Jesus Teaches the Disciples in the VineyardBible World
15:3John 15:3
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
The disciples were already made pure through the message Christ had spoken to them. That cleansing comes by taking His word into heart and life and obeying the truth in living faith and vital union with Him, not by mere profession, membership, outward rites, or self-trust. His words are spirit and life that sanctify, wash clean, correct error, and purge roughness and wrong tendencies as the heart is emptied of self. Those joined to Him as branches to the vine receive His life and bring forth abundant fruit in love, joy, peace, and holiness, while fruitless branches are taken away and fruitful ones are pruned by the Father to bear more. So received, the truth renews the nature, changes beholders into His image, and keeps believers in unity with Christ and one another while each keeps distinct individuality.
Words and Historical Setting
Now you are clean through the word spoken to you, where clean means pure. Christ's spoken word makes His disciples and followers clean, and those to whom He has spoken it are clean through that word. This cleansing belongs to abiding in Him and bearing fruit for Him, for those for whom He gave His life are to live and work for others.
The saying belongs to His last lessons to the disciples before His crucifixion, spoken just before He left them and before His great affliction. It was given at the Passover supper in the upper chamber, with a cruel death before Him, gathering all the comforts and blessings He could bring them to be kept in view as encouragement and not lost sight of when trial comes. These words of sacred truth comfort and give peace and hope, were repeated to strengthen the disciples in disappointment and trial, and are full of hope bringing comfort and courage to believers. They were spoken on the way to Gethsemane and repeated as He prepared to ascend, yet were not fully understood until after His resurrection.
The surrounding figure of the true vine and its branches explains the relation that must exist between Him and His people, with Himself as the true vine and His Father as the husbandman, showing the union of the church with Christ and with the Father. It teaches dependence on living union with Christ, in which those joined to the living Vine by faith receive His grace, nourishment, strength, and life and bear the right quality of fruit, while apart from Him they are helpless, fruitless, and cannot achieve spiritual life or perfection independently. It was given so that looking upon a vine would call His precious lessons to remembrance, nature rightly interpreted being the mirror of divinity and showing His relationship to His people and their relationship to Him. The figure was as plain as a mirror held up before the hearers, leaving no excuse to misunderstand His words, and it explains genuine sanctification and makes known the mystery of the Christian life.
Those sacred truths of comfort, peace, and hope were lost in large part at the time through dullness of comprehension and lack of spiritual intuition, for many truths He sought to teach were lost to them. After His resurrection He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and the Bible became to them a new book containing definite instruction. Then they saw the suffering and death of their Master as a fulfillment of what was written in the law of Moses and the prophets.
The verse stands within John 13 through 17, and with John 13, 14, 16, and 17 plainly outlines God's will for His people and for those who minister in word and doctrine. Every verse in these chapters is to be believed, and the whole instruction from the fourteenth through the seventeenth chapters is understood with new enlightenment when the mind is changed by the Spirit of God. It must be carefully studied and earnestly practiced rather than neglected for unimportant matters, lived out in practical life before brother ministers and before others, and its words followed in remaining in the vine in living relation to Christ and bearing fruit to God's glory. Doing so gives the world divine proof that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, and it brings remedy for dissension and unity with Christ and one another.
It was spoken by One who knew every phase of experience, trial, difficulty, and conflict His people would meet in the world, in plain talk about the difficulties they would face. Together with John 14 and John 16, it is full of encouragement and hope, giving courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. With John 14, 16, and 17 it is of highest value for every soul consecrating life to the service of God, and it belongs to His words for His people in every age, including those living near the end of the world, calling them to become a living branch bearing fruit for God's glory.
How the Word Cleanses
Cleansing comes through receiving the spoken word of Christ into heart and life. His words are treasured by those who repent and are joined to Him, and as they abide within the believer His life changes the nature and makes fruitful life possible. His words are spirit and life, and receiving and living by the Word cleanses and sustains the soul. That cleansing is maintained by feeding on Christ, which is studying His Word and doing what He commands in it, forming close union with Him in which believers receive nourishment as a fruit-bearing branch joined to the parent vine, which is living by faith upon the Son of God for spiritual life and health. Receiving Him in this way sanctifies those who receive the word as truth, setting them apart for His work and teaching them how to serve others, rather than dwelling on the faults of others.
Cleansing comes in no other way than by obedience to the truth. Studying and heeding the instruction given in His Word cleanses believers and makes them fruitful branches of the True Vine. Being clean belongs to abiding in Christ, and without that abiding no fruit can be borne, just as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. It requires knowing what the Word is and what it means, searching the Scriptures and obeying them, for the Scriptures offer eternal life when they are obeyed. Keeping the world and its affections in heart and mind leaves only mere profession of faith, not true abiding, while true abiding means learning His lessons and becoming meek and lowly of heart; failure to learn of Him leaves defects of character and disagreeable words, with thoughts of vanity and self strengthened from childhood years. Receiving and obeying His word in this way purifies the soul and sanctifies the heart, for God's word is truth that sanctifies and washes clean, making holy and without spot, purifying souls through the Spirit unto unfeigned love and new birth by the living word that abides forever, to be desired as milk for growth in grace, bringing large, broad, deep fruit with eternal results.
Cleansing requires genuine living faith and vital union, not mere contact, profession, outward show, church membership, outward baptism even repeated, or a name on the church roll. Connection with Christ can be superficial, or it can be living union through genuine faith, as shown by the difference between real faith and mere contact in the woman who touched Christ in faith. A true branch has a vital, living union with Christ through genuine faith, maintained by abiding in Him, in contrast to spurious branches with only superficial connection. Outward baptism, even repeated, and having a name on the church roll have no power to change the heart and leave hereditary and cultivated evil tendencies at work; the heart must be united with His heart, the will submerged in His will, the mind made one with His mind, and the thoughts brought into captivity to Him. Profession of religion alone does not prove a person a branch of the true vine and does not make a person a living branch; those truly connected show it by bearing fruit and giving evidence of full allegiance, with faith and love forming character and uniting and harmonizing the members of His body, while fruitless branches are taken away. Without such abiding, keeping the world in heart and mind and trusting position, intellect, or self-sufficiency leaves only fruitless formality.
Being clean through the word means taking Christ at His word in faith. Past guilt is forgiven when the repenting believing sinner looks to Jesus as the Author and Finisher of faith and says in faith, I am in Christ. By faith the believer unites himself to Christ as the parent stock, the living Vine, united fiber to fiber, which bears him rather than he bearing the stock. Staying clean is living a life of faith in which self dies, looking to Jesus as the Source of strength, overcoming all things without regard to feeling or the praise or blame of men, for feeling counts for nothing and what men say or think cannot make a person white or black and does not change character, and without Him nothing can be done. This practical faith believes the word, practices the truth, and steps straight forward on the promise that prayer is heard and answered; faith is wholly distinct from feeling or transports of joy, as distinct as east from west, and is not proved by examining feelings for a great inward change, but knows God answers because He promised to give if asked, and works to answer its own petitions, and in that working God reveals Himself as He does not to the world. Living faith grasps the merits of His death and resurrection, brings His righteousness into the believer's life, and depends on Him rather than on one's own ability, and by that abiding union human beings are justified and made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped worldly corruption; coming to Him just as they are and giving themselves unreservedly makes them living, fruitful branches, and when He sees the human agent striving, praying, and believing in that connection, He bestows His divine efficiency upon him. Those so cleansed are His property, bought with a price, and must be in Him by living faith; if no fruit is borne, the powers of darkness take possession of mind, affections, and service, leaving one of the world though professing to be a child of God, while by abiding believers have His sweetness, fragrance, and light, for He is the Light of the world shining in their hearts and forth from their faces, and by beholding His beauty and glory they are changed into the same image.
