Chapter Fifteen

1–27. Continuation of Christ’s farewell discourse with the disciples: the mutual relations between Christ and His disciples, the relation of the disciples to each other and to the world.

Chapter 15 contains the second consoling discourse of Christ to the disciples, ending in chapter 16, verse 11. Here the Lord first (verses 1–17) impresses on the disciples the thought of the necessity of maintaining constant vital communion with Christ and among themselves. Only under this condition can they fulfill their purpose in the world. Then (verses 18–27) the Lord calls the disciples to patient endurance of the persecutions which the world, hating Christ, will raise against them.

John 15:1. I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “I am the true vine.” Christ’s discourse about Himself as the vine is the same kind of allegory as His discourse about Himself as the door to the sheepfold and the good shepherd (John 10:1-10). Such allegories, having as their content the idea of the development of the Kingdom of God on earth and depicting this Kingdom under the image of a vineyard or vine, are found in the Old Testament Isa 5:1-7; Jer 2:21; Ezek 15:1-6 and others. But it is very likely that Christ, in proposing such an allegory of the vine to the disciples, had in mind not only these Old Testament parallels, but also the just-concluded Last Supper, at which He drank wine with His disciples and under the form of wine gave them His own blood. It is remarkable that in the post-communion prayer preserved in the “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (Didache XII apostolorum: La Didache. Instructions des Apötres, ed. J.P. Audet. Paris, 1958, c. IX, 2), there is the expression “holy Vine of David” (ἡ ἁγιά ἄμπελος Δαυίδ), referring to Christ. Why does Christ call Himself the “true” vine? Are ordinary vines not true? Here the adjective “true” (ἀληθινός) has, without doubt, the meaning “belonging to the higher world, but acting in this world among men like a vine subject to the law of organic life” (Holtzmann). The Lord hereby wishes to say that His relation to men is best (“true”) compared with the relation of the trunk of a vine to its branches. “My Father is the vinedresser” (ὁ γεωργός); He planted the true vine – Christ – by sending Him into the world.

John 15:2. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. The branches of Christ’s vine are all who have believed or turned to the Christian faith (the Lord here looks to the distant future). Among Christians there will be many who will be Christians in name only, but inwardly will be far from Christ. God removes such branches from communion with Christ. This removal at first happens invisibly, and then will be accomplished on the fearful last judgment. On the other hand, the good branches God “prunes,” removing from them all that spoils the purity and taste of the wine obtained from the vines – these are the so-called watery branches. In relation to true Christians, who are to bear only fruits of virtue, God acts likewise. He prunes them, of course, through severe trials 1 Pet 1:6-7 of all that hinders them from going along the path of spiritual self-perfection.

John 15:3. You are already clean through the word which I have spoken to you. The apostles are already clean “through the word” of Christ (cf. John 13:8-11), that is, through the teaching of Christ, which they received with faith (cf. Acts 15:9). This gives them the strength to repel influences harmful to their spiritual organism from the sinful world.

John 15:4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine: so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:5. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. The apostles must maintain such purity and abide only in Christ as in a true noble vine. If they think they can do anything without receiving the life-giving juices from this vine, they are mistaken: they will do no good without Christ.

John 15:6. If one does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and withers; such branches are gathered and cast into the fire, and they burn. Here it is indicated how vinedressers usually deal with withered branches. So on the fearful judgment will it be done with those who fall away from Christ (cf. Matt 13:30). But how can one reconcile with the possibility of falling away from Christ, which is presented here, what the Lord said earlier John 6:39 and following; John 10:28-29 about the security promised to those who have believed in Him? At one time He affirms that the Father wishes the Son not to lose anyone, and now He speaks of those falling away from Him and perishing. This question is easily resolved if we recall that John considers those falling away from Christ to be not true followers of Him. “They went out from us, but they were not of us,” says John of the opponents of Christianity, former Christians 1 John 2:19.

