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Gospel Light Christian Church
Thru-The-Bible Series (5.1)
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The Gospel Of John
John 15:1-27 - Read this Bible
passage once through before referring to the notes below.
Foreword
Judas had just left the Upper Room to betray Jesus, and this was the last opportunity
for Jesus to warn His disciples not to follow in Judas’ steps, but to abide in Him. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He mentioned the “fruit of
the vine” (MAT 26:29). Also, the vine is a common item in
Jewish life. Therefore,
He uses the vine as the example to teach the intimate union between Christians and Himself. Though several lessons are taught in this “vine” metaphor, the main
message is that Christians must abide in Jesus in order to be fruitful.
In this chapter, Jesus teaches His disciples of their relationship to Him (v.1-11), to each other (v.12-17), and
to the world (v.18-25).
Jesus is the Vine – Followers are Branches
v.1 The grape-vine is a picture of abundant fruitfulness. Jesus is the “true vine”, i.e., the One from whom
real and eternal “fruits” are produced.
God is the “husbandman” (i.e.,
farmer) because He is the One who initiated salvation’s plan, by planting the “vine” (i.e., sending His Son). He
is also the husbandman who purges the vine so that it beareth more fruit (v.2).
v.2 The union between a vine and its branches is like
the spiritual union between Christ and Christians.
The union is very intimate and vital for life. The branch has no life of its own when
it is separated from the vine. The sap and juice that flow from the vine are necessary for the life of the branch. So long as the vine is healthy the branch is healthy. This thought
is a great comfort to Christians because our “vine” is Jesus Christ. Hence, the important question for Christians is whether we are vitally
connected to our health and life in the True Vine.
The branches that beareth not fruit refer to unfruitful Christians.
They obviously refer to Christians because Jesus calls them a “branch in me.”
The tense of the word “beareth” in Greek refers to continuous bearing
of fruit. The words “taketh away” in Greek means to “lift up”as well, which gives a more accurate picture of what a vinedresser does to unfruitful
branches , which is a picture of God’s chastening rod of love. In this sense, unfruitful Christians can be taken away from ministry or service, so that God can address their need to abide
in Christ to be fruitful.
Even fruit-bearing Christians are purged (ie, pruned – remove dead leaves) so that they will produce more fruit. In other words, God sends His refining fire into the lives
of His children who are surrendered to serve Him, which often involves afflictions and trials, so that it may bring
forth more fruit (e.g. prayer, seriousness, service, etc.)
v.3 These 11 disciples were saved (i.e., made “clean”) through the teachings of Jesus. God’s Word is also the instrument which
cleans us from unclean thoughts (JOH 17:17, EPH 5:26, 1PE 1:22).
v.4 This does not mean that we must abide in Jesus
before He abides in us, but warns us of our tendency to stray from Jesus, and our responsibility to abide in Him,
i.e., live a life of close communion with Him, depending on His guidance and strength. When we do so, He will further
reward us with the sense of His presence and the giving of more grace. Just as the branch can only bear grapes
when it gets its nutrition from the vine, so we can only produce spiritual “fruit” when we get guidance and grace
from Jesus. If fruit is produced other wise, it is imitation “fruit,” ie, apparently successful thriving ministry
without real spiritual results.
v.5 Christians (i.e., branches) that abide in Christ will bring forth much fruit. “Without me” means “separated from me” or “cut off
from me.” Christians that try to serve God in their own strength alone would not produce spiritual fruit that is
acceptable to God, but will produce imitation fruit.
This reinforces the need of Christians to be wholly dependent each moment of each
day on the Spirit who dwells within us for everything
that we do, otherwise, for all our time and effort – it will be nothing.
v.6 Every work that is not done in dependence on Christ will be useless and rejected at the Judgement Seat of Christ
(1CO 3:13-15).
v.7 When we abide in Jesus, we will abide with His Word, and therefore His words will abide in
us. The Spirit-filled life is no replacement for a personal daily devotion with God’s
Word. Reading the Bible
without Spirit-dependence will cause us to “dry up” in our spiritual life but claiming to depend on the Spirit
without spending time on God’s Word will cause us to “blow up” in all the wrong directions!
And if His words abide (i.e., become
a part of our nature), then whatever we ask in prayer will be done (because it will be in God’s will). Furthermore, he that lives closest to Jesus will be more fervent in
prayer and have greater faith.
v.8 When we bear much fruit then
God will be glorified. Though all born-again Christians are
God’s disciples legally-speaking, yet this fact may not be evident to others until they bear much
fruit. When they do so, the world shall know them to be Jesus’ disciples (i.e. so shall ye be my disciples in the eyes of the world).
v.9 Jesus’ love to us is the same as the Father’s to
Him. The magnitude of this is hard to imagine. How can Jesus love ungrateful sinners so much? Since Jesus’ love
is so great we should continue in it, i.e., live constantly
in the realisation of His love.
v.10 To abide in Jesus’ love we must keep His commandments. Love
and obedience are closely related. The more we love someone, the more we obey him. And the more we obey him, the
more we are loved by him. Jesus set the perfect example of obedience and enjoyed the infinite love of the Father.