His words are spiritual life, and receiving them is like eating Him and being joined to the vine: the branch bears fruit only by remaining in Him. This fruit is purity and holiness, while a life marked by pride, envy, jealousy, and strife shows a person is not abiding in Him. Truth purifies the soul and belongs with God, and His spoken word cleanses the disciples in their understanding. That cleansing includes correcting their errors and showing them what they must do to please Him. The word must purge roughness and coarseness of character grown through neglect of watchfulness and prayer, so that life is purified from every appearance of sin and harmony and unity can be seen.
The cleansing is His own pruning work upon every true fruit-bearing branch already joined to Him as branches of the True Vine in vital, living union, one with Him as He is one with the Father, drawing all nourishment, support, strength, and fruit-bearing power from the parent stock and inspired by the Holy Spirit, so it will bring forth more abiding fruit. It rests on His complete sacrifice, for He died to bring sinners to God and suffered as their sacrifice so they can stand freed from sin and cleansed from all iniquities through His cleansing blood. This cleansing is complete, a whole sacrifice bringing a whole salvation that is claimed by faith through the Son of God even when Satan presses darkness and says they cannot be saved, and it is the ground for joy and for dwelling and talking continually on salvation.
Abiding and Bearing Fruit
Believers live only by living union with Christ as branches live only in the vine, receiving from Him life, nourishment, strength and fruitfulness, and apart from Him they are helpless and can do nothing toward spiritual life or perfection on their own. That union is closest and most intimate, as fibers of branch almost identical with those of the vine, with unobstructed and constant communication of life, strength and fruitfulness from trunk to branch as the root sends nourishment through it, prized above all things earthly as the Jews prized the vine as most noble, powerful, excellent and fruitful, of which Christ is the reality. It is entered and kept by personal, continual communion, by living active faith whose permanence is the condition of union, by self-renunciation, obedience, breaking off sins by righteousness and iniquities by turning to the Lord, keeping pure from the unbelieving element, drawing life from Christ Himself and not from another believer, with Christ preserving the bond while believers resist sin, depend on Him and earnestly strive to stay close to the great Teacher.
Abiding in Him supplies the life and strength that make branches clean through His spoken word and enable them to bear fruit, including patience, forbearance and hope through trials. That abiding is possible and is of vital consequence and should be heeded, for as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine so believers cannot bear fruit unless they remain in Him and He abides in them. Trials test whether they will live as Christ did and stand true, and standing true is abiding in Christ, working together with Him in daily prayer so as to represent Him in speech, character and dealings and not be fruitless, unto entering the courts above.
The kind of fruit borne gives evidence to the world whether a person is united to the true Vine. Good fruit in wise words and earnest efforts to lead others to Christ, in faithful work to save others and bring glory to God, in character, words, actions and thoughts from receiving life from Jesus by the Spirit, shows true connection, while evil fruit or fruit not good and not in harmony with the character and example of Jesus gives a false representation of Him and shows separation. Those made clean must therefore make right use of all light and opportunities by representing truth in its purity and copying the Saviour's example.
The fruit proving cleansing is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, shown in kindly words and deeds, with holiness, self-denial, patience, humility, compassion, mercy, tenderness, pity and loving-kindness in spirit, word and work, making a clear difference between obedience and disobedience. This stands in contrast to the works of the flesh — adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like — which keep those who do them from inheriting the kingdom of God. Union with Christ changes the united into His image as the Holy Spirit works within and supplies power for a life of love and righteousness to God's glory, requiring the putting away of harshness and coarseness and bearing the same quality of fruit as the Vine, in lowliness like Christ's, without which evidence a person has no right to the Christian name.
Every living branch abides in Christ and Christ in him, answering the mind and will of God, drawing daily nourishment from Him, quickened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit as an active, living, interested agent for God, gathering the divine rays from the Sun of Righteousness to flash upon the pathway of those in darkness, working actively for God and bringing forth fruit and at last much fruit in rich clusters to glorify the Father, which is the plain condition of discipleship. Every fruitless branch that claims belief yet is not an active worker, does not reveal Jesus in character, pursues selfish advantage, cherishes sin, or bears no fruit to God's glory, is taken away, becomes withered and dry, and is cut off and severed from the True Vine as a useless branch, with those departing from the purity of the faith and gospel in danger of that severing. Abiding therefore means keeping close to Him in prayer and remaining in right relation to God, with fruitful branches pruned to bear more and with distinct branches each receiving nourishment from the same source to do its appointed work.
Abiding is known by doing the works of Christ in the same line He worked, having compassion as He would have compassion and in every way seeking to save perishing souls. It means carrying a burden for neighbors and sinners, warning and waking them to truth so they may also become branches, laboring together with Christ who works for salvation and gives the power of the Holy Spirit to impress minds, doing this real work in cities and wherever they go, studying the Bible and teaching children to study it instead of letting them drift into the enemy's lines, worshiping God in spirit and truth in His house and outside it, and praising Him with lips and life rather than acting like sinners. Keeping to self, pleasing self, neglecting souls, careless words and fruitlessness is not bearing fruit to the true Vine but falling out of the Vine, losing eternal life to meet eternal death at His coming and making His agony in Gethsemane and crucifixion vain, for profession of righteousness alone does not meet the world's needs or fulfill God's will, and His words teach how to receive His grace under conditions that must be complied with to be ready to belong to His people when He comes in glory.
Being clean through Christ's word means knowing that believers are in Christ the living Vine and bringing forth fruit to His glory, a union that leaves no place for worldly books and worldly tastes. Those cut off from the true Vine, in whose center the church stands, may be grafted into Christ again when they repent and receive Him as Saviour, and Christ then gives the penitent life from the Eternal One. God's planting as branches of His vine, cared for by the Husbandman, has deep roots and grows to full stature in Christ when receiving the nourishment God provides, and cannot be uprooted by Satan's work through religious bigotry. His followers as branches of the living Vine stand contrasted with grafts of a strange vine and must learn continually from Christ.
Pruning and Testing
Fruitful branches are purged or pruned by the Father as the skillful and merciful Husbandman, so that they bring forth more fruit and at last much fruit. This cleansing through the spoken word belongs to the closest, most intimate union in which the fibers of the branch are almost identical with those of the vine, with life, strength, nourishment and fruitfulness flowing unobstructed and constant from trunk and root through the branch, which cannot live separated from the vine. In that pruning God removes selfishness and undesirable attachments and day by day conforms His servants to the image of Christ, making them partakers of the divine nature for fruitful, faithful service, to which workers are to yield themselves. That alliance requires breaking off sins by righteousness and iniquities by turning to the Lord, keeping pure from the unbelieving element, and cherishing a living, active faith, since permanence of faith is the condition of union, and those who share Christ's suffering and reproach now will share His glory hereafter.