John 15:7. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. The Lord has just spoken of the necessity for the apostles to abide in Him. Now He points out the benefit they will obtain from this: their prayers will be heard (cf. John 14:13-14). The Lord says this, of course, with the thought that a man abiding in Him will pray for what Christ wishes for mankind.

John 15:8. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. To move the disciples to the doing of good works (“fruit”), Christ says to them that thereby they will glorify His Father and become true disciples of Christ. Obviously, Christ knows that this motive appears very strong to the disciples, that they desire to glorify God and to be not in name, but in deed, disciples of Christ.

John 15:9. As the Father has loved Me, and I have loved you; abide in My love. John 15:10. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. As the Father loves Christ because He fulfills His will, so also the disciples can preserve for themselves the love of Christ by fulfilling His will, expressed in His commandments.

John 15:11. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you and your joy may be full. All that the Lord spoke above (verses 1–10) was spoken so that the apostles might possess “the joy of Christ” – that joy which He has in Himself always, even in this pre-death hour. This joy, of course, springs from the fact that He is conscious of His unity with God. And the apostles will have “complete” or full joy when they remain in communion with Christ.

John 15:12. This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. John 15:13. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. The apostles must maintain the communion of love among themselves. They must love one another as Christ has loved them (see commentaries on John 13:34), and must consider self-sacrifice for the brothers as the highest expression of this love (cf. John 10:11). The Lord for now speaks here only of self-sacrifice for friends, not for all men (which He Himself displayed; cf. Rom 5:6). This limitation of the scope of self-sacrifice is explained by the fact that the Lord pitied His disciples, confused by the impending separation from Him, and did not wish at that time to place on them a demand that was too heavy. With time the disciples themselves, under the action of the Holy Spirit, will understand the full force of the commandment about love for enemies previously given them by Christ (Matt 5:44).

John 15:14. You are My friends, if you do what I command you. John 15:15. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you all things that I have heard from My Father. John 15:16. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. John 15:17. These things I command you, that you love one another. To move the disciples to the fulfillment of His commandments, Christ says that by fulfilling these commandments they will not be like servants to whom their master gives various orders, but on the contrary, they will show themselves to be “friends” of Christ. There is a great difference in the feeling with which an assigned task is carried out. One can look at it only as a duty and therefore carry it out without enthusiasm, or one can do it out of love for him who assigned the task. Obviously, in the latter case the work will be done much better than in the first. The disciples should fulfill Christ’s commandments as His friends. “No longer do I call you servants.” The Lord called the disciples thus earlier John 13:16, but He calls them by this same name also later (verse 20); how then does He say that He no longer calls them thus? Undoubtedly, here the expression “call” must be understood not in the literal sense, but in a figurative sense. The Lord may call the disciples servants, but He relates to them not as to servants: He introduces them to the understanding of the entire plan of divine economy, whereas ordinary servants are not shown their master’s plans – they are made to carry out his orders without any deliberation. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” Here is another motive for the disciples always to fulfill Christ’s commandments, always to serve Him. While among the Jews it was customary for those wishing to learn the Law of Moses to themselves choose teachers-rabbis, the apostles became disciples of Christ only when He Himself chose and called them to Him. But they entered into a covenant of friendship with Him, and it is not in their power to break this covenant (Weiss). “And appointed you.” Here there is an indication of the special hierarchical position of the apostles in the Church (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Cor 12:28). “That you should go” – go as My apostles (cf. Matt 28:19) and “bear fruit,” that is, spread the Gospel and firmly establish it on earth (“that your fruit should abide”). This is the first purpose of the choosing of the apostles. Another purpose is indicated in the words: “so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” The Lord, in choosing disciples, wished to do much good for them as well, wished their prayers to be fulfilled by God.

