John 15:5

Joh_15:5

I am the Vine, ye are the branches

The true branches of the True Vine

No wise teacher is ever afraid of repeating himself.

The average mind requires the reiteration of truth before it can make that truth its own. One coat of paint is not enough, it soon rubs off.

I. THE FRUITFULNESS OF UNION.

1. I am the Vine was a general truth, with no clear personal application. Ye are the branches brought each individual listener into connection with it. How many people there are that listen in a fitful sort of languid way, interestedly, to the most glorious and solemn truths and never dream that they have any bearing upon themselves! The one thing most needed is that truth should be sharpened to a point and the conviction driven into you, that you have got something to do with this great message. Ye are the branches is the one side of that sharpening and making definite of the truth in its personal application, and the other side is Thou art the man. All religious teaching is toothless generalities, utterly useless, unless we can force it through the wall of indifference and vague assent.

2. Note next the great promise, He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, etc. Abiding in Christ, and Christs abiding in us means a temper and tone of mind very far remote from the noisy, bustling distractions too common in our present Christianity. We want quiet, patient, waiting within the veil. The best way to secure Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with Christ. Get more of the sap into the branch, and there will be more fruit. We may grow graces artificially and they will be of little worth. First of all be, and then do; receive, and then give forth. That is the Christian way of mending men, not tinkering at this, that, and the other individual excellence, but grasping the secret of total excellence in communion with Him. Our Lord is here not merely laying down a law, but giving a promise, and putting His veracity into pawn for the fulfilment of it.

3. Notice that little word which now appears for the first time: much. We are not to be content with a poor shrivelled bunch of grapes that are more like marbles than grapes, here and there, upon the half-nourished stem. God forbid that I should say that there is no possibility of union with Christ and a little fruit. A little union will have a little fruit; but the only two alternatives here are, no fruit, and much fruit. And I would ask why it is that the average Christian man of this generation bears only a berry or two here and there, like such as are left upon the vines after the vintage, when the promise is that if he will abide in Christ, he will bear much fruit.

4. This verse, setting forth the fruitfulness of union with Jesus, ends with the brief solemn statement of the converse--the barrenness of separation. There is the condemnation of all the busy life of men which is not lived in union with Jesus Christ; it is a long row of figures which, like some other long rows of figures added up, amount just to Zero. Without Me, nothing.

II. THE WITHERING AND DESTRUCTION OF SEPARATION FROM HIM (Joh_15:6).

1. Separation is withering. Did you ever see a hawthorn bough that children bring home from the woods, and stick in the grate; how in a day or two the fresh green leaves all shrivel up and the white blossoms become brown and smell foul, and the only thing to be done with it is to fling it into the fire and get rid of it? Separate from Christ, the individual shrivels, and the possibilities of fair buds wither and set into no fruit. And no man is the man he might have been unless he holds by Jesus Christ and lets His life come into Him. And as for individuals, so for communities. The Church or the body of professing Christians that is separate from Jesus Christ dies to all noble life, to all high activity, to all Christlike conduct, and, being dead, rots.

2. Withering means destruction. Look at the mysteriousness of the language. They gather them. They cast them into the fire. Who have that tragic task? The solemn fact that the withering of manhood by separation from Jesus Christ requires, and ends in, the consuming of the withered, is all that we have here. We have to speak of it pityingly, with reticence, with terror, with tenderness, with awe lest it be our fate. Be on your guard against that tendency of this generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all the threatenings of the Bible. One of two things must befall the branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. And if we would avoid the fire let us see to it that we are in the Vine.

III. THE UNION WITH CHRIST AS THE CONDITION OF SATISFIED DESIRES (Joh_15:7). Our Lord instead of saying, I in you, says My words in you. He is speaking about prayers, consequently the variation is natural. The abiding of His words in us is largely the means of His abiding in us.

1. What do we mean by this? Something a great deal more than the mere intellectual acceptance. Something very different from reading a verse in a morning, and forgetting all about it all the day long; something very different from coming in contact with Christian truth on a Sunday, when somebody else preaches what he has found in the Bible to us, and we take in a little of it. It means the whole of the conscious nature of a man. His desires, understanding, affections, will, all being steeped in those great truths which the Master spoke. Put a little bit of colouring matter into the fountain at its head and you will have the stream dyed down its course forever so far. See that Christs words be lodged in your inmost selves, and all the life will be glorified and flash into richness of colouring and beauty by their presence.

2. The main effect of such abiding of the Lords words with us is, that in such a ease, my desire will be granted. If Christs words are the substratum of your wishes, then your wishes will harmonize with His will, and so Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.

IV. THIS UNION AND FRUITFULNESS LEAD TO THE NOBLE ENDS OF GLORIFYING GOD AND INCREASING DISCIPLESHIP (Joh_15:8).

1. Christs life was all for the glorifying of God. The lives, which are the life of Christ in us, will have the same end and the same issue. We come there to a very sharp test. How many of us are there on whom men, looking, think more loftily of God. And yet we should all be mirrors of the Divine radiance, on which some eyes, that are too dim and sore to bear the light as it streams from the sun, may look, and, beholding the reflection, may learn to love.

2. And if thus we abide in Him and bear fruit we shall become His disciples. The end of our discipleship is never reached on earth; we never so much are, as we are in the process of becoming, His true followers and servants. If we bear fruit because we are knit to Him, the fruit itself will help us to get nearer Him, and so be more His disciples and more fruitful. Character produces conduct, but conduct reacts on character and strengthens the impulses from which it springs. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Growth from within

This growing is to be the growth of a branch: not by accretion, by adding to the surface, but by strength and development from within. You may make a molehill into a mountain by bringing a sufficiency of material to it, to swell the rising pile; but trees and branches expand from within: their growth is the putting forth of a vital but unseen force. The life power in the stock, being also in the bough, compels an outward exhibition of results in progressive keeping with the vigour and strength of the supplies. So the believer grows up into Christ into ever-increasing holiness, influence and grace through the Divine afflatus which is at work within his soul, for it is thus that God worketh in you more and more to will and to do of His good pleasure. By this inner power the branches of a tree have a wonderful power of assimilation.. They take hold upon all surrounding forces and turn them to advantage. The dew that falls, the gases of the atmosphere, the descending rain, the chemistry of the sunlight, all are drawn into it; all are made a part of itself, are made to serve its purpose and to nurse its health. The very storms that blow, the alternations of weather that test and try it and ofttimes seem to work it damage, are all made to consolidate its fibres, to quicken the action of its sap, and send new energy through every vein, a stronger life: thrill into every leaf. So grows the righteous soul into higher, stronger, more mature religious life. All things are yours, says the apostle Paul. That is to say, all events, all experiences, all the providences of God, all the circumstances of life, as well as all the riches of promised grace, are made by the goodness and wisdom of God to serve the Christians interests and help his soul to grow. The dew of the Spirit, the sunshine of God, the aids of the sanctuary, the society of the good, the exercise of Christian toil, the business of life, the storms and tempests of sorrow and toil--all things, by reason of the subtle power of the inner life, are made to help the Christian, to deepen his piety, to strengthen his soul, to beautify his character, to mature and ripen his graces, and to give him a stronger grip upon his God. All things work together for good to them that love God. Neither is there any limit to the attainments possible to the godly soul. Under the influence of the Divine life it is placed amid an exhaustless store of nourishment, it is grafted into the Vine whose Root is the Godhead and whose resources are infinite and eternal. (J. J. Wray.)

Religion in diverse places

I saw a vine growing on the fertile plain of Damascus with boughs like the goodly cedars (Psa_80:10). One bough of that vine had appropriated a large forest tree; it had climbed the giant trunk, it had wound itself round the great gnarled arms, it had, in fact, covered every branch of the tree with garlands of its foliage, and bent down every twig with the weight of its fruit. And I saw another branch of the same vine spread out along the ground, and cover bushes and brambles with foliage as luxuriant and fruit as plentiful as those on the lordly forest tree. So is it in the Church. Some branches of that heaven-planted vine climb to the very pinnacles of human society. They appropriate and sanctify the sceptre of the monarch, the dignity of the peer, the power of the statesman, the genius of the philosopher, and they shed a lustre upon each and all greater and more enduring than can ever be conferred by gemmed coronet or laurel crown. While other branches of the same vine find a congenial sphere in humbler walks, they penetrate city lanes, they creep up wild mountain glens, they climb the gloomy stair to the garret where the daughter of toil lies on her death bed, and they diffuse wherever they go a peace and a joy and a halo of spiritual glory, such as rank and riches cannot bestow, and such too as poverty and suffering cannot take away. Peer and peasant, philosopher and working man, king and beggar, have equal rights and rewards in the Church. They are united to the same Saviour on earth, and they shall recline on the same bosom in heaven. (J. L. Porter, LL. D.)