The purging hurts and brings sadness, distress, and a sense of not being in right relation to God. God permits it so His people think soberly and righteously and examine minutely whether they are fruit-bearing branches and double their efforts to bear more fruit. Bearing more fruit means winning souls to Jesus Christ as laborers together with God and doing the works of Christ instead of shutting up to self and living without burden for sinners around them. Trials test whether believers will live as Christ did and stand true, and standing true in those tests means abiding in Christ, since a branch must remain in the vine to bear fruit and those who do not abide cannot bear fruit. Rightly endured, trials give practical lessons in Christian living and develop Christlike character, as when insults are meekly endured and answered with gentleness and kindness, showing His life flowing into the believer.
Trials and disappointments test the worker who is united to the True Vine as material with which God is working, passive in the Master's hands, to reveal lack of wisdom and experience. Every trial works for good when the Lord is sought with humility and trust, and seeming failure becomes God's way of bringing advancement to better self-knowledge and firmer trust, making the worker stronger and more careful so others benefit, with power to succeed increasing daily by learning from mistakes and not repeating them. Cleansing purges hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong by daily emptying the heart of self and depending wholly on Christ, preparing the soul temple for the reception of the Holy Spirit so that self does not rule the whole being and tarnish words and acts with selfishness, and Christ appears in the life. Those thus cleansed are distinct branches of the true Vine drawing all sustenance from Christ the parent stock, laboring together with God in perfect unity and love and bearing the best quality of fruit to His glory. In mercy God also lops off the branches of a backslidden, self-centered life shut up to me and mine, cold and unsympathizing and pleasing the world like a poor dwarfed plant bearing leaves but no fruit, so the roots may strike down deeper and the soul be drawn to Himself.
That pruning breaks down the wall of selfishness that shuts away God's light and love, bringing dying to self and an experience in well-doing with disinterested love for souls, and making the one pruned accountable for talent and useful as a co-worker with Christ. This cleansing through the word requires constant watchfulness against self-esteem, self-love, self-exaltation, envy, evil-surmising, and evil-speaking, since soundness in doctrine without saving faith leaves the soul unsaved, while purifying the soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit by the living word produces unfeigned love of the brethren with a pure heart and new birth not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. Cleansing is needed to remove the defilement of unkind talk and judgment, for without heeding Christ's words people continue in speech that harms others and damages God's work. Feeding on God's Word turns the mind from unjust suspicion and helps produce the genuine fruit of life joined to Christ the True Vine. In that picture the cleansed believer bears fruit with the Spirit's qualities appearing in a changed life, with love for Christ, Christians, and all people taking the place of self-centered ambition.
Sanctification and New Life
The saying discloses genuine sanctification and the mystery of the Christian life, for cleansing is sanctification of the heart through truth received and carried out in life. The word of truth brought into the sanctuary of the soul works by faith to purify, elevate, refine, ennoble, beautify, convert, and bring thorough change. Those so cleansed are branches of the living Vine, receiving spiritual life from Christ and bearing precious fruit in rich clusters, while the Spirit works within and receiving the Word with meekness and believing the truth purifies from moral and spiritual defilement. Those who cherish sin are not branches of the true vine, and their prayers are only a form of words rising no higher than their heads and bringing no strength, but those who strive with all power to overcome and confess their sins are forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness.
When sinners are united with Christ by faith their nature is changed, so that they love what He loves, desire what agrees with God's will, treasure His words to abide in them, and have His life and strength communicated to them as life flows into a grafted branch. As branches depend on the parent vine, believers find completeness in Christ, and His goodness, mercy, compassion, and love are to be seen in their lives and characters, with close communion making them meek and lowly, transformed by love and divine grace rather than by nature. That connection means receiving nourishment from Him and sharing in God's love, which transforms the soul and frees it from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, and selfishness. Christ knit humanity to Himself as the living Vine knits grafted branches vein by vein and fiber by fiber, partaking of human nature and giving His life as an offering for sin because only an infinite nature could undertake redemption, having measured human guilt and taken responsibility to extend hope to a fallen race. Abiding faith joins the soul to Him in living union, and by that union human beings are justified and made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped corruption in the world through lust; coming just as they are and giving themselves unreservedly makes them living, fruitful branches, and when Christ sees them striving, praying, and believing He bestows His divine efficiency upon them.
Obedience to the cleansing word leads toward the highest Christian experience, belonging to God's saving work by mercy in regeneration and renewal through the Holy Spirit, justification by grace and by abiding faith, and the hope of eternal life, not salvation earned by human works. The Spirit's life-giving power proceeds from Christ and sustains each disciple as sap sustains a branch, pervading the soul, renewing motives, affections, and secret thoughts, bringing thoughts into obedience to God's will, and producing holy deeds and fruit that show union with the living Vine. That work of the Spirit is mysterious, yet it always agrees with the written word, and Christian life is sustained through the means God provides, including receiving the word and obeying its instruction.
Cleansing belongs to the new birth and is shown in communion with God, fellowship with one another, good fruit in spirit, word, and work, and clear testimony that God is light and has no darkness. Those who claim belief must gain understanding of the vine teaching and reveal it in daily life, for fruitfulness comes through living connection, Christ gives strength to those who rely on Him by faith, the Spirit's fruits appear in love and obedience, and faith purifies the soul. The truly converted are fruit-bearing branches upon whose character grace works so they glorify God rather than themselves, and they must keep life free from contamination while receiving God's gift of grace. The heart is to be cleared through confession with wrongs made right, since profession without fruit of Christlike character is empty.
Branches once made clean through the word and bearing good grapes in the true vine can depart from the faith and yield wild grapes, sending bitter water from the same fountain that once sent sweet water, bringing grief with the end near when truth alone will triumph. Remaining fruitful to the end requires truth as it is in Jesus planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit and daily tended by grace, with the divine leaven of renovation and the refining furnace until selfishness and all dross are consumed. Selfishness in handling the Lord's goods is a contagious disease that makes members halfhearted consumers rather than producers and prevents fruitfulness, so reformation must cure selfishness lest those who accept truth in the future be contaminated.
Unity Without Uniformity
Believers joined to Christ draw nourishment and life from one common source, and that shared supply preserves unity and love among them while each keeps a distinct individuality, with separate minds, duties, gifts, and callings. Diversity and unity therefore coexist in the vine, since connection to Christ unites branches without making them identical, erasing individuality, or requiring uniformity and identical sameness. Their unity comes from fellowship with one another and nourishment from the same source and Spirit, for the life-giving power of the vine supports distinct branches and produces love among them.
The same lesson governs institutions and workers serving God, for distinct branches such as the two publishing houses are not to be merged but each is to receive nourishment from the same Vine and do its appointed work. Abiding in the vine enables each branch to bear fruit, and though people have different work they are to labor together in unity rather than working alone or claiming all the credit. They are to grow into mature workers together with God, encouraging and supporting one another in service, belonging to Christ and cooperating with Him instead of working independently. Like members of His body and stones in His temple, each believer has an appointed place, and the lesson of the parent stock and its branches applies to each person present.
