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Scripture Reading: John 15:2, 5; 1:29, 32-48; Matt. 4:13-16, 18-22
Throughout the past centuries, many matters concerning the Christian life and church life were lost in the degradation of the church. Therefore, today the Lord desires to have a recovery. This recovery includes fruit-bearing. A proper Christian life is a fruit-bearing life, because we are the branches of the vine (John 15:5). God’s operation in the universe is with His vine, and we are all the branches of this vine. The normal life of the branches is nothing other than to bear fruit. Whatever else a branch on a vine can do means nothing. In actuality, branches can do nothing but bear fruit. Therefore, to bear fruit is the normal living of the branches of the vine.
The important matter is not how long it takes us to bear one fruit; what is important is that we do bear fruit. To bear fruit is not merely a work, and it is not simply the preaching of the gospel. If we could ask a branch on the vine what it is doing, it would say, “I am doing nothing. I am simply enjoying the life of the vine, living, and growing, and out of this kind of living, fruit spontaneously comes forth.” Fruit-bearing is not a mere work or preaching. It is a living. A living is always according to a certain life. Cats, for example, live day and night according to a cat’s life. To catch mice is not their job; it is their living. Likewise, for dogs to bark is not their job; it is their living. We are branches of the vine, and our living is simply to bear fruit. To not bear fruit means that we are abnormal, not right in our Christian life and church life.
As we said in the previous chapter, the three tests of whether we are proper are the church life, fruit-bearing, and caring for younger ones. If we do not bear fruit or take care of younger ones, we are wrong. John 15:2 says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit.” No one should say he is too old to be a fruit-bearing branch. For someone to say this indicates that he needs to be pruned. For a branch to bear fruit, it must be new, fresh, and tender. The way to be new, fresh, and tender is to be pruned. To understand the Bible in a proper way is not easy. We may think that we should wait until the Father prunes us before we bear fruit. If we wait, however, the Father may not do His work. Instead, we must all go to the Lord to deal with Him. This is the meaning of being pruned.
Our physical age means nothing. Whether we are old or new in the presence of the Lord depends upon our thorough dealing with Him. To deal with the Lord properly is not to say, “Lord, I was wrong in the past because I did not bear fruit. From now on I will endeavor and do whatever You demand me to do to bear fruit.” This is a poor way to deal with the Lord; it is not a dealing but a willing. Paul says, “To will is present with me, but to work out the good is not” (Rom. 7:18). What we will to do is a work, not a living. We should not make up our mind and will to do something. Rather, we must go to the Lord to deal with Him by opening ourselves to Him. Whenever we go to the Lord in this way, we receive light. At first we may not have much light, but if we obey the light we receive and deal with what the light condemns, we will receive more light.
We must go to the Lord to have a thorough dealing with Him, opening ourselves and presenting ourselves to Him without any covering for the self. We must strip off our cover as much as possible and present ourselves fully on the altar. We should say, “Lord, here I am. Come to enlighten me. Shine upon me. Investigate, examine, test, and expose me. Do everything You can to bring me fully into the light so that I may see my real situation.” If we do this, we will immediately see several items that we must deal with. Perhaps the first item we need to deal with concerns our wife. We may need to say, “Lord, forgive me. I am constantly wrong in my attitude toward my wife.” Then the Lord will demand that we go to her to make a thorough confession and ask her forgiveness. It seems that this has nothing to do with the preaching of the gospel. However, we are not speaking of a mere work of gospel preaching; we are speaking of fruit-bearing as the issue of a proper Christian life.
After reading the previous chapter, some may go to the Lord to say, “O Lord, forgive me. In the past I was sloppy and abnormal. I have not preached the gospel to my in-laws, my cousins, and my schoolmates. Lord, starting from now, please help me to contact others and care for them.” As we have said, this is not a Christian living; it is merely a willing. We should never forget that to will is present with us, but to work out the good is not. What we must do is go to the Lord to have a thorough dealing with Him. If the sisters, for example, mean business with the Lord when they go to Him in this way, He may touch them concerning their shopping. With many of the young people, especially the young sisters, shopping is truly a snare, and they do not care for the Lord adequately when they shop. In the morning they may say, “Lord, I offer myself to You as a burnt offering to satisfy You,” but afterward they may read in the newspaper about a sale and make up their mind to go shopping. As the tender branches, they should be the ones who bring forth fruit. However, they have been damaged simply by their shopping apart from the Lord. Shopping in a worldly way deadens our spirit and reduces our love for the Lord. If we mean business with the Lord to have a thorough dealing with Him, the Lord may come first to this matter. Then we will need to deal with it. We should say, “O Lord, how much I need to be saved in Your life from my shopping.”
