THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
JOHN
Commentary by DAVID BROWN
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@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.
9-11. continue ye in my love--not, "Continue to
love Me," but, "Continue in the possession and
enjoyment of My love to you"; as is evident from the
next words.
10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love--the
obedient spirit of true discipleship cherishing and
attracting the continuance and increase of Christ's love;
and this, He adds, was the secret even of His own abiding in
His Father's love!
12-16. That ye love one another, &c.--(See on Joh
13:34,35).
13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends--The emphasis lies not on
"friends," but on "laying down his life"
for them; that is, "One can show no greater regard for
those dear to him than to give his life for them, and this
is the love ye shall find in Me."
14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you--hold
yourselves in absolute subjection to Me.
15. Henceforth I call you not servants--that is, in
the sense explained in the next words; for servants He
still calls them (@Joh
15:20), and they delight to call themselves so, in the
sense of being "under law to Christ" (@1Co
9:20).
the servant knoweth not
what his lord doeth--knows nothing of his master's plans
and reasons, but simply receives and executes his
orders.
but . . .
friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I
have made known unto you--admitted you to free,
unrestrained fellowship, keeping back nothing from you which
I have received to communicate. (Compare @Ge
18:17 Ps 25:14 Isa 50:4).
16. Ye have not chosen me, but I . . . you--a
wholesale memento after the lofty things He had just said
about their mutual indwelling, and the unreservedness of the
friendship they had been admitted to.
ordained--appointed.
you, that ye should go and
bring forth fruit--that is, give yourselves to it.
and that your fruit should
remain--showing itself to be an imperishable and ever
growing principle. (Compare @Pr
4:18 2Jo 1:8).
that whatsoever ye shall
ask, &c.--(See on Joh 15:7).
17-21. The substance of these important verses has
occurred more than once before. (See on Mt 10:34-36; @Lu
12:49-53, &c.).
22-25. (See on Joh 9:39-41).
If I had not come and
spoken unto them, they had not had sin--comparatively
none; all other sins being light compared with the rejection
of the Son of God.
now they have no cloak for
their sin--rather, "pretext."
24. If I had not done . . . the works which
none other . . . did--(See on Joh 12:37).
25. that the word might be fulfilled . . . They
hated me without a cause--quoted from the Messianic @Ps
69:4, applied also in the same sense in @Joh
2:17 Ac 1:20 Ro 11:9,10 15:3.
26, 27. (See on Joh 14:15; Joh 14:17).
27. ye also shall bear witness--rather, "are
witnesses"; with reference indeed to their future
witness-bearing, but putting the emphasis upon their present
ample opportunities for acquiring their qualifications for
that great office, inasmuch as they had been "with Him
from the beginning." (See on Lu 1:2).
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