White and Black believers alike are branches of the same True Vine, dependent on the same root for sustenance. Their shared connection to Christ means there is no separate heaven by race, for all are saved by the same grace and enter the same heaven. Faith that works through love and purifies the soul leads believers to show compassion and love across racial divisions and to overcome traits unlike Christ.
Those cleansed through Christ's word are indeed living branches of the true Vine, and as living branches they keep in sympathy and harmony with those of like faith, are one in Christ, and are bound together in tenderness and unselfish love. That union brings them into practical sympathy with Christ in His mission and work to save souls for whom He died from their sins and not in their sins, to appreciate and love what He loves. They do not draw apart from one another or from God's chosen ones, do not associate with worldlings, and do not give sinners supremacy over the children of obedience and light. Being at variance with one another is inconsistent with being branches in Him, for those who are Christians indeed bear the same fruit as the vine, enlist in the army of the Lord on Christ's side, and refuse to compromise principle by yielding to opinions and prejudices held before uniting with God's commandment-keeping people. They form a united whole in sentiment, in action, in spirit, and in fellowship, acting in harmony in Christian fellowship, wearing the badge of Christ and not wearing political badges, and not letting variance, quarreling, or political badges mar the work.
Like the word of God itself, the Vine presents unity in diversity, holding a perfect, superhuman, mysterious unity. The word shines as pure, divine light amid an earth that is corrupt and dark and idolatrous, and contains divine wisdom that is the foundation of all true education. That living connection with God is essential for all education, and the elevation of man comes through cultivating the superior faculties with which God has endowed him. In the decided conflict between the Prince of Heaven and the prince of hell, youth need instruction in its Bible principles, yet though the truth has been known for many years little advancement has been made and this book has been treated indifferently.
Living the Cleansed Life
Abiding is shown by diligently studying God's word, seeking strength from Christ through prayer, and bearing the vine's fruit in words, influence, and works. Placing oneself in right relation to God means working in harmony with the true vine, laboring together with Christ for the salvation of souls in cities and wherever one goes, in the power of the Holy Spirit to impress minds. His teachings are to be read and followed so they shape heart and life, while the Father removes what hinders service and prunes what remains so it bears more fruit, with character shown in love for souls and fruitful work. Those who claim to be God's children are to live as His children, seek His counsel, spend much time in prayer, and treat each person's individual spiritual life and work as increasingly important as connection in the work grows. Believers are to cultivate the vine's fruits and grow in Christlike character through God's word and promises.
Those made clean must make right use of all light and opportunities by representing truth in its purity and copying the Saviour's example, since the branch cannot bear fruit of itself apart from the vine. The kind of fruit borne gives evidence to the world whether one is united to the true vine, and fruit not good and not in harmony with Christ's character and example gives a false representation of Him. Being converted and remaining a branch in the true vine means bearing excellent fruit and working with Christ to bring others to the truth. Fruit-bearing branches represent consecrated families who settle and work in the Lord's vineyard, sowing truth and serving souls.
Fathers can share cleansing instruction with children as they work, helping them understand what they need to save their souls through obedience to Christ's word. Parents are to educate children from childhood in submission to them while themselves submitting to God, so the whole household is sanctified to God in living connection with Him. Fathers and mothers obey by never taking a scolding line because scolding gains nothing, but bringing children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, teaching them the love and nurture and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Christ's instruction teaches how to receive His grace, and compliance with the conditions He gives is necessary to be ready to belong to His people when He comes in glory. A minister unchanged by grace is not drawing spiritual nourishment from Christ the Living Vine and does not bear the fruit of union with Him, for truth must sanctify the heart and transform the life.
Those made clean through Christ's word are Christ's property bought with a price, who must be in Him by living faith and abide in Him to bear fruit. By abiding believers have His sweetness, fragrance, and light, for Christ as Light of the world shines in their hearts and forth from their faces, and by beholding His beauty and glory they are changed into the same image. That right relation to God keeps them where the devil cannot rob them of needed grace to bear fruit, giving life and strength, with understanding especially needed in the very last stage of earth's history. Those made clean rise to stand firm and never fall again by keeping close to Jesus, bearing fruit to God's glory and gaining victory over darkness by fasting and prayer, while unfruitful branches are cut off and others raised in their place. If no fruit is borne, darkness takes possession of mind, affections, and service, leaving one of the world though professing to be God's child, losing the beauty, glory, and satisfaction of abiding.
Practicing the lessons and obeying His words means being a co-worker with Christ by taking back one who confesses and pleads for another trial and doing all possible to save that soul rather than closing hope. Full surrender of heart to God and victory over temptation lead to testimony of need, earnest prayer, freedom in prayer, and the blessing and peace of God possessing the heart. Faith seeks the baptism of the Holy Spirit through earnest prayer, awakening from heavy slumber, prizing and seeking the promise now rather than waiting for a more favorable opportunity, and cutting away every needless hindering thing so the Spirit flows in rich currents bringing all other blessings in its train. Received truth lets light shine in the heart and then to others in clear distinct rays that draw souls to the light, bringing encouragement and blessing even to a few gathered together. Those working with Christ are never alone, for He is present with His followers.
Cleansing joined to abiding means believers cannot bear fruit unless Christ abides in them, as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine, and daily prayer with an abiding Christ enables representing Him in speech, character, and dealings so they are not fruitless. To be a true branch is to have living unity through whole conversion, not half conversion, by individual work of faith in the Redeemer, walking and working with Him at every step. That union is proved when true fruit is borne in praise to God from the lips instead of complaining and faultfinding, with Christ present to help, so those united with Him here may be united with Him in the heavenly courts. Christ's love is evidenced by keeping His commandments, which is the Bible test for those privileged with light. His words do not abide in those who live selfishly, prize money above people, and separate from the poor and distressed, for treatment of others reveals discipleship of Him whose self-sacrifice and ministry show the value of every soul, whose mission comforts and restores the afflicted, and with whom character and moral worth rather than wealth or standing determine fitness to be entrusted with eternal riches.
Profession of yielding the heart is not enough when no fruit to God's glory is borne; true conversion changes motives and affections so self-indulgence gives way to duty and service to others. Being clean means living as a branch vitalized by nourishment flowing through the parent stock, and those true to God and weighted with truth surround associates with a savor of life, employing entrusted faculties and opportunities in His service and trading wisely with heaven's goods to glorify God. When members study Scripture with determination to practice its principles, the Word subdues hearts, brings acceptance of reproof and warning, and leads to correction of wrong traits of character. Thoughts like untrained tendrils grasping rubbish must be disciplined and turned from self-exalting aims toward subjects fostering devotion and closeness to God. Branches must daily draw nourishment from Christ by living His life, producing continual growth in grace as gratitude for God's great love and bearing fruit because life is too precious to trifle away. Those joined to Him become increasingly fruitful as attention turns from temporary things to what is unseen and eternal, depending daily on nourishment from the living Vine and on Bible truth as the Bread of life.
