Bible Commentaries

Joh 15:1-27.

DISCOURSE AT THE SUPPER TABLE CONTINUED.

1-8. The spiritual oneness of Christ and His people, and His relation to them as the Source of all their spiritual life and fruitfulness, are here beautifully set forth by a figure familiar to Jewish ears

(Isa 5:1,

&c.).

I am the true vine--of whom the vine of nature is but a shadow.

my Father is the husbandman--the great Proprietor of the vineyard, the Lord of the spiritual kingdom. (It is surely unnecessary to point out the claim to supreme divinity involved in this).

2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit . . . every branch that beareth fruit--As in a fruit tree, some branches may be fruitful, others quite barren, according as there is a vital connection between the branch and the stock, or no vital connection; so the disciples of Christ may be spiritually fruitful or the reverse, according as they are vitally and spiritually connected with Christ, or but externally and mechanically attached to Him. The fruitless He "taketh away" (see on

Joh 15:6);

the fruitful He "purgeth" (cleanseth, pruneth)--stripping it, as the husbandman does, of what is rank

(Mr 4:19),

"that it may bring forth more fruit"; a process often painful, but no less needful and beneficial than in the natural husbandry.

3. Now--rather, "Already."

ye are clean through--by reason of.

the word I have spoken to you--already in a purified, fruitful condition, in consequence of the long action upon them of that searching "word" which was "as a refiner's fire"

(Mal 3:2, 3).

4. Abide in me, and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, &c.--As all spiritual fruitfulness had been ascribed to the mutual inhabitation, and living, active interpenetration (so to speak) of Christ and His disciples, so here the keeping up of this vital connection is made essential to continued fruitfulness.

5. without me--apart, or vitally disconnected from Me.

ye can do nothing--spiritually, acceptably.

6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch . . . withered . . . cast into the fire . . . burned--The one proper use of the vine is to bear fruit; failing this, it is good for one other thing--fuel. (See

Eze 15:1-5).

How awfully striking the figure, in this view of it!

7. If ye abide in me, and my words . . . in you--Mark the change from the inhabitation of Himself to that of His words, paving the way for the subsequent exhortations

(Joh 15:9, 10).

ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you--because this indwelling of His words in them would secure the harmony of their askings with the divine will.

8. glorified that ye bear much fruit--not only from His delight in it for its own sake, but as from "the juices of the Living Vine."

so shall ye be my disciples--evidence your discipleship.