It is wonderful to realise that we are loved – especially by God.
v.11 Few people realise that obedience leads to joy. Many Christians think that obedience leads to misery.
Disciples’ Relations to Each Other
v.12 The constant
repetition of this commandment (13:34, 15:17) teaches us the importance of this commandment and the rarity of it.
Love is the best measure of our Christian growth. Most Christians measure their growth according to their knowledge
of Christian doctrines. The standard of brotherly love that we should aim for is very high, namely, Jesus’ love
for us. Like Jesus, we should love the weakest, lowest and most undeserving Christians.
v.13 The greatest thing that we can give a loved one
is our life. Jesus’ love is far greater because He laid down His life for His enemies.
v.14 We prove that we are Jesus’ friends by obeying Him. This simple test disqualifies most “Christians.” Jesus not only lay down his life for
us because He pitied us, but He desires that weak, ignorant and unfaithful Christians should be His friends. As His friends we
can come boldly to Him in prayer, and share our most intimate thoughts with Him. We know that Jesus will never
forsake His friends. We should rejoice that we are friends of the King of kings. Christians should never feel that
they are friendless.
v.15 Jesus often explained to His disciples the reasons
for His actions and commandments. Servants are usually not given reasons.
v.16 Normally, two people mutually chose to be friends,
but in Jesus’ case He chose us. We would not
have chosen Him (ROM 3:11).
v.17 Jesus reminds them to love one another, because
the world would hate them (v.18).
v.18 “If” means
“when” not “maybe.” When the world hates us, we should not be
discouraged because it hated the Lord before it hated us (7:1,
9:22, 10:31).
v.19 Born-again
Christians become “new creatures” (2CO 5:17) with different attitudes and behaviour that embarrass the world (3:19). Christians become more honest,
kind, patient, etc. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for them to believe that the world would hate them for
being better people. Christians are often hated not for their sins, but for their graces. They are living enemy
territory and are considered as a threat to the world.
v.20 In JOH 13:16, Jesus taught them that they were to serve humbly, because their Master did so. Here He applies the same
principle, namely, that servants should expect the same treatment as their masters. Jesus was preparing them for
the persecution that they would receive shortly.
v.21 Because Christians represent Christ (i.e. do things
for His name’s sake) they will get the persecution that the
world would have given to Jesus if He were still on earth. The Jews persecuted Jesus because they did not know that He was the Son of God. For this same reason, we will be persecuted.
v.22 If Jesus had not spoken to them and proven to them who He was by His preaching (MAT 7:28,29), then it was
excusable (i.e, they would have a cloke or cloak or cover) for
them to reject Him. “They had not had sin” is not spoken absolutely
but relatively, i.e. their sin would have been less if they had not heard Jesus’ preaching.
v.23 The Jews claimed to love God and hate Jesus. This is impossible because both Father and Son are one.
v.24 Jesus’ miracles were obviously from God. Therefore,
rejecting them was equivalent to rejecting God.
v.25 In PSA 35:7, 13,14 David, as a type of Jesus, speaks of how those whom he had helped
attacked him. In PSA 69:4,7-9,
David speaks of those who hate him without cause because of his zeal for God.
v.26 The world hated Jesus, but He sent the Comforter to His disciples so that they would testify to a Christ-hating world!
The Spirit testified to Jesus by helping the disciples to discern
the life and sayings of Jesus. Similarly, the Spirit testifies of
Jesus to us by helping us to understand the Bible. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit
of truth because He helps us to understand the truth in the bible.
v.27 And as the disciples knew the truth of Jesus they
must bear witness of Him. The disciples had the heaviest responsibility
to be faithful witnesses because they were with Jesus from the beginning.
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Footnotes
The disciples are acquainted with this metaphor (eg PSA
128:3).
This verse is the favourite verse of those that teach that salvation can be lost. The general lesson in a parable
is the main thing to be learnt. The main lesson in this parable
is the intimate union between Christ and believers. Not all the other details of the parable are to be taken literally,
especially when they contradict the plainer texts of scripture that are not parts of a parable (ROM 8:30-39).
New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground but they don’t bear fruit down there. The leaves get coated in dust and when it rains, they get muddy and mildewed. The branches become sick and useless.
The farmer does not throw away a valuable branch. He lifts
them up, cleans them and place them in a spot in the sunlight, away from the dirt.
Of course, no Christian totally abides in Jesus, nor knows God’s will totally. Therefore, some things that he prays
will be out of God’s will. For example, Paul prayed for the “thorn in the flesh” to depart but it was not granted
him (2CO 12:7,8). Most
Christians’ prayers are not answered because they are out of God’s will.
Persecution proves that we are children of God. It is the mark of a faithful Christian (2TI 3:12).
Religious privileges are in a sense very dangerous because we do not utilize them we will be punished (LUK 12:48).
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