The disciples were already made pure through the message Christ had spoken to them. That cleansing comes by taking His word into heart and life and obeying the truth in living faith and vital union with Him, not by mere profession, membership, outward rites, or self-trust. His words are spirit and life that sanctify, wash clean, correct error, and purge roughness and wrong tendencies as the heart is emptied of self. Those joined to Him as branches to the vine receive His life and bring forth abundant fruit in love, joy, peace, and holiness, while fruitless branches are taken away and fruitful ones are pruned by the Father to bear more. So received, the truth renews the nature, changes beholders into His image, and keeps believers in unity with Christ and one another while each keeps distinct individuality.
Words and Historical Setting
Now you are clean through the word spoken to you, where clean means pure. Christ's spoken word makes His disciples and followers clean, and those to whom He has spoken it are clean through that word. This cleansing belongs to abiding in Him and bearing fruit for Him, for those for whom He gave His life are to live and work for others.
The saying belongs to His last lessons to the disciples before His crucifixion, spoken just before He left them and before His great affliction. It was given at the Passover supper in the upper chamber, with a cruel death before Him, gathering all the comforts and blessings He could bring them to be kept in view as encouragement and not lost sight of when trial comes. These words of sacred truth comfort and give peace and hope, were repeated to strengthen the disciples in disappointment and trial, and are full of hope bringing comfort and courage to believers. They were spoken on the way to Gethsemane and repeated as He prepared to ascend, yet were not fully understood until after His resurrection.
The surrounding figure of the true vine and its branches explains the relation that must exist between Him and His people, with Himself as the true vine and His Father as the husbandman, showing the union of the church with Christ and with the Father. It teaches dependence on living union with Christ, in which those joined to the living Vine by faith receive His grace, nourishment, strength, and life and bear the right quality of fruit, while apart from Him they are helpless, fruitless, and cannot achieve spiritual life or perfection independently. It was given so that looking upon a vine would call His precious lessons to remembrance, nature rightly interpreted being the mirror of divinity and showing His relationship to His people and their relationship to Him. The figure was as plain as a mirror held up before the hearers, leaving no excuse to misunderstand His words, and it explains genuine sanctification and makes known the mystery of the Christian life.
Those sacred truths of comfort, peace, and hope were lost in large part at the time through dullness of comprehension and lack of spiritual intuition, for many truths He sought to teach were lost to them. After His resurrection He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and the Bible became to them a new book containing definite instruction. Then they saw the suffering and death of their Master as a fulfillment of what was written in the law of Moses and the prophets.
The verse stands within John 13 through 17, and with John 13, 14, 16, and 17 plainly outlines God's will for His people and for those who minister in word and doctrine. Every verse in these chapters is to be believed, and the whole instruction from the fourteenth through the seventeenth chapters is understood with new enlightenment when the mind is changed by the Spirit of God. It must be carefully studied and earnestly practiced rather than neglected for unimportant matters, lived out in practical life before brother ministers and before others, and its words followed in remaining in the vine in living relation to Christ and bearing fruit to God's glory. Doing so gives the world divine proof that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, and it brings remedy for dissension and unity with Christ and one another.
It was spoken by One who knew every phase of experience, trial, difficulty, and conflict His people would meet in the world, in plain talk about the difficulties they would face. Together with John 14 and John 16, it is full of encouragement and hope, giving courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. With John 14, 16, and 17 it is of highest value for every soul consecrating life to the service of God, and it belongs to His words for His people in every age, including those living near the end of the world, calling them to become a living branch bearing fruit for God's glory.
How the Word Cleanses
Cleansing comes through receiving the spoken word of Christ into heart and life. His words are treasured by those who repent and are joined to Him, and as they abide within the believer His life changes the nature and makes fruitful life possible. His words are spirit and life, and receiving and living by the Word cleanses and sustains the soul. That cleansing is maintained by feeding on Christ, which is studying His Word and doing what He commands in it, forming close union with Him in which believers receive nourishment as a fruit-bearing branch joined to the parent vine, which is living by faith upon the Son of God for spiritual life and health. Receiving Him in this way sanctifies those who receive the word as truth, setting them apart for His work and teaching them how to serve others, rather than dwelling on the faults of others.
Cleansing comes in no other way than by obedience to the truth. Studying and heeding the instruction given in His Word cleanses believers and makes them fruitful branches of the True Vine. Being clean belongs to abiding in Christ, and without that abiding no fruit can be borne, just as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. It requires knowing what the Word is and what it means, searching the Scriptures and obeying them, for the Scriptures offer eternal life when they are obeyed. Keeping the world and its affections in heart and mind leaves only mere profession of faith, not true abiding, while true abiding means learning His lessons and becoming meek and lowly of heart; failure to learn of Him leaves defects of character and disagreeable words, with thoughts of vanity and self strengthened from childhood years. Receiving and obeying His word in this way purifies the soul and sanctifies the heart, for God's word is truth that sanctifies and washes clean, making holy and without spot, purifying souls through the Spirit unto unfeigned love and new birth by the living word that abides forever, to be desired as milk for growth in grace, bringing large, broad, deep fruit with eternal results.
Cleansing requires genuine living faith and vital union, not mere contact, profession, outward show, church membership, outward baptism even repeated, or a name on the church roll. Connection with Christ can be superficial, or it can be living union through genuine faith, as shown by the difference between real faith and mere contact in the woman who touched Christ in faith. A true branch has a vital, living union with Christ through genuine faith, maintained by abiding in Him, in contrast to spurious branches with only superficial connection. Outward baptism, even repeated, and having a name on the church roll have no power to change the heart and leave hereditary and cultivated evil tendencies at work; the heart must be united with His heart, the will submerged in His will, the mind made one with His mind, and the thoughts brought into captivity to Him. Profession of religion alone does not prove a person a branch of the true vine and does not make a person a living branch; those truly connected show it by bearing fruit and giving evidence of full allegiance, with faith and love forming character and uniting and harmonizing the members of His body, while fruitless branches are taken away. Without such abiding, keeping the world in heart and mind and trusting position, intellect, or self-sufficiency leaves only fruitless formality.
Being clean through the word means taking Christ at His word in faith. Past guilt is forgiven when the repenting believing sinner looks to Jesus as the Author and Finisher of faith and says in faith, I am in Christ. By faith the believer unites himself to Christ as the parent stock, the living Vine, united fiber to fiber, which bears him rather than he bearing the stock. Staying clean is living a life of faith in which self dies, looking to Jesus as the Source of strength, overcoming all things without regard to feeling or the praise or blame of men, for feeling counts for nothing and what men say or think cannot make a person white or black and does not change character, and without Him nothing can be done. This practical faith believes the word, practices the truth, and steps straight forward on the promise that prayer is heard and answered; faith is wholly distinct from feeling or transports of joy, as distinct as east from west, and is not proved by examining feelings for a great inward change, but knows God answers because He promised to give if asked, and works to answer its own petitions, and in that working God reveals Himself as He does not to the world. Living faith grasps the merits of His death and resurrection, brings His righteousness into the believer's life, and depends on Him rather than on one's own ability, and by that abiding union human beings are justified and made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped worldly corruption; coming to Him just as they are and giving themselves unreservedly makes them living, fruitful branches, and when He sees the human agent striving, praying, and believing in that connection, He bestows His divine efficiency upon him. Those so cleansed are His property, bought with a price, and must be in Him by living faith; if no fruit is borne, the powers of darkness take possession of mind, affections, and service, leaving one of the world though professing to be a child of God, while by abiding believers have His sweetness, fragrance, and light, for He is the Light of the world shining in their hearts and forth from their faces, and by beholding His beauty and glory they are changed into the same image.