Some of the married sisters also, both in the Far East and in America, are “addicted” to buying things. Some wives already have dozens of pairs of shoes and several sets of silverware, but they still like to buy more. At least, they like to window-shop. This kind of “addiction” kills the sisters’ spirit. The reason that some sisters are old, fruitless branches is that they are old in the matter of buying things. If the sisters mean business with the Lord to bear fruit, the Lord may say, “Go home and get rid of all but five pairs of shoes.” This is the Father’s pruning. Some sisters also love their hair, and in these modern times, even the young men love their long hair and beards. Some brothers may allow the Lord to touch anything but their hair. Their hair is a kind of “Holy of Holies” to them, and their beard is a “sanctuary.” In order to bear fruit, the brothers must let the Lord prune them in the matter of their haircut and beard. A brother may not have borne one fruit in many years, but if he will allow the Lord to prune him concerning his hair, he may bring someone to the Lord after only one month. All these worldly, fleshly, and natural desires, likes, attractions, and addictions need to be pruned. Then we will become fresh, new, and tender.
We do not need to make up our mind to endeavor to bring someone to the Lord each year. This is not what we are saying. Rather, we should all have a proper Christian life, a life with no distractions, frustrations, or addictions. We should pray, “O Lord Jesus! By Your mercy and through Your grace I am here absolutely for You. I have no desires, likes, dislikes, addictions, or frustrations. I have nothing but You, Lord. If You give me something, I will take it, but if You do not give it to me, I do not desire it. I do not care for long hair or short hair. Because I am a human, I need something to cover me, and I do not desire to give people the impression that I am sloppy. However, I do not love my coat and tie. Likewise, I shave every morning because I wish to be a right person and not give people a wrong impression, but I do not love shaving or not shaving. I do not love anything, Lord. I love only You, and if I love something else, prune it off.” If we pray in this way, we will be refreshed, and we will have a life that produces fruit. It is not by our endeavoring, doing, willing, or making up our mind to bring people to the Lord. That will not work, and even if it did work, we would bring forth fruit only according to what we are in ourselves. We need to be pruned by the Lord. This is a serious matter. We are not a “holiness” people, like the Amish who are allowed to wear only certain colors. We simply desire to have a proper Christian life.
More than forty years ago, when I was in Shanghai, a group of young missionaries went to China with the China Inland Mission, many of whom were sisters. Certain older sisters who had been in Shanghai for a while had learned what a Western missionary needed to do to convince the conservative Chinese people. The newer, younger sisters, however, arrived from England wearing their skirts only a little below the knee. In those days that was considered a very modern style, and some even considered it to be sinful. There was a certain older sister who loved the Lord and had been working in China for many years. She realized that all these young British missionaries with short skirts could never be fruitful. The stubborn, conservative Chinese people would say, “What is this? You are immoral. Why should we listen to you?” However, she dared not say anything to them. Instead, she served tea to them every afternoon. Then while the young sisters sat around her, enjoying their tea, she would adjust her own longer skirt. The young sisters watched her do this, and then they looked at their own bare legs. This caused them to be bothered within. Since all those young missionaries loved the Lord, they were convinced. The Lord touched them, and they dealt with Him about their dress. If they had not done this, they may not have had the peace to pray. If they had said, “Lord, save the Chinese people,” the Lord might have said, “Let Me save you first. Then I will answer your prayer for China.” This was not simply a matter of an outward change; it was an inward touching by the Lord. In this way their preaching of the gospel to the Chinese people became a living, not merely a work.
To make our preaching a work is poor. We are not carrying out a job in our preaching; we are living a life. Therefore, if anything hinders us in our fellowship with the Lord, we should say, “Lord, prune this. I give You the freedom to cut it.” This is what is meant by the Lord’s word, “Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit.” In the Lord’s recovery we do not practice to have regulations. According to my own conscience, I could not smoke a cigarette and then partake of the Lord’s table. However, we have never passed a regulation against smoking. We do not believe in regulations, but neither do we believe that those who smoke are able to have the best remembrance of the Lord at His table. Likewise, we cannot believe that those who love shopping can have the overflow of the inner life to bring forth fruit. Therefore, we do not wish to encourage, charge, or stir up anyone to have a mere gospel preaching work. Instead, what we need in the Lord’s recovery is for many dear saints who love the Lord and mean business with Him to constantly be one with Him. We should pray, “Lord, I am one with You in my shopping. Whatever You do not want to buy, I also do not want to buy it. If You want to buy something, I will buy it only because You are buying it.” We may also say, “Lord, I do not care for short hair, long hair, a beard, or no beard. I care only for You and for what You want. In my whole life, as one saved by You and under Your transformation, I like nothing and I dislike nothing. I have no love for anything else. My love is only for You. I want You to prune everything that is not Yourself.” If we always remain in this condition, we will be the pruned branches.
