John 15:1-11
We build our house using physical matters, bricks, mortar, woods, cement,
steel, concrete, and so forth. But how are we to build character?
We certainly can’t use food, or drink, or any other physical matters. As
we all know, as all teachers know, as all philosophers and wise man and the
gurus and religious leaders all over the world throughout all ages know,
building one’s character starts with words. The right words, the correct
words, the true words, the eternal words, those are the words that one uses to
build character. Empty words, lying words, evil words, false words, will
only damage one’s soul and destroy one’s character. Humanity strives for the
building up of human character. For humanity’s success depends greatly on
human character. A strong nation can be seen from whether the people of
the nation have strong character or not. A wise king knows how to compile
all the right words, the true words, the eternal words, in order to instruct
the people and build their character strong. Confucius knew this secret
2,500 years ago, and thus he passed down the words of heaven to his
disciples. And his disciples wrote them in what we now know as “the
Analects of Confucius.” Great dynasties rose in China, all owed
their success to Confucius. The Greeks rose to become the great nation
they were, they owed it to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The maxim
“Know Thyself” became their cornerstone of their glory. All nations in
the world carefully keep the important words that they may pass on from
generation to generation in order to continue the character building of their
people. For they all know that without the building of the character of
their people, their kingdom will crumble.
Greater than any philosopher, founder of religion, teacher, king, prime
minister, counselor, or guru in this world, is Jesus Christ the Son of
God. All others borrow their words from something or someone else.
Their words do not originate from themselves. They compose words through
observation of the world. They hold on to words that have been passed on
by their ancestors. But Jesus speaks words that originate from
himself. For he himself is the Word, the Eternal Logos. Peter
admits in John 6:68-69 saying: “68 Simon Peter
answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and
we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
And the Apostle John received a revelation from the Holy Spirit to write John
1:1-3: “1In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the
beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him,
and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In him the
entire universe has been made. The Creation account in Genesis 1 records
that God spoke his words and the world came into being. For each day God
created through speaking his words. On the sixth day, God created man in
a special way. Genesis 1:26-27 records:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God created man in the image of God, after his
likeness. Both male and female God created them in the image of
God. Our ancestors Adam and Eve were created in the image and the
likeness of God. 1 Adam and 1 Eve – Adam the man and Eve the woman – were
created as the ancestors of all humanity. They were created in a special
way in a special manner with special plan according to a very special
pattern. They were not created through the process of evolution, like
some people would argue. And the image of God is Jesus Christ himself as
revealed in Colossians 1:15-20:
15 He
is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for
him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all
things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body,
the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in
everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the
fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him
to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace
by the blood of his cross.
Jesus is the Eternal Logos. He is the Word
himself. Flowing within us is the word of God. And ever since the creation
of Adam and Eve, God could then communicate with his creation through
intelligible words, as documented in Genesis 1:28-30:
28 And
God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the
earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every
plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with
seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And
to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything
that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given
every green plant for food.” And it was so.
These words that God communicated to the first man and woman
have not the same quality with the words that brought the universe into being,
but these words are words of command, words of communication to reveal God’s
intention and will to his creation, and words of communion to build
relationship. This never happened before on earth. That was the
very first time since the world was created. God communicated to man as
if he communicated with the persons in the Trinity in Genesis 1:26. And
ever since, the Holy Scripture continues to record God’s words that he
communicates to humanity.
When Jesus incarnated, he spoke words of eternal life to the people.
Through those words he built his people. Those who have ears they hear.
Those whom the Father has drawn to himself, listened to Jesus’ words.
Through the words of Jesus, their life was reoriented. Through the words
of Christ, their life was reordered, rebuilt, according to the pattern of the
true image of God, Jesus Christ himself. Unlike other philosophers,
religious leaders, and the like, Jesus spoke the original words out of
himself. For he is God himself. He and the Father are One.
John 10:30 records the saying of Jesus: “30 I
and the Father are one.” This word of God is what Jesus called as the
truth. In his high priestly prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples and all
who would believe in the word, John 17:17: “17 Sanctify
them in the truth; your word is truth.” And three chapters before he
prayed this prayer, he declared to his disciples in John 14:6: “6 Jesus
said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.” Jesus is the truth himself. Then
Jesus commanded his disciples to abide in him in John 15. The abiding
that Jesus meant was the abiding in his word. The word of Jesus becomes
the key for staying in Jesus.
Jesus is not present with us today in his bodily form. But he is present
with us in Spirit and in his truth – his word. God is building his people
up on the foundation of his word, the eternal word. Ephesians 2:18-22
speaks of this building:
18 For
through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So
then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In
him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
Spirit.