His words are spiritual life, and receiving them is like eating Him and being joined to the vine: the branch bears fruit only by remaining in Him. This fruit is purity and holiness, while a life marked by pride, envy, jealousy, and strife shows a person is not abiding in Him. Truth purifies the soul and belongs with God, and His spoken word cleanses the disciples in their understanding. That cleansing includes correcting their errors and showing them what they must do to please Him. The word must purge roughness and coarseness of character grown through neglect of watchfulness and prayer, so that life is purified from every appearance of sin and harmony and unity can be seen.
The cleansing is His own pruning work upon every true fruit-bearing branch already joined to Him as branches of the True Vine in vital, living union, one with Him as He is one with the Father, drawing all nourishment, support, strength, and fruit-bearing power from the parent stock and inspired by the Holy Spirit, so it will bring forth more abiding fruit. It rests on His complete sacrifice, for He died to bring sinners to God and suffered as their sacrifice so they can stand freed from sin and cleansed from all iniquities through His cleansing blood. This cleansing is complete, a whole sacrifice bringing a whole salvation that is claimed by faith through the Son of God even when Satan presses darkness and says they cannot be saved, and it is the ground for joy and for dwelling and talking continually on salvation.
Abiding and Bearing Fruit
Believers live only by living union with Christ as branches live only in the vine, receiving from Him life, nourishment, strength and fruitfulness, and apart from Him they are helpless and can do nothing toward spiritual life or perfection on their own. That union is closest and most intimate, as fibers of branch almost identical with those of the vine, with unobstructed and constant communication of life, strength and fruitfulness from trunk to branch as the root sends nourishment through it, prized above all things earthly as the Jews prized the vine as most noble, powerful, excellent and fruitful, of which Christ is the reality. It is entered and kept by personal, continual communion, by living active faith whose permanence is the condition of union, by self-renunciation, obedience, breaking off sins by righteousness and iniquities by turning to the Lord, keeping pure from the unbelieving element, drawing life from Christ Himself and not from another believer, with Christ preserving the bond while believers resist sin, depend on Him and earnestly strive to stay close to the great Teacher.
Abiding in Him supplies the life and strength that make branches clean through His spoken word and enable them to bear fruit, including patience, forbearance and hope through trials. That abiding is possible and is of vital consequence and should be heeded, for as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine so believers cannot bear fruit unless they remain in Him and He abides in them. Trials test whether they will live as Christ did and stand true, and standing true is abiding in Christ, working together with Him in daily prayer so as to represent Him in speech, character and dealings and not be fruitless, unto entering the courts above.
The kind of fruit borne gives evidence to the world whether a person is united to the true Vine. Good fruit in wise words and earnest efforts to lead others to Christ, in faithful work to save others and bring glory to God, in character, words, actions and thoughts from receiving life from Jesus by the Spirit, shows true connection, while evil fruit or fruit not good and not in harmony with the character and example of Jesus gives a false representation of Him and shows separation. Those made clean must therefore make right use of all light and opportunities by representing truth in its purity and copying the Saviour's example.
The fruit proving cleansing is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, shown in kindly words and deeds, with holiness, self-denial, patience, humility, compassion, mercy, tenderness, pity and loving-kindness in spirit, word and work, making a clear difference between obedience and disobedience. This stands in contrast to the works of the flesh — adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like — which keep those who do them from inheriting the kingdom of God. Union with Christ changes the united into His image as the Holy Spirit works within and supplies power for a life of love and righteousness to God's glory, requiring the putting away of harshness and coarseness and bearing the same quality of fruit as the Vine, in lowliness like Christ's, without which evidence a person has no right to the Christian name.
Every living branch abides in Christ and Christ in him, answering the mind and will of God, drawing daily nourishment from Him, quickened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit as an active, living, interested agent for God, gathering the divine rays from the Sun of Righteousness to flash upon the pathway of those in darkness, working actively for God and bringing forth fruit and at last much fruit in rich clusters to glorify the Father, which is the plain condition of discipleship. Every fruitless branch that claims belief yet is not an active worker, does not reveal Jesus in character, pursues selfish advantage, cherishes sin, or bears no fruit to God's glory, is taken away, becomes withered and dry, and is cut off and severed from the True Vine as a useless branch, with those departing from the purity of the faith and gospel in danger of that severing. Abiding therefore means keeping close to Him in prayer and remaining in right relation to God, with fruitful branches pruned to bear more and with distinct branches each receiving nourishment from the same source to do its appointed work.
Abiding is known by doing the works of Christ in the same line He worked, having compassion as He would have compassion and in every way seeking to save perishing souls. It means carrying a burden for neighbors and sinners, warning and waking them to truth so they may also become branches, laboring together with Christ who works for salvation and gives the power of the Holy Spirit to impress minds, doing this real work in cities and wherever they go, studying the Bible and teaching children to study it instead of letting them drift into the enemy's lines, worshiping God in spirit and truth in His house and outside it, and praising Him with lips and life rather than acting like sinners. Keeping to self, pleasing self, neglecting souls, careless words and fruitlessness is not bearing fruit to the true Vine but falling out of the Vine, losing eternal life to meet eternal death at His coming and making His agony in Gethsemane and crucifixion vain, for profession of righteousness alone does not meet the world's needs or fulfill God's will, and His words teach how to receive His grace under conditions that must be complied with to be ready to belong to His people when He comes in glory.
Being clean through Christ's word means knowing that believers are in Christ the living Vine and bringing forth fruit to His glory, a union that leaves no place for worldly books and worldly tastes. Those cut off from the true Vine, in whose center the church stands, may be grafted into Christ again when they repent and receive Him as Saviour, and Christ then gives the penitent life from the Eternal One. God's planting as branches of His vine, cared for by the Husbandman, has deep roots and grows to full stature in Christ when receiving the nourishment God provides, and cannot be uprooted by Satan's work through religious bigotry. His followers as branches of the living Vine stand contrasted with grafts of a strange vine and must learn continually from Christ.
Pruning and Testing
Fruitful branches are purged or pruned by the Father as the skillful and merciful Husbandman, so that they bring forth more fruit and at last much fruit. This cleansing through the spoken word belongs to the closest, most intimate union in which the fibers of the branch are almost identical with those of the vine, with life, strength, nourishment and fruitfulness flowing unobstructed and constant from trunk and root through the branch, which cannot live separated from the vine. In that pruning God removes selfishness and undesirable attachments and day by day conforms His servants to the image of Christ, making them partakers of the divine nature for fruitful, faithful service, to which workers are to yield themselves. That alliance requires breaking off sins by righteousness and iniquities by turning to the Lord, keeping pure from the unbelieving element, and cherishing a living, active faith, since permanence of faith is the condition of union, and those who share Christ's suffering and reproach now will share His glory hereafter.
