John 15
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Chapter 15
| 15:1 | I am the true vine - So the true bread, 6:32 ; that is, the most excellent. |
| 15:2 | Every one that beareth fruit, he purifieth - by obeying the truth, 1 Peter 1:22 ; and by inward or outward sufferings, Hebrews 12:10 ,11. So purity and fruitfulness help each other.That it may bear more fruit - For this is one of the noblest rewards God can bestow on former acts of obedience, to make us yet more holy, and fit for farther and more eminent service. |
| 15:3 | Ye are clean - All of you, to whom I now speak, are purged from the guilt and power of sin; by the word - Which, applied by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of purifying the soul. |
| 15:4 | Abide in me - Ye who are now pure by living faith, producing all holiness; by which alone ye can be in me. |
| 15:5 | I am the vine, ye are the branches - Our Lord in this whole passage speaks of no branches but such as are, or at least were once, united to him by living faith. |
| 15:6 | If any one abide not in me - By living faith; not by Church communion only. He may thus abide in Christ, and be withered all the time, and cast into the fire at last. He is cast out - Of the vineyard, the invisible Church. Therefore he was in it once. |
| 15:7 | If ye abide in me, ye shall ask - Prayers themselves are a fruit of faith, and they produce more fruit. |
| 15:8 | So shall ye be my disciples - Worthy of the name. To be a disciple of Christ is both the foundation and height of Christianity. |
| 15:9 | Abide ye in my love - Keep your place in my affection. See that ye do not forfeit that invaluable blessing. How needless a caution, if it were impossible for them not to abide therein? |
| 15:10 | If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love - On these terms, and no other, ye shall remain the objects of my special affection. |
| 15:11 | That my joy might remain in you - The same joy which I feel in loving the Father, and keeping his commandments. |
| 15:12 | Your joy will be full, if ye so love one another. |
| 15:13 | Greater love - To his friends. He here speaks of them only. |
| 15:14 | Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you - On this condition, not otherwise. A thunderbolt for Antinomianism!Who then dares assert that God's love does not at all depend on man's works? |
| 15:15 | All things - Which might be of service to you. |
| 15:16 | Ye - My apostles, have not chosen me, but I have chosen you - As clearly appears from the sacred history: and appointed you, that ye may go and bear fruit - I have chosen and appointed you for this end, that ye may go and convert sinners: and that your fruit may remain - That the fruit of your labours may remain to the end of the world; yea, to eternity; that whatsoever ye shall ask - The consequence of your going and bearing fruit will be, that all your prayers will he heard. |
| 15:19 | Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you - Because your maxims, tempers, actions, are quite opposite to theirs. For the very same reason must the world in all ages hate those who are not of the world. |
| 15:20 | 13:16 ; Mt 10:24; Lu 6:40. |
| 15:21 | All these things will they do to you, because they know not him that sent me - And in all ages and nations they who know not God will, for this cause, hate and persecute those that do. |
| 15:22 | They had not had sin - Not in this respect. |
| 15:23 | He that hateth me - As every unbeliever doth, For as the love of God is inseparable from faith, so is the hatred of God from unbelief. |
| 15:25 | Psalms 69:4 . |
| 15:26 | When the Comforter is come, whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me - The Spirit's coming, and being sent by our Lord from the Father, to testify of him, are personal characters, and plainly distinguish him from the Father and the Son; and his title as the Spirit of truth, together with his proceeding from the Father, can agree to none but a Divine person. And that he proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father, may be fairly argued from his being called the Spirit of Christ, 1 Peter 1:11 ; and from his being here said to besent by Christ from the Father, as well as sent by the Father in his name. |