Continuing a Bible study of the Gospels:
(John 15:1) "I am the true vine, and My Father is the farmer."
At the end of the last chapter, Jesus and His disciples (minus Judas Iscariot) had just risen from their table where they had been reclining and listening to Jesus. He had told them He was leaving them, but He would be back, and He would send them the Holy Spirit to teach them and remind them of all He had taught them. Jesus continuing speaking to them, telling them He was the true vine, similar as having described Himself as the living bread. He was the one true vine from which fruit would come. His Father would be considered the farmer, the one who planted and cared for the vine, as He had planted Jesus in the earth.
(2) "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every one that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bring forth more."
Every branch or follower in Jesus that did not produce any fruits of righteousness, God would take away. The branches or followers that bore good fruit, God would prune or refine so that they would bring forth even more fruit.
(3) "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you."
Jesus said that His disciples were now clean and pruned (and Judas removed) through the words with which He had spoken to them.
(4) "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in Me."
Jesus told them to abide in Him, hold close to His word and teachings, and be closely united with Him in prayer and in Spirit, because just as a branch by itself broken from the vine could not bear fruit, neither could they bear fruit if they were not connected with the true vine that is Jesus Christ.
(5) "I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing."
Jesus reinforced that He was the vine, and they were the branches. Those who abode in Him and He in them would bring forth much fruit of righteousness. Without Jesus they would be able to do nothing, just as a branch removed from a vine could do nothing of itself, but eventually die.
(6) "If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned."
If a man does not abide in Christ, he will be cast forth as an unfruitful branch and will wither and die. Those dead branches will be gathered and cast into the fire and burned, representing hellfire where those who do not wish to abide in Christ will find themselves.
(7) "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you."
Jesus had told His disciples in the last chapter that whatever they asked in His name would be given them. He now qualified that promise with the stipulation that they abode in Him and that His words, His doctrine and commandments, abode in them, and then whatever they asked in His name, for His sake, would be done. That is the key, what they asked must be for Christ's purposes, which it was more likely to be if they abode in Christ and His words abode in their hearts. James would later say in James 4:3 that, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts."
(8) "In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples."
Jesus said His Father would be honored and glorified if they bore much fruit, just as a farmer would be honored by the vine he planted that bore much fruit that displayed the marvelous work of his hands. And so would they show themselves to be good disciples of Jesus. They were His disciples already, but by their good fruits, they would show themselves to the world to be good disciples of Jesus and bring glory to Him and to His Father.
(9) "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you; continue in My love. (10) If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."
Jesus told His disciples He had loved them with the sincere deep love with which His Father had loved Him. He asked that they continue in His love. By keeping His doctrine and commandments, they would be abiding in His love, just as He had been true to the Father's word and commandments and abode in His love.
(11) "These things I have spoken to you that My joy might remain in you, and your joy might be full."
Jesus had told them these things that they might know and have the joy that comes with continually abiding in Christ and in His word, and that it might be full.
(12) "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Jesus reiterated the new commandment He instituted in John 13:34, that they love one another as He had loved them. That's a commandment that we all should live by. When we remember how much love Christ had for us that He died for us that we might live, we can share Christ's love with others when we realize that but for the grace of God we would have died an eternal death in our sins.
(13) "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
The greatest love a man could have is that he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus was about to do that for His friends and for the world. That demonstrated the greatest love there could ever be.
(14) "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."
Jesus told them that His friends were the ones who did what He commanded. His closest relationships were with those who did as He commanded and demonstrated His love to others and carried forth His word to a lost world. That is what He desired from His disciples, His friends.
(15) "Henceforth, I do not call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known to you."
Jesus told His disciples that from then on He would not refer to them as servants, because mere servants didn't know what their lord was doing, but He had told them the most intimate details from God Himself; therefore He considered them friends, intimate friends.
(16) "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit and your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give you."
Jesus told them that they had not chosen Him, but that He had chosen them. He chose them and ordained them as His apostles to go and bring forth lasting fruit. What a sobering and humbling thought when we consider that it was never within our power to come to Jesus to be saved (John 6:44 and 6:65). That is why we can have love for sinners, because again, there but by the grace of God, go I. I could be still dead in sin, looking forward to an eternal death in hell, if God had not started calling me to Him. We can put ourselves in the place of such sinners and wish for them what we have received ourselves through nothing good of ourselves.