A pruned branch always has fresh, new, tender shoots that bring forth fruit. Those who keep vineyards know that the branches of the vines bring forth fruit only at the fresh shoots. We all need to have “fresh shoots.” If the sisters who love to have many pairs of shoes would say, “Lord, prune me in this matter,” and they allow the Lord to do it, they will have a new “shoot” full of freshness, newness, and tenderness, and a good cluster of grapes will be brought forth. There is no need to say that we must deal with sinful matters. In the Lord’s recovery we all hate anything sinful. However, there are many other items which are not sinful that we still hold on to. These matters deaden us even though we still endeavor to preach the gospel and bring people to the Lord. The Lord will not honor this kind of endeavoring very much. This is why we all need to go to the Lord, not to will or to make up our mind but to have a thorough dealing. We must lay ourselves on the altar and say, “Lord, strip off my covering, cut me, and shine upon me. Expose me, and show me the true situation with my likes and dislikes.” Then if we go along with the Lord’s exposing and enlightening, and we have a thorough dealing with Him, we will be fruitful.
We must all be tested by the church life, by fruit-bearing, and by lamb-feeding because these are the three matters that kill our natural disposition. The church life is a killing, not of the good things but mostly of our disposition. Likewise, fruit-bearing and lamb-feeding are a killing. All these are killing “knives” for our disposition. Passing through these three tests causes us to become right, because after passing through them, we become persons who have dealt with our natural disposition. Then we will be flexible. To care for little children requires much flexibility. Any mother who is not flexible should not expect to have good children. Her children will all be damaged by her inflexibility. To bear fruit among our in-laws, cousins, and schoolmates requires us to be flexible. We should not speak of inconvenience or say that we do not have time. Whether we have time depends on our desire. We may illustrate this by the need to answer correspondence. In the early years of my work, I would often apologize for not answering people sooner, telling them that I had been too busy. However, something within condemned me, saying, “It is not because you were too busy; it is because you did not have the desire.” Everyone is busy. Even a sister with no husband, children, job, or school can stay busy every day. She can tell people she does not have the time for this or that. This is absolutely due to our dispositional inflexibility.
If we are not flexible, we cannot bear fruit. In order to bear fruit, we need to be flexible, available at any time, and never claiming to be too busy. We should always have time to talk to people. If we wait until we have time to help people to be saved, we may wait forever. We have all been cheated in this regard. We have said, “This week I am very busy; let me see how next week will be,” but the next week we are busier and have even more things to do. Then the following week is worse, and we are never free. Being busy or available is a matter of our disposition. Therefore, we first need a thorough dealing with the Lord, and then we need to become available, flexible, and fully dealt with in our disposition.
Once we have had a thorough dealing with the Lord and have become flexible, we need something in our daily living that attracts and convinces people. The disciples mentioned in John 1 were brought to the Lord by being attracted to Him. First, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). Later, he recommended Jesus by saying, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him. And I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water, He said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (vv. 32-33). Jesus is the Lamb to take away the sin of the world, and He is the One with the dove to baptize people so that they may receive God as life. These are the two attracting factors of the Lord. The Spirit of God always works through these two attracting features. Immediately after this attraction through recommendation, two of John’s disciples followed Jesus (vv. 35-37). The first was Andrew, and the second should be John, the writer of this Gospel, although he was humble and did not mention himself by name. These two stayed with Jesus that day. At that time, because they were impressed, Andrew went to his brother Simon and brought him to the Lord. When He saw Simon, the Lord changed his name to Peter, which means “a stone.” Then three disciples were there with the Lord.
After this, the Lord Jesus went on a little farther, and He met Philip, who was of the same city as Andrew and Peter. Then Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth” (v. 45). In actuality, this is inaccurate, since Jesus was born not of Joseph but of Mary, and not in Nazareth but in Bethlehem. It was a kind of “wrong doctrine” that caused Nathanael to ask, “Can anything good be from Nazareth?” (v. 46a). Sometimes we are like Philip, giving wrong information about Christ and even about the church. However, Philip was wise not to argue. If he had argued, he no doubt would have lost Nathanael. Rather, he learned from the Lord Jesus, who had told the disciples, “Come, and you will see” (v. 39). To see is much better than to hear. Therefore, Philip told Nathanael, “Come and see” (v. 46b). Nathanael came, he saw Jesus, and he was seen by Jesus (vv. 47-48). In this way all five disciples were caught by the Lord. By this we can see that Jesus is the attracting One. Now this Jesus must be lived out in our daily life. In our daily living, there should be One who is attractive and convincing. Even if we give people the wrong information, we can still learn to say, “Come and see. I have something better than a correct teaching. I have One for you to see.” We need to attract people in this way.
