View John 15 in the note window.
1: I am the true vine - So the true bread,(Joh 6:32); that is, the most excellent.
2: Every one that beareth fruit, he purifieth - by obeying the
truth, (1Pe 1:22); and by inward or outward sufferings,(Heb 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.
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.
4: Abide in me - Ye who are now pure by living faith, producing
all holiness; by which alone ye can be in me.
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.
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.
7: If ye abide in me, ye shall ask - Prayers themselves are a fruit
of faith, and they produce more fruit.
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.
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?
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.
11: That my joy might remain in you - The same joy which I feel in
loving the Father, and keeping his commandments.
12: Your joy will be full, if ye so love one another.
13: Greater love - To his friends. He here speaks of them only.
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: All things - Which might be of service to you.
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.
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.
20: (Joh 13:16,Mt 10:24,Lu 6:40).
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.
22: They had not had sin - Not in this respect.
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.
25: (Ps 69:4).
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,(1Pe 1:11); and from his being here said to be
sent by Christ from the Father, as well as sent by the Father
in his name.