Variety of Christian growth

There may be a hundred branches in a vine; their place in reference to each other may be far apart; they may seem to have but a very distant connection with each other; but having each a living union with the central stem, they are all members of the same Vine, and every one of them therefore is a member one of the other. Some of the branches are barely above the ground; some peer higher than all the rest; some are weighted with fruit, much fruit rich and fine; some bear but little fruit and that only small and inferior; some occupy important and central positions; some are seemingly insignificant, and look as though they might readily be dispensed with; as though, indeed, the tree would be healthier and more graceful without them; some are old and well grown, thoroughly strong and established; others are young, delicate, and need development. But whatever variety there may be among the branches in size, circumstance, or state, they all form a part of one complete, harmonious and like-natured whole. The vine stem is the common centre, and in it all partake of a common life. (J. J. Wray.)

The Christian individuality

The discoveries of vegetable physiology have shown that every branch is, in fact, a tree perfectly distinct and complete in itself: a tree which, by means of roots struck into the parent tree, derives its life, and sends out its leafage. The common idea is, that every tree in the ground has in itself the same kind of individual existence that a man has, and that, just as in the body limbs and various organs are component parts of a man, so the bole, the boughs, and the leaves are component parts of a tree. But the common idea is wrong; a tree is, in truth, a colony of trees, one growing on another--an aggregate of individuals--a body corporate, losing nothing, however, and merging nothing of its own individuality. It is charming to study a scientifically written biography of a tree, giving an account of its cells and pores and hairs, telling the isle of its evolution and its education; its infinite relations with all the elements, and how it is affected by the chemistries of nature; tracing it from its first faint filament to its full wealth of foliage and its final sweep of extension; thereby revealing through this miracle of the forest the glory of God. But, for the reasons suggested by some of the thoughts just confessed, interesting as is the story of a tree, a Christian will find the life tory of a mere branch scarcely less interesting, for it teaches him how to connect the ideas of total dependence and perfect individuality. I am a branch, yet I am a true tree--a tree growing on another tree--even on the Tree of Life. I see it all now, and also see the harmony between this particular Scripture and other Scriptures, better than formerly. It is scientifically true that I am a branch in the Vine, yet that I am a tree, answering to the description, Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

The buds

A Sunday school teacher was trying to make his class understand this lesson. Jesus is the Vine, said he, we are the branches; we get all our life and happiness from Him. Yes, said a little fellow in the class, Jesus is the Vine, grown up people are the branches, and we young ones are the buds. In the natural vine the buds do not bear any fruit. But in Jesus, the Spiritual Vine, even the buds can be fruitful; the youngest can make themselves useful. (J. L. Nye.)

The condition of fruitfulness

I saw a little twig scarcely an inch long, so tender an infant hand could break it; rough and unseemly without comeliness, and when I saw it there was no beauty that I should desire it. It said: If I were comely and beautiful, like those spring flowers I see, I could attract, and please, and fulfil a mission. It said: If I were like yonder oak or cedar, I could afford shelter to Gods weary sheep at noonday, and the fowls of heaven should sing among my branches. It said: If I were even strong, I might bear some burden, or serve a purpose as a peg, a bolt, or a pin, in Gods great building that is going up. But so unsightly, so weak, so small! A voice said to it: Abide in Me, and I in you, He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. And so it rested. It was not long until a glory of leaves crowned it, and in Gods time I saw the heavy fruit it bore.

Without Me ye can do nothing

Without Christ--nothing

No saint, prophet, apostle would ever have said this to a company of faithful men. Among the virtues of a perfect man we must certainly reckon modesty. It is impossible to conceive that Jesus of Nazareth, had he not been more than man, could ever have uttered this sentence. We have here

I. AN ASPIRATION OF HOPE. From such a root what a vintage must come! Being branches in Him, what fruit we must produce! That word do has music in it. Jesus went about doing good, and, being in Him, we shall do good. There is the hope of doing something in the way of glorifying God by bringing forth

1. The fruits of holiness, peace, and love.

2. Fruit in the conversion of others.

3. Fruit of further blessing will ripen for this poor world. Men shall be blessed in us because we are blessed in Christ.

II. A SHUDDER OF FEAR. It is possible that I may be without Christ, and so may be utterly incapacitated for all good.

1. What if you should not be so in Christ as to bring forth fruit? If you are without Christ, what is the use of carrying on that Bible lass; for you can do nothing?

2. What if you should be in Christ, and not so in Him as to abide in Him? It appears from our Lords words that some branches in Him are cast forth and are withered. What if you are off and on with Christ! What if you play fast and loose with the Lord! What if you are an outside saint and an inside devil! What will come of such conduct as this?

III. A VISION OF TOTAL FAILURE.

1. A ministry without Christ in its doctrine will do nothing. Preachers aspire to be leaders of thought; wilt they not command the multitude and charm the intelligent? Add music and architecture, and what is to hinder success, and what has been done? The sum total is expressed in the text--Nothing.

2. Without acknowledging always the absolute supremacy of Christ we shall do nothing. Jesus is much complimented but He is not submitted to. Certain modern praises of Jesus are written upon the theory that, on the whole, the Saviour has given us a religion that is tolerably suited to the enlightenment of the nineteenth century, and may be allowed to last a little longer. It is fortunate for Jesus that He commends Himself to the best thought and ripest culture of the period; for, if He had not done so, these wise gentlemen would have exposed Him as being behind the times. Of course they have every now and then to rectify certain of His dogmas; He is rectified and squared, and His garment without seam is taken off, and He is dressed out in proper style, as by a West-end clothier; then He is introduced to us as a remarkable teacher, and we are advised to accept Him as far as He goes. Now, what will come of this foolish wisdom? Nothing but delusions, mischief, infidelity, anarchy, and all manner of imaginable and unimaginable ills.

3. You may have sound doctrine, and yet do nothing unless you have Christ in your spirit. In former years many orthodox preachers thought it to be their sole duty to comfort and confirm the godly few who by dint of great perseverance found out the holes and corners in which they prophesied. These brethren spoke of sinners as of people whom God might possibly gather in if He thought fit to do so; but they did not care much whether He did so or not. When a Church falls into this condition it is, as to its spirit, without Christ. What comes of it? The comfortable corporation exists and grows for a little while, but it comes to nothing.

4. But above all things we must have Christ with us in the power of His actual presence. The power lies with the Master, not with the servant; the might is in the hand, not in the weapon.

5. We have, then, before us a vision of total failure if we attempt in any way to do without Christ. He says, Without Me ye can do nothing: it is in the doing that the failure is most conspicuous. You may talk a good deal without Him; you may hold conferences and conventions; but doing is another matter. The most eloquent discourse without Him will be all a bottle of smoke. You shall lay your plans, and arrange your machinery, and start your schemes; but without the Lord you will do nothing.

IV. A VOICE OF WISDOM, which speaks out of the text, and says to us who are in Christ

1. Let us acknowledge this.

2. Let us pray. If without Christ we can do nothing, let us cry to Him that we may never be without Him.

3. Let us personally cleave to Jesus.

4. Heartily submit yourselves to the Lords leadership, and ask to do everything in His style and way. He will not be with you unless you accept Him as your Master.

