Jesus once said:
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.[1. The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Jn 15:4]
Oswald Chambers, the 18th century Scottish minister once wrote:
God will not make me think like Jesus, I have to do it myself; I have to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is.[2. Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935.]
The Apostle Paul adds:
…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.[3. The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. 2 Co 10:5]
To remain or abide in this context means to:
remain, stay, abide; live, dwell; last, endure, continue
To bring it all together:
In order to bear the fruit of Christ, that is, to prove that I am of Christ, I must abide in Christ. I must remain, stay, live, last, endure, and continue in Christ. And as Chambers points out, Christ isn’t going to do it for me.
Imagine this: you pluck off a very small bud of an apple from the tree as you pass it. It is not even near ripe. What is it good for? Nothing; but to be thrown out. But if you wait until the fruit is ripe and then pluck it – oh, how sweet it is. That is the Christian.
The Christian can quite easily stop being identified with Christ. Its easy to be plucked or even to pluck ourselves from the vine, that is Christ. Just stop praying, stop hoping, stop trusting, just stop.
Or, if you take every thought captive and force its obedience to Christ, if you endure, continue, and live in Christ with regard to all the matters of your life, then you will be ripe – good for the soul.
What is better? To give up to early and end up rotting on the forest floor or being prized in the hands of the Gardener?
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