Many of us think that if we pray and have a proper daily living, those whom we bring to the Lord will be caught right away. If we had only John 1, we might think that Peter, Andrew, and the others immediately followed the Lord. However, this is not so. If we read the New Testament carefully, we will see that the Lord Jesus went a second time purposely to catch the disciples (Matt. 4:18-22). Peter, Andrew, John, Philip, and Nathanael were all from Galilee, but Jesus’ first contact with them, in John 1, took place in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan, far to the south of Galilee. In His first contact with Peter, Andrew, and John, Jesus did not call them. Rather, they all went back to Galilee to work at their jobs — Peter and Andrew to fishing and John to mending nets with his brother James. This was their old situation and old life. This indicates that even the Lord Jesus did not call people in a quick way. By this time they may have forgotten the Lord, but the Lord never forgets anyone. He knows where they are. No one came to report to the Lord, “Jesus, do You remember those men You met at Bethany? They are all fishing and mending. Go to call them!” Rather, the Lord Jesus already knew that they were there. In Matthew 4 we again see the attraction of the Lord. According to John 1, Jesus was the attracting One as the Lamb of God and the One with the dove, but Matthew 4:16 says, “The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; and to those sitting in the region and shadow of death, to them light has risen.” While walking on the seashore of Galilee, Jesus from Nazareth was a great, shining attraction. In this way Jesus went to the four brothers. His shining attracted them, and they immediately followed Him.
Jesus’ calling of the disciples was not something miraculous. We should not believe in a miraculous way. Instead, we need to have a proper living with the Lord and contact people as the Lord leads. Then people will be attracted to the Lord to a certain extent. Not everyone will be fully attracted at the first contact. Many will need another contact, and some may need many contacts. Andrew, Peter, and John were called only on their second contact, but some of the early disciples may have been caught by the Lord only after several contacts. The principle is that we should not expect people to be caught by the Lord immediately in a miraculous way. We should not care about how quickly they will be caught. We simply need to have a proper, daily Christian life and the experiences of Christ as the attracting factor. Because we have experienced Christ as the Lamb of God taking away our sins, the Baptizer with the dove, and the great light shining over us, we have Christ in His many aspects as the great attraction. This will attract people not to ourselves but to the Lord. Still, this does not mean that everyone who is attracted will be caught right away. In many cases it will take time for people to be gained.
We must all go to the Lord to have a thorough dealing concerning our Christian life and our disposition. How much we can attract people depends upon how much experience we have of Christ. Therefore, fruit-bearing should be a practical part of our Christian life. If we are all built up in this regard, we will spontaneously bear fruit each year. Whether we bear one fruit or several in one year, we will all be fruitful. The leading brothers should help the saints to be built up in this way. We all need to be built up in this kind of Christian life. We should not take the situation in Christianity as our standard; it is absolutely abnormal. Some never preach the gospel, and some preach in a foolish way, dreaming that something miraculous will happen. The proper way to bear fruit is to realize that we need a daily living as the branches of the vine, absorbing all the riches of the fatness, the life-juice, of the vine, the rich life of Christ. Then spontaneously we will have an overflow of the divine life, which will result in fruit-bearing. Every fruit will come from the overflow of the inner life. Then the church will grow not only in life but also in numbers. This is not a kind of movement or organization. It is the growth and spread of Christ as our inner life. Christ grows in us, and He spreads out from us and through us to others. This is the proper way to have fruit-bearing in the Lord’s recovery.
This requires much prayer. We must all pray: “Lord, day and night grant me a proper, recovered Christian life so that I may constantly enjoy the riches of Your divine life to bring forth fruit by the overflow of Your rich life.” Then we need to fellowship with one another and learn the lesson to be flexible toward others. In this way, none of our relatives, neighbors, schoolmates, colleagues, or friends will be neglected. They will all be cared for by us. Whether or not they have been predestinated is up to the Lord’s mercy. We do not know this. Nevertheless, they will all be cared for by our fruit-bearing life. We will bear fruit among all the persons we know year after year. This is altogether the way the church will grow, not as a movement or so-called revival but by our proper, daily, fruit-bearing living.