5. Joyfully believe in Him. Though without Him you can do nothing, yet with Him all things are possible.

V. A SONG OF CONTENT. Without Me ye can do nothing. Be it so. Do you wish to have it altered, any of you that love His dear name? I am sure you do not: for suppose we could do something without Christ, then He would not have the glory of it. Who wishes that? If the Church could do something without Christ she would try to live without Him. As I listened to the song I began to laugh. I thought of those who are going to destroy the orthodox doctrine from off the face of the earth. They say our old theology is decaying, and that nobody believes it. It is all a lie. If His friends can do nothing without Him, I am sure His foes can do nothing against Him. I laughed, too, because I recollected a story of a New England service, when suddenly a lunatic started up and declared that he would at once pull down the meeting house about their ears. Taking hold of one of the pillars of the gallery, this newly-announced Samson repeated his threatening. Everybody rose; the women were ready to faint. There was about to be a great tumult; no one could see the end of it; when suddenly one cool brother produced a calm by a single sentence. Let him try! Even so today the enemy is about to disprove the gospel and crush out the doctrines of grace. Are you distressed, alarmed, astounded? So far from that, my reply is this only--Let him try! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Nothing without Christ

I. AS TO THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. There is much in the Bible which all must understand and admire; but as to its moral spirit and purpose what can be done without Christ? How slow of heart to believe were the disciples till Christ opened their understandings (Luk_24:48). Of the Old Testament Christ said, They are they which testify of Me. The first words of the New are, The Book of the Generations of Jesus Christ; and its last, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc. He is the Alpha and Omega, and of the whole Bible Joh_20:31 may be said.

II. AS TO RECONCILIATION WITH GOD. That man needs this is not to be questioned; but how is it to be effected? God cannot change; His laws cannot be set aside. Sin is eternal separation from God. How, then, can man be reconciled? Only through Christ (Rom_3:19-25; Col_1:21; 2Co_5:19 : Rom_5:11).

III. AS TO PROGRESS IN THE DIVINE LIFE. From first to last the Christian is dependent on Christ. His life is derived from, developed by, devoted to Christ.

IV. AS TO SUCCESS IN EVANGELISTIC WORK. (W. Forsyth, M. A.)

None but Christ indispensable

In this world no man is necessary. There are many men who, if they were taken away, would be missed. But there is no man but what we may say of him, that useful and valuable as he may be, we might come to do without him. It is a truth this which we do not like to admit. We like to fancy that things would not go on exactly the same without us as with us. But this world has never seen more than one Being who could say that it was absolutely impossible to go on when separated from Him. The little child fancied, when its mother died, that without her it could do nothing; but the grownup, busy man, hardly seems ever to remember at all her whom the heart-broken child missed so sorely. And the mother, when her little one is called to go, may fancy that without that little one she can do nothing; but time brings its wonderful easing, and, though not forgetting, she gets on much as before. And it is the same way in every earthly relation. The husband comes to do without his dead wife; and the wife to do without the departed husband. The congregation that missed their minister for a while, come at length to gather Sunday after Sunday with little thought of the voice it once was pleasant for them to hear. The state comes to do without its lost political chief, and the country without its departed hero: and we learn in a hundred ways, that no human being is absolutely necessary to any other human being. We may indeed fancy so for a while, but at length we shall find that we were mistaken; we may indeed miss our absent friends sadly and long; but we shall come at last to do without them. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

Mans greatest need

No man lives a true and useful life who lives without Christ. The good man feels his need of Him, and of all of Him always.

1. His eye to guide him.

2. His hand to uphold him.

3. His arm to shield him.

4. His bosom to lean upon.

5. His blood to cleanse him.

6. His Spirit to make him holy and meet for heaven.

Christ is the one only Saviour who can make a sinner a saint, and secure to him eternal life. Usefulness is suspended upon holiness, and we are made holy by Christs cleansing blood, and in no other way. (Homiletic Monthly.)

The union between Christ and His people

Apart from Christ

I. THERE IS NO MERIT FOR OUR ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD. There is none righteous, no, not one. By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. But in Christ there is all-sufficient merit. Believing in Him, we are justified and accepted. Not through His merit together with what we ourselves can do. Dr. Chalmers, when awakened to his condition as a sinner, for a time repaired to the atonement to eke out his deficiencies, and as the ground of assurance that God would look upon him with a propitious eye. But the conviction was at length wrought in him that he had been attempting an impossibility … that it must be either on his own merits wholly, or on Christs merits wholly, that he must lean; and that, by introducing his own righteousness into the ground of his meritorious acceptance with God, he had been inserting a flaw, he had been importing a falsehood into the very principle of his justification.

II. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO OVERCOME THE POWER OF INDWELLING SIN. The evil propensities within us are not the same in each one; it may be the love of money or the lust of power in one, vanity or pride, malice or guile, in another. Does not the Christian have frequent experience that the corruption of his heart is too strong for him? He made good resolutions, and broke them; after repeated failures he is driven almost to despair, and is ready to ask, Can my corruptions ever be conquered, or must I become more and more their slave? But if we be brought by Divine grace to cleave in faith to the Saviour, we shall have His Spirit to dwell in us, and in His strength we shall prevail. In ancient fable we read that one of the great labours imposed upon Hercules was to cleanse the foul Augean Stable. This mighty task he accomplished by turning the river Alpheus through it, thus performing with ease what before had appeared impossible. That stable is a true picture of the heart defiled by countless sins. The streams of that fountain opened in the house of David, turned by a living faith to flow into it, alone can cleanse it.

III. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO BUILD UP A CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. In a building there is not only a foundation, but also a superstructure. Apart from Christ we cannot build aright. Christian character may be likened unto a tree growing. Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue, etc. Here is a noble, well-developed growth; But these spiritual graces will not appear if we do not abide in constant communion with Christ.

IV. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO PROMOTE THE TRUE INTERESTS OF OTHERS. What are all the provisions for the alleviating and removing of the wants and sufferings of men--the hospitals, orphanages, almshouses, and other philanthropic institutions--but the results of Christian effort, the products of the Christian spirit! All noble enduring, legislative acts also, such as that for the emancipation of the slaves, have been brought about by men under the influence of the religion of Christ. Who likewise have filled Wales and other countries with the gospel? Is it not men with the love of Christ as a holy fire burning Within them? (J. R. Owen.)

The necessity of supernatural grace in order to a Christian life

I. WHAT WE MEAN BY THE SUPERNATURAL GRACE AND ASSISTANCE OF CHRIST. Whatever natural power we have to do anything is from God, but God, considering the lapsed condition of mankind, sent His Son to recover us out of that condition, but we, being without strength, our Saviour hath in His Gospel offered an extraordinary assistance of His Holy Spirit, to supply the defects of our natural strength. And this supernatural grace of Christ is that alone which can enable us to perform what He requires of us. And this, according to the several uses and occasions of it, is called by several names. As it puts good motions into us, it is called preventing grace; because it prevents any motion or desire on our parts; as it assists and strengthens us in the doing of anything that is good, it is called assisting grace; as it keeps us constant in a good course, it is called persevering grace.

II. TO THIS GRACE THE SCRIPTURE DOTH CONSTANTLY ATTRIBUTE OUR REGENERATION, SANCTIFICATION, AND PERSEVERANCE IN HOLINESS.

III. THERE IS GREAT REASON TO ASSERT THE NECESSITY OF THIS GRACE AND ASSISTANCE TO THESE PURPOSES. If we consider

1. The corruption and impotency of human nature. When the Scripture speaks of the redemption of Christ, it represents our condition not only as miserable, but helpless (Rom_5:6).

2. The strange power of evil habits and customs. The other is a natural, and this is a contracted impotency. The habits of sin being added to our natural impotency, are like so many diseases superinduced upon a constitution naturally weak, which do all help to increase the mans infirmity. Evil habits in Scripture are compared to fetters, which do as effectually hinder a man from motion, as if he were quite lame, hand and foot. By passing from one degree of sin to another, men became hardened in their wickedness, and insensibly bring themselves into that state, out of which they are utterly unable to recover themselves.

3. The inconstancy and fickleness of human resolution.

4. The malice and activity of the devil.

IV. THIS SUPERNATURAL GRACE AND ASSISTANCE DOES NOT EXCLUDE, BUT SUPPOSES THE CONCURRENCE OF OUR ENDEAVOURS. The grace of God strengthens and assists us. Our Saviour implies that by the assistance of grace we may perform all the duties of the Christian life; we may bear fruit, and bring forth much fruit. When the Apostle says, I can do all things through Christ strengthening me, he does not think it a disparagement to the grace of Christ to say, he could do all things by the assistance of it Php_2:12-13).

V. THIS GRACE IS DERIVED TO US FROM OUR UNION WITH CHRIST. Inferences:

1. If the grace of God be so necessary to all the ends of holiness, obedience, and perseverance, then there is great reason why we should continually depend upon God, and every day earnestly pray to Him for the aids of His grace.

2. We should thankfully acknowledge and ascribe all the good that is in us, and all that we do, to the grace of God.

3. Let us take heed that we resist not the Spirit of God, and receive not the grace of God in vain.

4. The consideration of our own impotency is no excuse to our sloth and negligence, if so be the grace of God be ready to assist us.

