我们一天天的逐步在揭开「害怕死去的麦子」这个重要的主题，而也越来越明显的察觉到神给了我们的选择──是活或是死的选择。我们可能为了实现自己的欲望而活；也可能是向自己的欲望死、为神而活。

在继续思考这个问题以先，我们必须讨论一点，这是一个众人在思考「向自我死去」时往往会提出的问题，人们会说：「这种对生命的态度岂不是十分被动吗？它岂不是趋向于减低个人的责任和自制吗？」著名的美国教育家杜威（John Dewey）就是其中一个提出这种质疑的人。有一次，他在向学生演讲时，在黑板上划了一条直线，他在线的一边列出了那些教导控制的思想体制，在另一边则列出那些教导顺从的体制。在「控制」那边，他写上「科学」两个字，而在「顺从」那边，他写上「宗教」两个字。

实际上他应该写的是「某些形式的宗教」。耶稣基督的宗教并不产生被动和盲目顺从的门徒，而是愿意降服的门徒──降服于神，不降服于任何其他事物。他们从自我降服的尘土中起来，抓着生命的原材料，无论是好的、坏的，或是不好也不坏的，然后充分的使用它们。你会认为初期的基督徒是被动和盲目顺从的吗？我不觉得是这样，因为他们是降服，不是顺从。降服于神，让祂住在我们里面，并透过我们来工作；开始的时候我们可能会显得被动，但实际上它是我们面对生命一种最奇妙的、正面的和积极的方式。其他的方式也许不错，但是要记得，没有任何一种方式能够具有这么大的能力。

Day by day, as we unfold this thrilling theme of , it is becoming increasingly obvious that God gives us a choice - a choice of either to live or to die. We can live for the fulfilment of our own desires, or we can die to our desires and live for His.

This is perhaps the moment that we should come to grips with the question which people often ask when this issue of "dying to self" is raised: "Isn't this a terribly passive attitude to life? And doesn't it tend to diminish personal responsibility and self-control?" John Dewey, the famous American educator, held that view Once, when lecturing to his students, he drew a line down a blackboard and on one side listed those systems of thought which teach control, and on the other those systems that teach acquiescence. On the "control" side he put "science", and on the "acquiescence" side he put "religion".

To be fair, he should have written, "Some forms of religion". The religion of Jesus Christ does not produce passive and acquiescent disciples, but surrendered disciples - surrendered to God, but surrendered to nothing else. They rise from the dust of self-surrender to lay hold on the raw materials of life - good, bad and indifferent - and use them. Would you describe the early Christians as passive and acquiescent? I wouldn't. Surrendered - yes. Acquiescent - no. Surrendering to God so that He may work in and through us may at first seen passive, but actually it represents the most amazingly positive and active method of dealing with life. Other ways are possible, but no other way is as powerful.