John Wesley Commentary on John Chapter 15

John, Chapter 15

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.

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