Remain in the Vine
Remain in the vine. Aren’t we all in the vine? What might Jesus be saying?
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Ah, we want to bear fruit and staying in the vine is critical and apparently Jesus wants us to consider our ways.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
I live in China where it is clear that the government is tense about evangelists. Yet, there really is no law against these 9 things. Even among the non Christians, these things from the Spirit are welcome.
Seems if we are growing in all 9 of these, that we are bearing fruit and will bear fruit.
Let’s look at the negative list.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Wow, it comes with quite a warning. I have added bold to warn where we may need to pay closer attention in the present age as I see little witchcraft in the Christian community.
Remain the Vine With the King of Kings
God help us to remain in You, and to have no part in these things that are of the flesh.
How can we say that we are remaining in Christ, when we are reveling in the negative list? God says we will not inherit the kingdom of God if we live this way. All of us will have our moments, but if we live in this space and revel in this space, then we have left the kingdom of God.
Now, this does not sound like grace and acceptance we find as children of God. We are God’s children and we should behave as the children of God or seek repentance. If we abuse his grace, I sense we have never believed.
Remaining in the vine has many more aspects. It could include spending regular time in the Bible and in prayer connecting with the most high God. It could include loving our neighbor and our family. Remaining in the vine is doing the positive and running from the negative list. God’s intent is NOT that we live in fear under this guidance but that we CAN see if we are truly in faith.
God bless us everyone as we seek to follow Him.