The purging hurts and brings sadness, distress, and a sense of not being in right relation to God. God permits it so His people think soberly and righteously and examine minutely whether they are fruit-bearing branches and double their efforts to bear more fruit. Bearing more fruit means winning souls to Jesus Christ as laborers together with God and doing the works of Christ instead of shutting up to self and living without burden for sinners around them. Trials test whether believers will live as Christ did and stand true, and standing true in those tests means abiding in Christ, since a branch must remain in the vine to bear fruit and those who do not abide cannot bear fruit. Rightly endured, trials give practical lessons in Christian living and develop Christlike character, as when insults are meekly endured and answered with gentleness and kindness, showing His life flowing into the believer.
Trials and disappointments test the worker who is united to the True Vine as material with which God is working, passive in the Master's hands, to reveal lack of wisdom and experience. Every trial works for good when the Lord is sought with humility and trust, and seeming failure becomes God's way of bringing advancement to better self-knowledge and firmer trust, making the worker stronger and more careful so others benefit, with power to succeed increasing daily by learning from mistakes and not repeating them. Cleansing purges hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong by daily emptying the heart of self and depending wholly on Christ, preparing the soul temple for the reception of the Holy Spirit so that self does not rule the whole being and tarnish words and acts with selfishness, and Christ appears in the life. Those thus cleansed are distinct branches of the true Vine drawing all sustenance from Christ the parent stock, laboring together with God in perfect unity and love and bearing the best quality of fruit to His glory. In mercy God also lops off the branches of a backslidden, self-centered life shut up to me and mine, cold and unsympathizing and pleasing the world like a poor dwarfed plant bearing leaves but no fruit, so the roots may strike down deeper and the soul be drawn to Himself.
That pruning breaks down the wall of selfishness that shuts away God's light and love, bringing dying to self and an experience in well-doing with disinterested love for souls, and making the one pruned accountable for talent and useful as a co-worker with Christ. This cleansing through the word requires constant watchfulness against self-esteem, self-love, self-exaltation, envy, evil-surmising, and evil-speaking, since soundness in doctrine without saving faith leaves the soul unsaved, while purifying the soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit by the living word produces unfeigned love of the brethren with a pure heart and new birth not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. Cleansing is needed to remove the defilement of unkind talk and judgment, for without heeding Christ's words people continue in speech that harms others and damages God's work. Feeding on God's Word turns the mind from unjust suspicion and helps produce the genuine fruit of life joined to Christ the True Vine. In that picture the cleansed believer bears fruit with the Spirit's qualities appearing in a changed life, with love for Christ, Christians, and all people taking the place of self-centered ambition.
Sanctification and New Life
The saying discloses genuine sanctification and the mystery of the Christian life, for cleansing is sanctification of the heart through truth received and carried out in life. The word of truth brought into the sanctuary of the soul works by faith to purify, elevate, refine, ennoble, beautify, convert, and bring thorough change. Those so cleansed are branches of the living Vine, receiving spiritual life from Christ and bearing precious fruit in rich clusters, while the Spirit works within and receiving the Word with meekness and believing the truth purifies from moral and spiritual defilement. Those who cherish sin are not branches of the true vine, and their prayers are only a form of words rising no higher than their heads and bringing no strength, but those who strive with all power to overcome and confess their sins are forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness.
When sinners are united with Christ by faith their nature is changed, so that they love what He loves, desire what agrees with God's will, treasure His words to abide in them, and have His life and strength communicated to them as life flows into a grafted branch. As branches depend on the parent vine, believers find completeness in Christ, and His goodness, mercy, compassion, and love are to be seen in their lives and characters, with close communion making them meek and lowly, transformed by love and divine grace rather than by nature. That connection means receiving nourishment from Him and sharing in God's love, which transforms the soul and frees it from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, and selfishness. Christ knit humanity to Himself as the living Vine knits grafted branches vein by vein and fiber by fiber, partaking of human nature and giving His life as an offering for sin because only an infinite nature could undertake redemption, having measured human guilt and taken responsibility to extend hope to a fallen race. Abiding faith joins the soul to Him in living union, and by that union human beings are justified and made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped corruption in the world through lust; coming just as they are and giving themselves unreservedly makes them living, fruitful branches, and when Christ sees them striving, praying, and believing He bestows His divine efficiency upon them.
Obedience to the cleansing word leads toward the highest Christian experience, belonging to God's saving work by mercy in regeneration and renewal through the Holy Spirit, justification by grace and by abiding faith, and the hope of eternal life, not salvation earned by human works. The Spirit's life-giving power proceeds from Christ and sustains each disciple as sap sustains a branch, pervading the soul, renewing motives, affections, and secret thoughts, bringing thoughts into obedience to God's will, and producing holy deeds and fruit that show union with the living Vine. That work of the Spirit is mysterious, yet it always agrees with the written word, and Christian life is sustained through the means God provides, including receiving the word and obeying its instruction.
Cleansing belongs to the new birth and is shown in communion with God, fellowship with one another, good fruit in spirit, word, and work, and clear testimony that God is light and has no darkness. Those who claim belief must gain understanding of the vine teaching and reveal it in daily life, for fruitfulness comes through living connection, Christ gives strength to those who rely on Him by faith, the Spirit's fruits appear in love and obedience, and faith purifies the soul. The truly converted are fruit-bearing branches upon whose character grace works so they glorify God rather than themselves, and they must keep life free from contamination while receiving God's gift of grace. The heart is to be cleared through confession with wrongs made right, since profession without fruit of Christlike character is empty.
Branches once made clean through the word and bearing good grapes in the true vine can depart from the faith and yield wild grapes, sending bitter water from the same fountain that once sent sweet water, bringing grief with the end near when truth alone will triumph. Remaining fruitful to the end requires truth as it is in Jesus planted in the heart by the Holy Spirit and daily tended by grace, with the divine leaven of renovation and the refining furnace until selfishness and all dross are consumed. Selfishness in handling the Lord's goods is a contagious disease that makes members halfhearted consumers rather than producers and prevents fruitfulness, so reformation must cure selfishness lest those who accept truth in the future be contaminated.
Unity Without Uniformity
Believers joined to Christ draw nourishment and life from one common source, and that shared supply preserves unity and love among them while each keeps a distinct individuality, with separate minds, duties, gifts, and callings. Diversity and unity therefore coexist in the vine, since connection to Christ unites branches without making them identical, erasing individuality, or requiring uniformity and identical sameness. Their unity comes from fellowship with one another and nourishment from the same source and Spirit, for the life-giving power of the vine supports distinct branches and produces love among them.
The same lesson governs institutions and workers serving God, for distinct branches such as the two publishing houses are not to be merged but each is to receive nourishment from the same Vine and do its appointed work. Abiding in the vine enables each branch to bear fruit, and though people have different work they are to labor together in unity rather than working alone or claiming all the credit. They are to grow into mature workers together with God, encouraging and supporting one another in service, belonging to Christ and cooperating with Him instead of working independently. Like members of His body and stones in His temple, each believer has an appointed place, and the lesson of the parent stock and its branches applies to each person present.
