GROWTH - FRUIT-ROOTS AND WOOD-ROOTS
GROWTH - FRUIT-ROOTS AND WOOD-ROOTS
The growth in grace is a very remarkable work. It is the work of God. “He that has wrought us for this very thing is God” (2 Corinthians 5: 5). It is a great and solemn fact, that our growth is the work of God. We are to desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby.
[p. 386] It is not merely seeing the meaning of the word, or its exposing us to ourselves, as a man looking into a mirror, but “being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1: 25).
The growth of a christian is like the growth of a tree; first only a stem, then branches; but the growth once acquired, ever remains; and the growth acquired only prepares for a still greater growth. There is never a sense of having grown. The energy is to grow. “If any one think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it” (1 Corinthians 8: 2). We see through a glass darkly. Where there is growth, there is always the sense of a longing to grow. Hence the larger a tree is, the greater its growth. It may not appear to the casual observer to grow so much as a young tree, but if you were to count all the growths on a large tree, you would find that combined, they far surpass the great visible growth of young trees. I believe the soul that is most growing is never occupied with his growth, but with Christ. Paul after thirty years of growth can say, “For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3: 8). A christian elated with his knowledge is like a shallow-minded man, vain of his learning. There is no end to the christian’s growth because it is growing up into him in all things. As you grow, you grow more. There is endless growing.
They say fruit trees have three sets of roots. The tap-root which it lives by, and which must never be touched. Then the wood-roots, which should be pruned; and lastly, the fruit-roots, which are to be nourished and fed. The value of the tree is the fruit it produces. It is not mere existence - the tap-root; nor is it mere wood, which may be too luxuriant; but the great thing is to feed and nourish the fruit-roots. It is said that if they are well manured and ministered to, the tree will withstand frost, and the blight which so often blasts the finest array of blossoms. Thus the real [p. 387] value of growth is not the wood that every one may see, but the fruit which ministers to others, often in a very unseen way, but pleasing to the Lord. The owner of special fruit shares it with his friends. It comes to them as a mark of his affection and friendship; and have no doubt that when there are fruits of the Spirit in and from any of us, we relish them and own them as surely the Lord’s gift. I do not mean mere temporal gifts, which often may be only as the wood in the tree; but I mean the charity which imparts a moral influence to the life, and ministers in some degree to us the frankincense of Christ. It is thus that fruit, the result of matured growth, is so esteemed b the spiritual mind. “My soul desired the firstripe fruit” (Micah 7: 1).
Fruit is a divine virtue that has matured to an expression. Growth is of little value unless it attains to fruit. Hence fruit is the glory of growth, and not the wood, which is the measure of my advancement in knowledge. One little strawberry in the roadside hedge ministers more to the weary traveller, the pilgrim, than all the kings of the forest put together. They may boast of greatness and size; but the strawberry, unseen as to appearance, has far surpassed them in service.
The Lord give you to cultivate the fruit-roots more than the wood-roots, and then great blessing may redound to you. Fruits are not so much acts as charity.