5. The consideration of our own impotency is no just ground of discouragement to our endeavours, considering the promise of Divine grace and assistance. (Archbishop Tillotson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

THE TRUE BRANCHES OF THE TRUE VINE

Joh 15:5 - Joh 15:8.

No wise teacher is ever afraid of repeating himself. The average mind requires the reiteration of truth before it can make that truth its own. One coat of paint is not enough, it soon rubs off. Especially is this true in regard to lofty spiritual and religious truth, remote from men’s ordinary thinkings, and in some senses unwelcome to them. So our Lord, the great Teacher, never shrank from repeating His lessons when He saw that they were but partially apprehended. It was not grievous to Him to ‘say the same things,’ because for them it was safe. He broke the bread of life into small pieces, and fed them little and often.

So here, in the verses that we have to consider now, we have the repetition, and yet not the mere repetition, of the great parable of the vine, as teaching the union of Christians with Christ, and their consequent fruitfulness. He saw, no doubt, that the truth was but partially dawning upon His disciples’ minds. Therefore He said it all over again, with deepened meaning, following it out into new applications, presenting further consequences, and, above all, giving it a more sharp and definite personal application.

Are we any swifter scholars than these first ones were? Have we absorbed into our own thinking this truth so thoroughly and constantly, and wrought it out in our lives so completely, that we do not need to be reminded of it any more? Shall we not be wise if we faithfully listen to His repeated teachings?

The verses which I have read give us four aspects of this great truth of union with Jesus Christ; or of its converse, separation from Him. There is, first, the fruitfulness of union; second, the withering and destruction of separation; third, the satisfaction of desire which comes from abiding in Christ; and, lastly, the great, noble issue of fruitfulness, in God’s glory, and our own increasing discipleship. Now let me touch upon these briefly.

I. First, then, our Lord sets forth, with no mere repetition, the same broad idea which He has already been insisting upon-viz., that union with Him is sure to issue in fruitfulness.

He repeats the theme, ‘I am the Vine’; but He points its application by the next clause, ‘Ye are the branches.’ That had been implied before, but it needed to be said more definitely. For are we not all too apt to think of religious truth as swinging in vacuo as it were, with no personal application to ourselves, and is not the one thing needful in regard to the truths which are most familiar to us, to bring them into close connection with our own personal life and experience?

‘I am the Vine’ is a general truth, with no clear personal application. ‘Ye are the branches’ brings each individual listener into connection with it. How many of us there are, as there are in every so-called Christian communion, that listen pleasedly, and, in a fitful sort of languid way, interestedly, to the most glorious and most solemn words that come from a preacher’s lips, and never dream that what he has been saying has any bearing upon themselves! And the one thing that is most of all needed with people like some of you, who have been listening to the truth all your days, is that it should be sharpened to a point, and the conviction driven into you, that you have some personal concern in this great message. ‘Ye are the branches’ is the one side of that sharpening and making definite of the truth in its personal application, and the other side is, ‘Thou art the man.’ All preaching and religious teaching is toothless generality, utterly useless, unless we can manage somehow or other to force it through the wall of indifference and vague assent to a general proposition, with which ‘Gospel-hardened hearers’ surround themselves, and make them feel that the thing has got a point, and that the point is touching their own consciousness. ‘Ye are the branches.’

Note next the great promise of fruitfulness. ‘He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.’

I need not repeat what I have said in former sermons as to the plain, practical duties which are included in that abiding in Christ, and Christ’s consequent abiding in us. It means, on the part of professedly Christian people, a temper and tone of mind very far remote from the noisy, bustling distractions too common in our present Christianity. We want quiet, patient waiting within the veil. We want stillness of heart, brought about by our own distinct effort to put away from ourselves the strife of tongues and the pride of life. We want activity, no doubt, but we want a wise passiveness as its foundation.

‘Think you, midst all this mighty sum

Of things for ever speaking,

That nothing of itself will come,

But we must still be seeking?’

Get away into the ‘secret place of the Most High,’ and rise into a higher altitude and atmosphere than the region of work and effort; and sitting still with Christ, let His love and His power pour themselves into your hearts. ‘Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee.’ Get away from the jangling of politics, and empty controversies and busy distractions of daily duty. The harder our toil necessarily is, the more let us see to it that we keep a little cell within the central life where in silence we hold communion with the Master. ‘Abide in Me and I in you.’

That is the way to be fruitful, rather than by efforts after individual acts of conformity and obedience, howsoever needful and precious these are. There is a deeper thing wanted than these. The best way to secure Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with Christ. It is better to work at the increase of the central force than at the improvement of the circumferential manifestations of it. Get more of the sap into the branch, and there will be more fruit. Have more of the life of Christ in the soul, and the conduct and the speech will be more Christlike. We may cultivate individual graces at the expense of the harmony and beauty of the whole character. We may grow them artificially and they will be of little worth-by imitation of others, by special efforts after special excellence, rather than by general effort after the central improvement of our nature and therefore of our life. But the true way to influence conduct is to influence the springs of conduct; and to make a man’s life better, the true way is to make the man better. First of all be, and then do; first of all receive, and then give forth; first of all draw near to Christ, and then there will be fruit to His praise. That is the Christian way of mending men, not tinkering at this, that, and the other individual excellence, but grasping the secret of total excellence in communion with Him.

Our Lord is here not merely laying down a law, but giving a promise, and putting his veracity into pawn for the fulfilment of it. ‘If a man will keep near Me,’ He says, ‘he shall bear fruit.’

Notice that little word which now appears for the first time. ‘He shall bear much fruit.’ We are not to be content with a little fruit; a poor shrivelled bunch of grapes that are more like marbles than grapes, here and there, upon the half-nourished stem. The abiding in Him will produce a character rich in manifold graces. ‘A little fruit’ is not contemplated by Christ at all. God forbid that I should say that there is no possibility of union with Christ and a little fruit. Little union will have little fruit; but I would have you notice that the only two alternatives which come into Christ’s view here are, on the one hand, ‘no fruit,’ and on the other hand, ‘much fruit.’ And I would ask why it is that the average Christian man of this generation bears only a berry or two here and there, like such as are left upon the vines after the vintage, when the promise is that if he will abide in Christ, he will bear much fruit?

This verse, setting forth the fruitfulness of union with Jesus, ends with the brief, solemn statement of the converse-the barrenness of separation-’Apart from Me’ {not merely ‘without,’ as the Authorised Version has it} ‘ye can do nothing.’ There is the condemnation of all the busy life of men which is not lived in union with Jesus Christ. It is a long row of figures which, like some other long rows of algebraic symbols added up, amount just to zero. ‘Without me, nothing.’ All your busy life, when you come to sum it up, is made up of plus and minus quantities, which precisely balance each other, and the net result, unless you are in Christ, is just nothing; and on your gravestones the only right epitaph is a great round cypher. ‘He did not do anything. There is nothing left of his toil; the whole thing has evaporated and disappeared.’ That is life apart from Jesus Christ.

II. And so note, secondly, the withering and destruction following separation from Him.

Commentators tell us, I think a little prosaically, that when our Lord spoke, it was the time of pruning the vine in Palestine, and that, perhaps, as they went from the upper room to the garden, they might see in the valley, here and there, the fires that the labourers had kindled in the vineyards to burn the loppings of the vines. That does not matter. It is of more consequence to notice how the solemn thought of withering and destruction forces itself, so to speak, into these gracious words; and how, even at that moment, our Lord, in all His tenderness and pity, could not but let words of warning-grave, solemn, tragical-drop from His lips.

This generation does not like to hear them, for its conception of the Gospel is a thing with no minor notes in it, with no threatenings, a proclamation of a deliverance, and no proclamation of anything from which deliverance is needed-which is a strange kind of Gospel! But Jesus Christ could not speak about the blessedness of fruitfulness and the joy of life in Himself without speaking about its necessary converse, the awfulness of separation from Him, of barrenness, of withering, and of destruction.