John 15:18. If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. John 15:19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. John 15:20. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will also keep yours. John 15:21. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. Now turning to discourse on the hatred with which the apostles-chosen ones of Christ going to fulfill His commandments will be met in the world, the Lord comforts them, first of all, by the fact that in this case the apostles will experience on the part of the world the same hatred with which the world treated Christ earlier. Secondly (verse 19), this hatred is completely natural, and everything natural and ordinary should not frighten a man. On the contrary, the apostles should be grateful for this hatred, because its existence clearly testifies that they are on the right path, that they are not infected with the sins of the world: the hatred of the Church is, so to speak, a guarantee that the Church stands at the height of its task, which its Founder set for it. (The world in John is always conceived as standing under the dominion of sin; cf. John 14:30). The Lord repeats this thought (verses 20 and 21), using in doing so the same expressions in which He spoke of the fate of the disciples when He sent them forth for the first time to preach the Gospel (see Matt 10:22-25). “Because they do not know Him who sent Me.” Here is indicated the cause of the hatred of the world for the preachers of the Gospel, requiring faith in Christ from men. This cause was indicated also earlier (John 8:19).

John 15:22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. John 15:23. He who hates Me also hates My Father. John 15:24. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. John 15:25. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled: “They hated Me without cause. Because the world could in its defense set forth the claim of ignorance, of which Christ speaks here, the Lord clarifies that such self-defense is completely unfounded. This very ignorance is unmistakably a sin after Christ taught the Jews and performed His great deeds or miracles before their eyes. No, if they did not use these means to acquire true knowledge of God, who sent Christ, then it is clear that they nourish in their heart hatred not only for Christ, but for God. “But the word that is written...” To the disciples such unbelief of the world might seem something unexpected even for their Teacher. Therefore the Lord points in this unbelief, in this hatred toward Him on the part of the world, to the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy. Most closely the Lord seems to speak here of the words of David, contained in Ps 68:5. Here David depicts the persecutions that fell upon him from his enemies, but the Lord sees in David His own type and in David’s enemies a foreshadowing of those relations in which the world will stand toward the true King of Israel, the descendant of David in the flesh (the 68th psalm is therefore customarily called messianic and typical). Such thoughts are found also in Ps 34:19. The Psalms are called here “law” in the general sense, as indeed all Sacred Scripture was considered a guiding principle in life among the Jews. By calling the law “theirs,” that is, the Jewish law, the Lord does not wish to reject the binding nature of the law for His followers, but only points out that the Jews too often referred to the law as to their sacred possession. Here is their support now speaking against them, convicting them of their unjust attitude toward Christ.

John 15:26. When the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness concerning Me; John 15:27. and you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. The guilt of the world, which has hated Christ, will be testified to by the Spirit-Comforter and by the apostles themselves, who can recall to the world many facts from the activity of Christ, since the apostles were with Christ from the very beginning of His ministry. “Proceeds from the Father.” Here is contained the teaching about the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father. This is evident from the fact that 1) that here of the procession is spoken of as of something present and continuous (the verb ἐκπορεύεσθαι stands in the present tense), whereas of the temporal sending of the Spirit into the world Christ speaks as of something future (I shall send, cf. John 14:16); 2) if one understands the expression “proceeds” in the sense of the future – “will proceed,” then this expression will be completely unnecessary repetition of the first words of verse 26 “comes” and “I shall send.” Western commentators (Luthhardt, Hengstenberg, Holtzmann, and others) nevertheless insist that here the discourse is only about the “temporal” sending of the Spirit by the Father, because, says Holtzmann, the point toward which or upon which the Spirit descends is the earth. But rather one can say that here of the procession of the Spirit it is spoken without relation to a specific point, the word “proceeds” is added to denote the distinctive property of the Spirit in eternity. Otherwise, to avoid all misunderstandings, Christ could have said if He had in mind only the temporal procession of the Spirit from heaven: “We, that is, I and the Father, will send the Spirit.” Did He not in the same way generalize the coming of Himself and the coming of the Father in the expression “We will come to him...” (John 14:23)? “You also will bear witness.” Since, properly speaking, the testimony of the apostles generally coincides with the testimony of the Holy Spirit acting in them, here, once their testimony is distinguished, one must see already an indication of their service as evangelists, that is, the transmission by them of the history of Christ’s life, of which the power of their memory had the most significance.