The apostles and the prophets spoke only of the word of
God. They did not speak their own words. They did not speak of
other people’s words. They spoke only the word of God, the word of Christ
Jesus. The Old Testament and the New Testament are the foundation of the
building up of the people of God. Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone
that puts the two Testaments together. As his followers, we dwell in his
word. We abide in his word. Abiding in his word produces within us
abundant fruit. Without abiding in his word we cannot produce the fruit
of the Spirit. Being unproductive the branches will be good only for
burning. Only the productive branches are kept. The unproductive
branches are cut and thrown into the fire.
Therefore, it is a contradiction to believe that we abide in Jesus while at the
same time rejecting to dwell in his word. If we are lazy to read the
Scripture. If we don’t bother to reflect and meditate on his word.
If we don’t put any effort whatsoever to find time to listen to the word of
God. How can we say that we abide in Jesus? For Jesus only builds
his people through his words. The only way to abide in Jesus is if we abide
in his words. David reflects on the necessity to abide in the word of God
and says in Psalm 1:
1Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the
wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but
his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and
night.
3 He is
like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The
wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives
away.
5 Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the
righteous;
6 for
the Lord knows the way of the
righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Only abiding in God’s word will produce in the life of man
the fruit of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23: “22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such
things there is no law.” The fruit of wickedness, on the other hand,
which is the product of the life not abiding in the word of Christ, is
described by Paul in Galatians 5:19-21: “19 Now
the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like
these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will
not inherit the kingdom
of God.” The
end result of wickedness is that those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The aim of Jesus’ work to build up his people is for the saints to produce the
fruit of the Spirit. And in the end to inherit the kingdom of God,
together with him. All character building teaching will find no problem
with the fruit of the Spirit as spelled out by the apostle Paul.
Everybody in this world knows that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control are highly desirable
characters that they want everybody to have and produce. These nine
characters, which is the fruit of the Spirit, can only be built through the
word of Christ. God has prepared all the infrastructure of humanity to
match the word he has spoken. The creation of man testifies of God
creating Adam and Eve in the image of God, Jesus Christ, who is the eternal
Logos – Word himself. So when the word of God is spoken to us, our own
construct matches the word. However, the Fall jeopardizes the
match. So man is confused. The holy word of God is rejected by
man. For man has died in sin. But the salvation in Jesus revives
man. Whoever believes in Jesus has received the renewal of their
infrastructure. Once again their construct matches the Holy word of
God. For when man is redeemed in Christ, Christ then dwells within the
heart of man. The Eternal Logos himself dwells within the heart of every
believer through the Holy Spirit, and thus the holy word of God is no longer
rejected. Instead, the word of God starts working in the life of the
believer, to build them up. To restructure their life according to God’s
will. To start producing in them, the fruit of the Spirit.
And now, as Jesus has been made known in the world of man, as the savior, the
Lord, the King, and God himself, our life is to be rooted in him. We are
being brought back to him, to enter into his kingdom that he is
establishing. Jesus is building up the people who will enter into the
kingdom. The process of sanctification is necessary to cleanse us.
The word of Christ sanctifies us. The word of Christ is the truth.
And the truth sanctifies us. Because man has always been confused of what
is true or what is not true. This is because man took it upon themselves
the task to judge what is true or false. Back in Genesis 3, Eve and Adam
were facing a test. The test to whether to believe in the word of God as
the only truth or to believe in the word of the serpent as the competing truth.
They had to choose. Instead of choosing one or the other, they stepped
outside their boundary, and made judgment for themselves. Therefore they
left faith in God, and used their own faculty to judge which is right or
not. Their very act turned humanity upside down. Ever since that
event, humanity never knows what is truly true. They are always
confused. Choosing which one is true becomes a huge task. The rise
of science gives pseudo confidence on man. They think that through
science man may know the absolute truth. Instead of knowing the truth,
man has become more confused than ever. Scientists in the 21st
century have begun to question the absoluteness of the Newtonian Physics, which
for so many centuries has been held as an absolute truth. Albert
Einstein’s Relativity Theory started the challenge. And now, instead of
being certain of the absolute truth in the physical world, scientists begin to
see its relativity. But in the Holy Scripture we find the absolute truth.
And this can only be accepted through faith. Faith in the word.
Faith in the word of God. Just like what Paul says in Romans 10:17: “17 So
faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Listen to what Jesus says:
1 “I
am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every
branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does
bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already
you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide
in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I
am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is
that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If
anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and
the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If
you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that
you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
- The Business of Christian Education
XCVII -
No comments:
Post a Comment