Separation is withering. Did you ever see a hawthorn bough that children bring home from the woods, and stick in the grate; how in a day or two the little fresh green leaves all shrivel up and the white blossoms become brown and smell foul, and the only thing to be done with it is to fling it into the fire and get rid of it? ‘And so,’ says Jesus Christ, ‘as long as a man holds on to Me and the sap comes into him, he will flourish, and as soon as the connection is broken, all that was so fair will begin to shrivel, and all that was green will grow brown and turn to dust, and all that was blossom will droop, and there will be no more fruit any more for ever.’ Separate from Christ, the individual shrivels, and the possibilities of fair buds wither and set into no fruit, and no man is the man he might have been unless he holds by Jesus Christ and lets His life come into him.

And as for individuals, so for communities. The Church or the body of professing Christians that is separate from Jesus Christ dies to all noble life, to all high activity, to all Christlike conduct, and, being dead, rots.

Withering means destruction. The language of our text is a description of what befalls the actual branches of the literal vine; but it is made a representation of what befalls the individuals whom these branches represent, by that added clause, ‘like a branch.’ Look at the mysteriousness of the language. ‘They gather them.’ Who? ‘They cast them into the fire.’ Who have the tragic task of flinging the withered branches into some mysterious fire? All is left vague with unexplained awfulness. The solemn fact that the withering of manhood by separation from Jesus Christ requires, and ends in, the consuming of the withered, is all that we have here. We have to speak of it pityingly, with reticence, with terror, with tenderness, with awe lest it should be our fate.

But O, dear brethren! be on your guard against the tendency of the thinking of this generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all the threatenings of the Bible, and to blot out from its consciousness the grave issues that it holds forth. One of two things must befall the branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. If we would avoid the fire let us see to it that we are in the Vine.

III. Thirdly, we have here the union with Christ as the condition of satisfied desires.

‘If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’ Notice how our Lord varies His phraseology here, and instead of saying ‘I in you,’ says ‘My words in you.’ He is speaking about prayers, consequently the variation is natural. In fact, His abiding in us is largely the abiding of His words in us; or, to speak more accurately, the abiding of His words in us is largely the means of His abiding in us.

What is meant by Christ’s words abiding in us? Something a great deal more than the mere intellectual acceptance of them. Something very different from reading a verse of the Gospels of a morning before we go to our work, and forgetting all about it all the day long; something very different from coming in contact with Christian truth on a Sunday, when somebody else preaches to us what he has found in the Bible, and we take in a little of it. It means the whole of the conscious nature of a man being, so to speak, saturated with Christ’s words; his desires, his understanding, his affections, his will, all being steeped in these great truths which the Master spoke. Put a little bit of colouring matter into the fountain at its source, and you will have the stream dyed down its course for ever so far. See that Christ’s words be lodged in your inmost selves, by patient meditation upon them, by continual recurrence to them, and all your life will be glorified and flash into richness of colouring and beauty by their presence.

The main effect of such abiding of the Lord’s words in us which our Lord touches upon here is, that in such a case, if our whole inward nature is influenced by the continual operation upon it of the words of the Lord, then our desires will be granted. Do not so vulgarise and lower the nobleness and the loftiness of this great promise as to suppose that it only means-If you remember His words you will get anything you like. It means something a great deal better than that. It means that if Christ’s words are the substratum, so to speak, of your wishes, then your wishes will harmonise with His will, and so ‘ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’

Christ loves us a great deal too well to give to our own foolish and selfish wills the keys of His treasure-house. The condition of our getting what we will is our willing what He desires; and unless our prayers are a great deal more the utterance of the submission of our wills to His than they are the attempt to impose ours upon Him, they will not be answered. We get our wishes when our wishes are moulded by His word.

IV. The last thought that is here is that this union and fruitfulness lead to the noble ends of glorifying God and increasing discipleship.

‘Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.’ Christ’s life was all for the glorifying of God. The lives which are ours in name-but being drawn from Him, in their depths are much rather the life of Christ in us than our lives-will have the same end and the same issue.

Ah, dear brethren, we come here to a very sharp test for us all. I wonder how many of us there are, on whom men looking think more loftily of God and love Him better, and are drawn to Him by strange longings. How many of us are there about whom people will say, ‘There must be something in the religion that makes a man like that’? How many of us are there, to look upon whom suggests to men that God, who can make such a man, must be infinitely sweet and lovely? And yet that is what we should all be-mirrors of the divine radiance, on which some eyes, that are too dim and sore to bear the light as it streams from the Sun, may look, and, beholding the reflection, may learn to love. Does God so shine in me that I lead men to magnify His name? If I am dwelling with Christ it will be so.

I shall not know it. ‘Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone’; but, in meek unconsciousness of the glory that rays from us, we may walk the earth, reflecting the light and making God known to our fellows.

And if thus we abide in Him and bear fruit we shall ‘be’ or {as the word might more accurately be rendered}, we shall ‘become His disciples.’ The end of our discipleship is never reached on earth: we never so much are as we are in the process of becoming, His true followers and servants.

If we bear fruit because we are knit to Him, the fruit itself will help us to get nearer Him, and so to be more His disciples and more fruitful. Character produces conduct, but conduct rests on character, and strengthens the impulses from which it springs. And thus our action as Christian men and women will tell upon our inward lives as Christians, and the more our outward conduct is conformed to the pattern of Jesus Christ, the more shall we love Him in our inmost hearts. We ourselves shall eat of the fruit which we ourselves have borne to Him.

The alternatives are before us-in Christ, living and fruitful; out of Christ, barren, and destined to be burned. As the prophet says, ‘Will men take of the wood of the vine for any work?’ Vine-wood is worthless, its only use is to bear fruit; and if it does not do that, there is only one thing to be done with it, and that is, ‘They cast it into the fire, and it is burned.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 15:5. Οὗτος) he, and he only [“the same”].—ποιεῖν, do) This verb is taken in the strict sense. Elsewhere we have the expression καρπὸν ποιεῖν, to make or produce fruit: but here καρπὸν φέρειν, to bear fruit.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_15:5. Abide on me, I say, for I am the vine, ye the branches; thus then only from me (not ἀφʼ ἑαυτὼν, Joh_15:4) can you derive the living power for bearing fruit. And you must abide on me, as I on you: so (οὗτος: he, no other than he) will you bring forth much fruit. In this way, by means of ἐγὼ … κλήματα the preceding ἐν ἐμοί, and by means of ὁ μένων, κ.τ.λ., the preceding μείνητε is confirmed and brought into relief. Hence also the emphatic position of ἐγώ and μένων.

κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ] Instead of καὶ ἐν ᾧ ἐγὼ μένω, this clausenot relative, but appending itself in an easy and lively manneris introduced. See on this classic idiom, Bernhardy, p. 304; Nägelsbach, z. Ilias, p. 6, ed. 3; Buttmann, N. T. Gr. p. 327 f. [E. T. p. 382].

χωρὶς ἐμοῦ] χωρισθέντες ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ, out of living fellowship with me. Comp. Eph_2:12; Tittmann, Synon. p. 94. Antithetic to ἐν ἐμοὶ μένειν.

ποιεῖν οὐδέν] effect nothing, bring about nothing, passing from the figure into the proper mode of presentation. The activity of the Christian life in general is meant, not merely that of the apostles, since the disciples are addressed, not especially in respect of their narrower vocation, but generally as κλήματα of Christ, which standing they have in common with all believers. The utter incapacity for Christian efficiency without the maintenance of the living connection with Christ is here decidedly and emphatically expressed; on this subject, however, Augustine, and with him ecclesiastical orthodoxy, has frequently drawn inferences too wide in favour of the doctrine of moral inability generally (see especially Calovius); since it is only the ability for the specifically Christian ποιεῖν τι (the καρπὸν φέρειν) which is denied to him who is χωρὶς Χριστοῦ. For this higher moral activity, which, indeed, is the only true one, he is unable (Joh_3:6), and in this sense it may be said with Augustine, that Christ thus spoke, ut responderet futuro Pelagio; where, however, a natural moral volition and ability of a lower grade in and of itself (comp. Rom_2:14-15; Rom_7:14 ff.) is not denied, nor its measure and power more exactly defined than to this effect, that it cannot attain to Christian morality, to which rather the ethical power of the living fellowship with Christ here depicted, consequently the new birth, is indispensable. Luther well says: that He speaks not here of the natural or worldly being and life, but of fruits of the gospel. And in so far nos penitus privat omni virtute, nisi quam suppeditat ipse nobis, Calvin.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 15:5 . ἐγὼ … κλήματα “I am the Vine, ye are the branches,” together forming one tree and possessed by one common life. The stock does not bear fruit, but only the branches; the branches cannot live without the stock. Therefore it follows ὁ μένων … οὐδέν . The one thing needful for fruit-bearing is that we abide in Christ, and He in us; that the branch adhere to the vine, and the life of the vine flow into the branch. χωρὶς ἐμοῦ , “in separation from me”. See Eph 2:12 . Grotius gives the equivalents “seorsim,” “separatim,” κατὰ μονάς , κατʼ αὐτό . οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν , “ye cannot do anything,” absolutely nothing according to Joh 1:3-4 ; but here the meaning is, “ye cannot do anything which is glorifying to God, anything which can be called fruit-bearing,” Joh 15:8 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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

ye can do nothing--spiritually, acceptably.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. Without me ye can do nothing.] Χωρις εμου ου δυνασθε ποιειν ουδεν - Separated from me, ye can do nothing at all. God can do without man, but man cannot do without God. Following the metaphor of our Lord, it would be just as possible to do any good without him, as for a branch to live, thrive, and bring forth fruit, while cut off from that tree from which it not only derives its juices, but its very existence also.

