TRUE DISCIPLES
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.