To finish verse 16, Jesus had chosen them as His apostles to go forth and do His work, and that whatever they asked of God in Jesus's name, for the benefit of Jesus and His works, He would give them.
(17) "These things I command you, that you love one another."
All the things Jesus had spoken to them, about them all being branches from the true Vine, His love in laying down His life for them, accounting them as friends, not servants, and having chosen them in the beginning, all those things were bound up in one great commandment, that they love one another as He had loved them displayed in all those things.
(18) "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before you."
Jesus went on to tell them that if they found the world hated them, it was because of their allegiance to Him, and that the world first hated Him.
(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."
Jesus explained to them that if they were of the world, with the same spirit and selfish desires of it, the world would accept them. However, because Jesus had chosen them out of the world, and they no longer had those worldly desires, but desired only Jesus and His doctrines and commands, the world hated them.
(20) "Remember the word that I said to you, 'The servant is not greater than his lord.' If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also."
Jesus reminded them that He had told them that a servant was not greater than his lord. Therefore if they persecuted Jesus, the disciples would not be given better treatment because they were servants, or friends, as they were now called. They would also be persecuted. However, if they kept Jesus's word, then they would also keep their word as they were His disciples. Some commentators have suggested that a better translation of the last part of the verse, which might be more in line with Jesus's meaning in this verse is, "If they have watched My saying, they will also watch yours." The original word "tereo" that was translated as "kept" as it is most often used can also mean "watch, keep an eye upon," which might mean that Jesus had meant if the world watched His words closely to catch Him in what it considered a contradiction, just as the Pharisees had done, then it would be carefully watching their words, as well.
(21) "But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."
The world will persecute them and watch to catch them in their words because of Jesus, and because it does not know God who sent Him. That is a very sad thing. For the time will come when all people will know the truth, when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess (Romans 14:11), but then it will be too late.
(22) "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin."
If Jesus had not come and told the Jews about Him and His Gospel, they would not have sinned in this matter. That's not to say they would have no sin, because obviously all had sinned (Romans 3:23), but they would be able to claim ignorance with regard to Jesus being their Messiah. However, because Jesus had come and told them the truth and even proved it with His many spiritual insights and miracles, and they rejected Him, they had no excuse for that terrible sin of rejecting God's salvation.
(23) "He who hates Me hates My Father also."
Anyone who hated Jesus hated God also. There was no separating the two. Jesus was God, and He was God's plan to save the world; Jesus and God were One.
(24) "If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father."
In addition to telling them who He was, Jesus had done many works which no man could do, only God. If Jesus had not done those works, the Jews may have had an excuse because of ignorance. But because they had seen His works and still rejected Him, they had seen and rejected His Father also. They hated Jesus and His Father both.
(25) "But that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"
But as those things had come to pass, that they hated Jesus and therefore God because they rejected Jesus and His works that could have only come from God, they fulfilled a prophecy in Psalms (Psalm 35:19 and 69:4), that said they hated Him without a cause.
(26) "But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me."
When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit who proceeded directly from God, He being the Spirit of truth, He would testify of Jesus and confirm everything Jesus had told them.
(27) "And you also shall bear witness because you have been with Me from the beginning."
Jesus told His disciples that they also would be able to testify about Him because they had been with Him since the beginning of His ministry and had a more intimate knowledge of His doctrines and all that He did.
Although this chapter was devoted to Jesus's apostles, it is meant as a lesson to all who follow Christ, as it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." In it we learned we need that spiritual union with Christ as close as branches to the vine, and we will have His Holy Spirit within us to guide us and teach us truth. We must bring forth the fruits of Christianity to show our love for Him and to show the world we are His, and number one among the fruits is the love we must have for one another. The love we show the world is to profess Jesus Christ and spread His gospel, but we know that the world will persecute us because of Him. But we can pity those who persecute us because they are lost souls who do not know the truth of what they are doing. We can love them and pray for them because of Jesus Christ's love for us.
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