Nearly similar to this saying of our Lord, is that of Creeshna (the incarnate God of the Hindoos) to his disciple Arjoon: "God is the gift of charity; God is the offering: God is the fire of the altar; by God the sacrifice is performed; and God is to be obtained by him who maketh God alone the object of his works." And again: "I am the sacrifice; I am the worship; I am the spices; I am the invocation; I am the fire; and I am the victim. I am the Father and Mother of this world, and the Preserver. I am the Holy One, worthy to be known; the mystic figure OM; (see on Joh 1:14;) I am the journey of the good; the Comforter; the Creator; the Witness; the resting-place; the asylum, and the Friend. I am the place of all things; and the inexhaustible seed of nature; I am sunshine, and I am rain; I now draw in, and now let forth." See Bhagvat Geeta, pp. 54 and 80. Could such sentiments as these ever come from any other source than Divine revelation? There is a saying in Theophilus very similar to one of those above: Θεος ου χωρειται, αλλα αυτος εστι τοπος των ὁλων. - God is not comprehended, but he is the place of all things.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Without me you can do nothing. This is the conclusion and application of the whole parable. So long as we are separate from him, we bear no fruit that is good and acceptable to God, for we are unable to do anything good. The Papists not only extenuate this statement, but destroy its substance, and, indeed, they altogether evade it; for, though in words they acknowledge that we can do nothing without Christ, yet they foolishly imagine that they possess some power, which is not sufficient in itself, but, being aided by the grace of God, co-operates (as they say,) that is, works along with it; for they cannot endure that man should be so much annihilated as to do nothing of himself. But these words of Christ are too plain to be evaded so easily as they suppose. The doctrine invented by the Papists is, that we can do nothing without Christ, but that, aided by him, we have something of ourselves in addition to his grace. But Christ, on the other hand, declares that we can do nothing of ourselves. The branch, he says, beareth not fruit of itself; and, therefore, he not only extols the aid of his co-operating grace, but deprives us entirely of all power but what he imparts to us. Accordingly, this phrase, without me, must be explained as meaning, except from me.

Next follows another sophism; for they allege that the branch has something from nature, for if another branch, which is not fruit-bearing, be engrafted in the vine, it will produce nothing. But this is easily answered; for Christ does not explain what the branch has naturally, before it become united to the vine, but rather means that we begin to become branches at the time when we are united to him. And, indeed, Scripture elsewhere shows that, before we are in him, we are dry and useless wood.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(5) I am the vine, ye are the branches.—The first clause is repeated to bring out the contrast with the second. It has been implied, but not directly stated, that they are the branches. It may be that there was a pause after the end of the fourth verse, accompanied by a look at the disciples, or at that which suggested the imagery of the vine. His words would then continue with the sense, “Yes, it is so. That is the true relation between us. I am the vine, ye are the branches. The fruitful branches represent men that abide in Me . . .”

For without me ye can do nothing.—Better, separate from Me, or, apart from Me. (Comp. margin.) The words bring out the fulness of the meaning of the fruitfulness of the man who abides in Christ. It is he, and he only, who brings forth fruit, for the man who is separate from Christ can bear no fruit. The words have often been unduly pressed, to exclude all moral power apart from Christ, whereas the whole context limits them to the fruit-bearing of the Christian life. The persons thought of all through this allegory are true and false Christians, and nothing is said of the influence on men of the wider teaching of God, the Light of the Logos ever in the world. A moral power outside the limits of Christianity is clearly recognised in the New Testament. (Comp., e.g., Rom_2:14-15, Notes.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. ye are the branches] This has been implied, but not stated yet.

for without me] Better, because apart from Me, or (as the margin) severed from Me. Comp. Joh_1:3; Eph_2:12.

ye can do nothing] Christians cannot live as Christians apart from Christ. Nothing is said here about those who are not Christians, although there is a sense in which the words are true of them also.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If a man abide not in me,.... Christ does not say, "if ye abide not in me"; he would not suppose this of his true disciples; Judas now being removed, to whom he may have some respect in this verse; though it may be applied to anyone who has made a profession of Christ, and denies the truths of the Gospel, neglects the ordinances of it, or walks unworthy of his profession: of whom the following things may be truly said,

he is cast forth as a branch; that is unfruitful, and is therefore taken away from the vine, and cast forth out of the vineyard. This signifies the ejection of worthless and fruitless professors out of the churches; for such who are either unsound in their principles, or are remiss and negligent in their attendance on the worship of God, with the church, or are loose and vain in their lives and conversations, are to be removed from communion with the people of God.

And is withered. Some versions, as the Arabic, Syriac, and Persic, read this as an epithet of the word "branch", thus; "the branch that is withered"; expressing the condition the branch is in before it is cast forth out of the vineyard, and the reason of its being cast forth: but others read it as a new and distinct predicate of the branch, showing the case it is in, immediately upon its being cast forth: it may be cut off, and cast out with its leaves upon it, though without fruit; but as soon as ever it is ejected, it withers away. So mere external professors of religion, when they are cast out, of the communion of the church, presently the leaf of profession, which once seemed green, decays, loses its verdure, and that seeming fruit which grew upon them shrinks to nothing, and they become "trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit", Jde 1:12, their show of life, zeal, religion, and holiness, disappears, and all their external gifts, light, knowledge, and understanding, even in a speculative way, vanish:

and men gather them; or, as some copies have it, "it", which best agrees with the word "branch". This was a common thing, when branches were thrown out of a vineyard, for men to come and gather them up for an use hereafter mentioned. So when unworthy members are put out of a church of Christ, the men of the world gather them into their society: or they are taken into the congregations of false teachers, who being sensual, and without the Spirit, separate themselves; or it may be read impersonally, "they are gathered", or "it is gathered": so wicked men, and Christless professors, will be gathered by the angels at the last day, and severed by them from the righteous, whom they will place at Christ's left hand to receive their awful doom:

and cast them, or "it",

into the fire, and they are burned, or "it is burned"; for nothing else is such a branch good for; see Eze 15:2. This may respect either the gnawings of conscience, that distress of mind, if not despair, that fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which attend apostates in this life; or their being cast into the everlasting burnings of hell fire by angels at the last day, as will be the case of every unfruitful tree, of the chaff and tares.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Ver. 5. The same bringeth forth much fruit] Christ is a generous vine, a plant of renown; and all his are "filled with the fruits of righteousness," Php 1:11, have hearts full of goodness, as those Rom 15:14, and lives full of good works, as Tabitha, Act 9:33. In Bucholcero vivida omnia fuerunt; vivida vox, vividi oculi, vividae manus, gestus omnes vividi. (Melch. Ad. in Vita.) Nehemiah never rested doing good for his people; he was good all over. Like the Egyptian fig tree, that bears fruit seven times a year; or the lemon tree, which ever and anon sendeth forth new lemons, as soon as the former are fallen off; or the plain of Campania, now called Terra de lavoro, region of labour, which is extolled for the most fruitful plat of earth that is in the universe.

