf nor any life. The same warm sunshine fell upon both, and the same spring rains watered the roots of both, but in one there was life, while in the other there was no life. There are men and women, too, who have spiritual privileges in home and church and Christian friendship, but who bear no fruit. It is because they are not really attached to Christ, not rooted in Him, and therefore they have no life in them.
Many are the blessings of abiding in Christ. One is answer to prayer, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” This promise is a great key with which we may open the door of the divine treasury and take from it whatever we need. But we must not overlook the condition — the twofold condition on which the promise depends. First, we must abide in Christ, in close, intimate union and communion with Him. Secondly, Christ’s words must abide in us. This means that His words must be received by us into our hearts, that we must love them, meditate upon the, allow them to rule our actions and words, to color our thoughts and feelings, and to inspire our dispositions. When these conditions are fulfilled we can claim the promise.
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