John Chapter 15

From The Open Bible Project

15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

• (1) We are by nature dry and fit for nothing but the fire. Therefore, in order that we may live and be fruitful, we must first be grafted into Christ, as it were into a vine, by the Father’s hand: and then be daily moulded with a continual meditation of the word, and the cross: otherwise it will not avail any man at all to have been grafted unless he cleaves fast to the vine, and so draws juice out of it.

15:2 Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

15:3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

15:4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

15:5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

15:6 If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

15:7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

• (2) Whoever rests in Christ’s doctrine abides in him, and therefore brings forth good fruit, and the Father will not deny anything to such a person as this.

15:8 "In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

• (a) As one would say, "Herein will my Father be glorified, and herein also will you be my disciples, if you bring forth much fruit."

15:9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.

• (3) The love of the Father towards the Son, and of the Son towards us, and of us toward God and our neighbour, are joined together with an inseparable knot: and there is nothing more sweet and pleasant than it is. Now this love shows itself by its effects, a most perfect example of which Christ himself exhibits to us.
• (b) That is, in that love with which I love you, which love is the responsibility of both parties.

15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love.

15:11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.

15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

15:14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

• (4) The doctrine of the gospel, as it is uttered by Christ’s own mouth, is a most perfect and absolute declaration of the counsel of God, which pertains to our salvation and is committed unto the apostles.

15:16 You didn't choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

• (5) Christ is the author and preserver of the ministry of the gospel, even to the end of the world, but the ministers have above all things need of prayer and brotherly love.
• (c) These words plainly teach us that our salvation comes only from the favour and gracious goodness of the everlasting God towards us, and of nothing that we do or can deserve.

15:17 "I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

• (6) When the faithful ministers of Christ are hated by the world as their master was, it should not cause them to fear, but rather strengthen and encourage them.

15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his lord.'[49] If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

15:21 But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they don't know him who sent me.

• (7) The hatred that the world bears against Christ proceeds from the stupidity of the mind, which nonetheless is voluntarily blind, so that those of the world cannot give any excuse to explain away their fault.

15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

• (d) As one would say, "If I had not come, these men would not have been wrong in saying before God’s judgment seat that they are religious, and void of sin: but since I came to them, and they completely rejected me, they can have no cloak for their wickedness."

15:23 He who hates me, hates my Father also.

15:24 If I hadn't done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn't have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father.

15:25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'[50]

• (e) Sometimes this word "law" refers to the five books of Moses, but in this place it refers to the whole scripture: for the place that he refers to is found in the Psalms.

15:26 "When the [51] Counselor [See John Footnotes 51] has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

• (8) We will surely stand against the rage of the wicked by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit speaks in no other way and is consistent with what he spoke by the mouth of the apostles.

15:27 You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.