For without me ye can do nothing] This is point blank against the doctrine of freewill. Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae, Those who hide under the praise of works are enemies of free grace, saith Augustine. These will needs hammer out their own happiness, like the spider, climbing by a thread of her own weaving, with motto accordingly, Mihi soli debeo. I owe only to me. Whereas the apostle demandeth, Who made thee to differ? Grevinchovius the Arminian boldly answers, Ego meipsum discerno, I make myself to differ. This he had learned from heathens belike: What we live, is from God; but that we live well, is from ourselves, saith Seneca. And this is the judgment of all men, saith Cicero, that prosperity is to be sought of God, but wisdom is to be taken up from ourselves. St Augustine was of another judgment, and saith, Ciceronem, ut faceret homines liberos, fecisse sacrilegos. Quod vivamus deorum munus est; quod bone vivamus, nostrum. Iudicium hoc omnium mortalium est, &c. (Cic. de Nat. Deor.; Aug. Civ. Dei. l. 5.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am the vine - Joh 15:1.

Without me ye can do nothing - The expression “without me” denotes the same as separate from me. As the branches, if separated from the parent stock, could produce no fruit, but would immediately wither and die, so Christians, if separate from Christ, could do nothing. The expression is one, therefore, strongly implying dependence. The Son of God was the original source of life, Joh 1:4. He also, by his work as Mediator, gives life to the world Joh 6:33, and it is by the same grace and agency that it is continued in the Christian. We see hence:

1.That to him is due all the praise for all the good works the Christian performs.

2.That they will perform good works just in proportion as they feel their dependence on him and look to him. And,

3.That the reason why others fail of being holy is because they are unwilling to look to him, and seek grace and strength from him who alone is able to give it.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I am the vine, ye are the branches; that is, I am as the vine, you are as the branches: without the continual influence of the vine upon the branches, they bring forth no fruit; but that influence continuing, no plant is more fruitful than a vine is: so without the continual influence of my Spirit of grace upon you, you will be altogether barren and unfruitful; but if you have that influence, you will not be fruitful only, but very fruitful: for without my continuing such influence, you will not only be able to do little, but you will be able to do nothing that is truly and spiritually good and acceptable in the sight of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Without me ye can do nothing—Gracious ability precedes all acceptable action. It is the sap without which no branch can bring forth fruit. Man, without the grace of God, through Christ, empowering him, can no more bring forth action pleasing to God than the dry and withered branch can put forth the rich and ruddy cluster.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ returns to the main theme of the previous verse, but here discriminates more forcibly the vine from the branches, and yet holds and binds them into a unity. I am the vine, ye are the branches; which shows that he treated the disciples themselves as the organs of his earthly fruit-bearing; and then draws a larger circle and makes a complete and comprehensive statement on which the very existence of the "true vine," the "body of Christ, including the Head," depends, viz. He that abideth in me, and I in himi.e. whenever the conditions of which I have spoken to you are fulfilled; wherever there are human souls deriving from their connection with me the full advantage of the life ever streaming forth from methe same beareth much fruit; the entire end of their new life is secured. He beareth "much fruit." In other words, many of those blessed fruits of the supernatural life appear, which the great Husbandman desires to receive. And this strengthens the position of the previous verse, which threatened excision from the vine to such as bear no fruit. Such, though in one sense "in the Vine," do not abide in him. Because apart from severed fromme ye can do nothing. The oti suggests the question Can the negative result justify the positive assertion? It does in this way. There are two premises: the first is," I am the Vine, and ye are the branches," and the second is, "Severed front me a branch can effect nothing," having no independent fruitfulness or stability. All its powers are derived from this supernatural source, and depend on Christ"s faithfulness to his own nature and functions; therefore, "He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit." The language here does not repress the endeavor of the human will after righteousness, nor pronounce a judgment on the great controversy between Augustinians and Pelagians. These words are not addressed to unconverted men, but to disciples, who have to learn their constant need of spiritual contact with their invisible Lord. Let a believer, let an apostle, sever himself from Christ, and live on his own past reputation or his supposed strength, on the clearness of his intellect, the vigor of his body, the eminence of his position, he can and will do nothing.

Apart from Christ.

Our Lord does not say, "Apart from my doctrine ye can do nothing;" important though it is that Christian people should apprehend and receive his truth. Nor does he say, "Apart from my Church ye can do nothing;" though, if we understand the term "Church" aright, this would be manifestly true. But he says, "Apart from me." Christ is, then, himself everything to his people. He is the Power, the Wisdom, the Salvation, of God, and consequently, could we be sundered from him, we should be rendered poor and powerless.

I TO BEAR FRUIT, IS THE END OF TRUE RELIGION, AND THE RESULT AND PROOF OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. When substituted for faith, "doing" is bad; but when it is the effect of faith, it is good and precious. Where do we look for evidence of the goodness of the tree? Is it not sought in fruit, good fruit, much fruit? The doing, or fruit-bearing, here commended by the Lord Jesus, is the performance of the will of God, is the imitation of the Master"s own example, is the fulfillment of the behests of an enlightened conscience. It comprises personal holiness and active usefulness.

II SEVERANCE FROM CHRIST RENDERS MEN POWERLESS FOR GOOD WORKS. The conduct and service which are distinctively Christian are only possible through personal union with the Savior.

1. This assertion places in a clear light the unequalled dignity of the Lord Jesus. This is a declaration which none but he could make. Yet, being the Son of God and the Source of spiritual life to men, he could justly advance a claim so vast. The disciple is nothing without his master, the servant nothing without his lord, the soldier nothing without his commander, the hand nothing without the head, the Christian nothing without Christ.

2. This assertion brings out into clear light the absolute dependence of Christians. Without our Lord"s teaching and example, we, should have no conception of the highest moral excellence. Without his love, we should not feel the mightiest motive that can influence the soul to consecration and service. Without his mediation, we should not enjoy the favor of God, our Ruler and Judge. Without his Spirit, we should be strangers to the spiritual power which alone can enable feeble man to do the will of God. Without his promises, we should lack the encouragement and inspiration we need to cheer us amidst the difficulties, perplexities, and trials from which no earthly life is ever exempt. Without him, there would be no deliverance from the bondage of sin, and no prospect of what is truly the eternal life. "Neither," says Peter, "is there salvation in any other.

III UNION WITH CHRIST IS THEREFORE UNSPEAKABLY PRECIOUS, AND FOR THE CHRISTIAN ABSOLUTELY NEEDFUL. As to the nature of this connection, there should be no misunderstanding. External privileges and professions are all insufficient. A spiritual and vital union is necessary, such as in the vegetable kingdom joins the branch to the vine-stock, such as in architecture unites the temple to its foundation. This union is effected on the human side by a believing reception of the gospel of Christ; on the Divine side by the impartation of the quickening Spirit of God. Such union is capable of increase in degree; a closer spiritual fellowship with the Divine Redeemer is the means of increased fitness for holy and acceptable service. The experience of the Apostle Paul was an illustration of this principle. He could say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." He who would work more diligently, and wait more patiently, must come nearer to Christ, and so obtain the spiritual power he needs.

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. If this union with the living Vine be not formed, let it be formed at once.

2. If it be suspended or enfeebled, let it be renewed.

3. If it be existing and vitally active and energetic, let it be prized and cultivated. T.

Vers. 5-8. The union of Christ and believers.

Notice this union

I IN ITS NATURE AND SOME OF ITS LEADING FEATURES.

1. It is spiritual It is not physical and material, neither is it based on the same principles as the unions of this world, which are carnal and corrupt; but the principles of this union are spiritual, such as love, faith, and hope. It is the union of the human with the Divine, the spirit of man with the great Father of spirits the union of life with life the life of the soul with the life of the Savior, by faith and a Divine birth. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power," etc.

2. It is vital and real. It is not the union of a stone with a stone in a building, nor the union of an atom with an atom in a material body, but the union of life as that of the vine and the branches, the union of believing souls with the Almighty Savior, and that of living spirits with the ever-living Christ. It is real, though on the part of believers at best imperfect. It is not imaginary, but a fact as real in spiritual growth as the union of the vine and branches in natural growth.

3. It is mutual. As the vine and the branches. Mutuality underlies and conditions every union. There is mutual affinity, adaptation, and willing consent. There is in this union a willing blending of Divine and human life and energies. It is mutual, and mutual conditions must be observed. Both are dependent on each other; but with this difference the branches are more dependent on the vine than the vine on the branches; a branch may wither and fall, or be lopped off, but another will grow instead. The disciples are more dependent on Christ than he on the disciples. He will have other disciples, but they will never have another Savior.