White and Black believers alike are branches of the same True Vine, dependent on the same root for sustenance. Their shared connection to Christ means there is no separate heaven by race, for all are saved by the same grace and enter the same heaven. Faith that works through love and purifies the soul leads believers to show compassion and love across racial divisions and to overcome traits unlike Christ.
Those cleansed through Christ's word are indeed living branches of the true Vine, and as living branches they keep in sympathy and harmony with those of like faith, are one in Christ, and are bound together in tenderness and unselfish love. That union brings them into practical sympathy with Christ in His mission and work to save souls for whom He died from their sins and not in their sins, to appreciate and love what He loves. They do not draw apart from one another or from God's chosen ones, do not associate with worldlings, and do not give sinners supremacy over the children of obedience and light. Being at variance with one another is inconsistent with being branches in Him, for those who are Christians indeed bear the same fruit as the vine, enlist in the army of the Lord on Christ's side, and refuse to compromise principle by yielding to opinions and prejudices held before uniting with God's commandment-keeping people. They form a united whole in sentiment, in action, in spirit, and in fellowship, acting in harmony in Christian fellowship, wearing the badge of Christ and not wearing political badges, and not letting variance, quarreling, or political badges mar the work.
Like the word of God itself, the Vine presents unity in diversity, holding a perfect, superhuman, mysterious unity. The word shines as pure, divine light amid an earth that is corrupt and dark and idolatrous, and contains divine wisdom that is the foundation of all true education. That living connection with God is essential for all education, and the elevation of man comes through cultivating the superior faculties with which God has endowed him. In the decided conflict between the Prince of Heaven and the prince of hell, youth need instruction in its Bible principles, yet though the truth has been known for many years little advancement has been made and this book has been treated indifferently.
Living the Cleansed Life
Abiding is shown by diligently studying God's word, seeking strength from Christ through prayer, and bearing the vine's fruit in words, influence, and works. Placing oneself in right relation to God means working in harmony with the true vine, laboring together with Christ for the salvation of souls in cities and wherever one goes, in the power of the Holy Spirit to impress minds. His teachings are to be read and followed so they shape heart and life, while the Father removes what hinders service and prunes what remains so it bears more fruit, with character shown in love for souls and fruitful work. Those who claim to be God's children are to live as His children, seek His counsel, spend much time in prayer, and treat each person's individual spiritual life and work as increasingly important as connection in the work grows. Believers are to cultivate the vine's fruits and grow in Christlike character through God's word and promises.
Those made clean must make right use of all light and opportunities by representing truth in its purity and copying the Saviour's example, since the branch cannot bear fruit of itself apart from the vine. The kind of fruit borne gives evidence to the world whether one is united to the true vine, and fruit not good and not in harmony with Christ's character and example gives a false representation of Him. Being converted and remaining a branch in the true vine means bearing excellent fruit and working with Christ to bring others to the truth. Fruit-bearing branches represent consecrated families who settle and work in the Lord's vineyard, sowing truth and serving souls.
Fathers can share cleansing instruction with children as they work, helping them understand what they need to save their souls through obedience to Christ's word. Parents are to educate children from childhood in submission to them while themselves submitting to God, so the whole household is sanctified to God in living connection with Him. Fathers and mothers obey by never taking a scolding line because scolding gains nothing, but bringing children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, teaching them the love and nurture and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Christ's instruction teaches how to receive His grace, and compliance with the conditions He gives is necessary to be ready to belong to His people when He comes in glory. A minister unchanged by grace is not drawing spiritual nourishment from Christ the Living Vine and does not bear the fruit of union with Him, for truth must sanctify the heart and transform the life.
Those made clean through Christ's word are Christ's property bought with a price, who must be in Him by living faith and abide in Him to bear fruit. By abiding believers have His sweetness, fragrance, and light, for Christ as Light of the world shines in their hearts and forth from their faces, and by beholding His beauty and glory they are changed into the same image. That right relation to God keeps them where the devil cannot rob them of needed grace to bear fruit, giving life and strength, with understanding especially needed in the very last stage of earth's history. Those made clean rise to stand firm and never fall again by keeping close to Jesus, bearing fruit to God's glory and gaining victory over darkness by fasting and prayer, while unfruitful branches are cut off and others raised in their place. If no fruit is borne, darkness takes possession of mind, affections, and service, leaving one of the world though professing to be God's child, losing the beauty, glory, and satisfaction of abiding.
Practicing the lessons and obeying His words means being a co-worker with Christ by taking back one who confesses and pleads for another trial and doing all possible to save that soul rather than closing hope. Full surrender of heart to God and victory over temptation lead to testimony of need, earnest prayer, freedom in prayer, and the blessing and peace of God possessing the heart. Faith seeks the baptism of the Holy Spirit through earnest prayer, awakening from heavy slumber, prizing and seeking the promise now rather than waiting for a more favorable opportunity, and cutting away every needless hindering thing so the Spirit flows in rich currents bringing all other blessings in its train. Received truth lets light shine in the heart and then to others in clear distinct rays that draw souls to the light, bringing encouragement and blessing even to a few gathered together. Those working with Christ are never alone, for He is present with His followers.
Cleansing joined to abiding means believers cannot bear fruit unless Christ abides in them, as a branch cannot bear fruit apart from the vine, and daily prayer with an abiding Christ enables representing Him in speech, character, and dealings so they are not fruitless. To be a true branch is to have living unity through whole conversion, not half conversion, by individual work of faith in the Redeemer, walking and working with Him at every step. That union is proved when true fruit is borne in praise to God from the lips instead of complaining and faultfinding, with Christ present to help, so those united with Him here may be united with Him in the heavenly courts. Christ's love is evidenced by keeping His commandments, which is the Bible test for those privileged with light. His words do not abide in those who live selfishly, prize money above people, and separate from the poor and distressed, for treatment of others reveals discipleship of Him whose self-sacrifice and ministry show the value of every soul, whose mission comforts and restores the afflicted, and with whom character and moral worth rather than wealth or standing determine fitness to be entrusted with eternal riches.
Profession of yielding the heart is not enough when no fruit to God's glory is borne; true conversion changes motives and affections so self-indulgence gives way to duty and service to others. Being clean means living as a branch vitalized by nourishment flowing through the parent stock, and those true to God and weighted with truth surround associates with a savor of life, employing entrusted faculties and opportunities in His service and trading wisely with heaven's goods to glorify God. When members study Scripture with determination to practice its principles, the Word subdues hearts, brings acceptance of reproof and warning, and leads to correction of wrong traits of character. Thoughts like untrained tendrils grasping rubbish must be disciplined and turned from self-exalting aims toward subjects fostering devotion and closeness to God. Branches must daily draw nourishment from Christ by living His life, producing continual growth in grace as gratitude for God's great love and bearing fruit because life is too precious to trifle away. Those joined to Him become increasingly fruitful as attention turns from temporary things to what is unseen and eternal, depending daily on nourishment from the living Vine and on Bible truth as the Bread of life.