4. It is natural. It is the natural consequences of things; as natural as the union of the vine and branches. The vine is in the branches, and the branches are the natural outgrowth of the vine. Christ is the Life and Support of believers, and they are the natural outgrowth of Christ. The union is not arbitrary, but according to the laws of spiritual growth. A vine without branches, and the great Teacher without disciples, would be unnatural; but the vine and the branches, and Christ and believers in real union, is most natural and beautiful.

5. It is very near. No union can be nearer than that between the vine and the branches. It is apparently and more permanently near than that of parents and children. The children may leave the parents and form other connections, and still go on in prosperity. But this can never happen with regard to the vine and the branches. Such is the union between Christ and believers. It is so near that they are ever in him and he in them, imparting to them his grace and Spirit in a continual flow, and through them carries on his grand purposes of love and salvation.

II IN ITS IMPORTANCE. This will appear if we consider:

1. That this union is essential to fruit-bearing. "As the branch cannot bear fruit, except it abide," etc.; "Without me ye can do nothing.

(1) There is no spiritual life. There can be no life when it is disconnected with its only Source and Author.

(2) There is no spiritual support. Life must be supported ere it can thrive and be healthy. Apart from Christ there is no support and nourishment for the soul.

(3) There is no true inspiration. The very principle and stimulus of spiritual life is wanting; the very breath of it is gone.

(4) There is no real fruit. Luscious, strengthening, healing, and reviving grapes are the real fruits of the vine. Life-giving and inspired actions are the fruits of the soul united with Christ; but, apart from him, these are not merely absent, but impossible. "Ye can do nothing." Apart from him, we are ciphers in relation to the spiritual world, however active we may otherwise be.

2. Fruit-bearing is the essential consequence of vital union with Christ. "The same beareth much fruit." Let the condition be faithfully observed abiding in him and the consequence will inevitably follow. It would be as easy for the stream to cease to flow while the fountain springs, or for the earth to be in darkness while the sun is in its meridian splendor, as for believers to be barren while in living union with Christ. And this is all-important. If the branches fail in fruitfulness, they fail in all that is valuable; and so with regard to man.

3. Discontinuance of this union is attended with the most terrible consequences. "If any man abideth not in me, he is cast forth," etc. This implies:

(1) The awful possibility of being connected with Christ and yet be severed from him. This is illustrated by the vine and the branches. Many a branch, after bearing some fruit and long connection, becomes entirely withered and barren. In relation to the true Vine Judas was a striking instance of such a branch.

(2) The cause of this severance is in the disciple, and not in the Master. "If any man abide not in me," etc. It is not said, "If I will not abide in him." This must follow at last but as the effect. The cause of the withering is not in the vine, for other branches are still flourishing and fruitful, and it retains the withered one till it falls of itself, or is lopped off by the dresser; and even then a wound is left behind which will take some time to heal. This is true of the "true Vine." Look how he retained Judas till he left of his own accord; and Jesus on this account was often sorrowful. The cause of the sad severance is entirely in man, and the blame and responsibility are his.

(3) This severance is attended with terrible consequences. "They gather them, and cast them into the fire," etc. The terrible process is gradual the unfruitfulness, the withering, the casting forth, the gathering, the casting into the fire, and the final burning; but, although gradual, it is certain. In relation to Christ as to the vine, it is the natural and inevitable consequence of the discontinuance of union with him. It is spiritual failure, waste, and destruction. Hence the supreme importance and duty of continued and unbroken union with him.

III IN ITS HAPPY RESULTS. Consider these:

1. In relation to believer s.

(1) The highest end of being is attained. The highest end of the branches is fruitfulness. The highest end of man"s being is the same, and is attainable in vital union with Christ, and thus alone. "The same beareth much fruit.

(a) It is visible and practical. It is fruit, the visible evidence of a Divine union and life, and is embodied in a useful form, in holy thoughts, devotional aspirations, and noble deeds deeds of faith and charity; self-sacrificing deeds, which glorify God and benefit man.

(b) It is genuine in quality. It is fruit, the real outgrowth of the soul in union with Christ, and the same in quality as the fruit of Christ himself, and fit for use.

(c) It is great in quantity. "Much fruit." The soul is developed into its utmost capacities, and this is genuine fruition, the highest end of life, and the happy result of union with him who is the Life.

(2) Complete success in prayer. "Ask whatsoever ye will," etc. United with him, we pray in him. When we really pray in him, our petitions are according to his will, and in the interest of the highest end of our spiritual being. All these will certainly be answered. Union with Christ ensures to the soul all spiritual blessings. "Ask. and ye shall receive.

(3) Complete and permanent discipleship. "And so shall ye be my disciples." Union with Christ results in fruit-bearing, and fruit-bearing results in permanent discipleship. "So shall ye be," etc. Not probationers, but full disciples; not only in name, but in reality; not for a time, but for ever. This is a high honor and an inestimable privilege, to be under the direct and constant tuition of the Master, and within the circle of his guidance, light, and love, now and forever.

2. In relation to the Father. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye," etc. The Vinedresser is glorified, honored, and satisfied by the fruitfulness of the vine; his heart is gladdened at the time of vintage. The Father, as the Husbandman of the true Vine," is specially glorified when the branches bear fruit, and much fruit. The greater the fruit, the greater is his glory and joy; he is infinitely happy to see his labor not in vain, his fatherly love, watchfulness, and expense are not for naught, hut return with interest in fruitful branches. He rejoiceth over one sinner that repenteth, over one branch bearing a single fruit; what must be his over the "much fruit "? Our greatest good is inseparably connected with his greatest glory.

3. In relation to Christ. "So shall ye be my disciples." Complete discipleship is a great honor and blessing to the believer; fruitful discipleship is a great satisfaction and joy to Jesus. The branches bear fruit through the vine, and the vine through the branches. The disciples bear fruit through Christ, and Christ bears fruit through them; their fruit is really his. It is through them chiefly he blesses and saves the world; they are the mediums of his love and life, and in them he sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. They are proud of him, and he is proud of them, and refers to them with delight as his disciples; so that the Husbandman, the true Vine, and the branches together reap the benefit of, and are highly satisfied with, the happy results of the happy union.

LESSONS.

1. This union on the part of Christ is perfect. Its bases are perfect, and its conditions are perfectly fulfilled. Its discontinuance will never happen on account of any lack in him as the true Vine, or in his Father as the Husbandman.

2. On our part it is as yet imperfect. It is at best and of necessity so. We are imperfect beings, and perfection under the best conditions and advantages is not attainable at once.

3. To make this union perfect is our most solemn duty, and demands our best effort. For it is all-important, involves our highest interest, and by neglect is in danger of being destroyed. In vain we attempt to realize the end of our existence fruit-bearing apart from him. Our solemn duty is, by diligent faith, watchfulness, and prayer, to abide in him, and all besides will follow. B.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am the vine, ye are the branches - Our Lord in this whole passage speaks of no branches but such as are, or at least were once, united to him by living faith.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He has already declared (verse 1) that he is the True Vine, but he had not before declared that every disciple is a branch of the Vine. Observe that, not denominations, but church members, are the branches. The disciple, without Christ, can do nothing. Paul declared, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

I am the vine, you are the branches

The "vine" is a metaphor that represents Jesus. The "branches" is a metaphor that represent those who trust in Jesus and belong to him. AT: "I am like a vine, and you are like branches that are attached to the vine" (See: Metaphor)

He who remains in me and I in him

Here Jesus implies that his followers are joined to him as he is joined to God. AT: "He who stays joined to me, as I stay joined to my Father" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

he bears much fruit

The implied metaphor here is the fruitful branch that represents the believer who pleases God. Just as a branch that is attached to the vine will bear much fruit, those who stay joined to Jesus will do many things that please God. AT: "you will bear much fruit" (See: Metaphor)

he is thrown away like a branch and dries up

Here the implied metaphor is the unfruitful branch that represents those who do not stay joined to Jesus. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "the vinedresser throws him away like a branch and it dries up" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

they are burned up

You can translate this in an active form. AT: "the fire burns them" (See: Active or Passive)

ask whatever you wish

Jesus implies that believers must ask God to answer their prayers. AT: "ask God whatever you wish" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

it will be done for you

You can translate this in an active form. AT: "he will do it for you" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

fruit

fire

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

5. The text of the allegory is repeated and enlarged. That the disciples are the branches has been implied but not stated. Note the irregular construction and comp. Joh 5:44.

ὅτι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ. Because apart from Me (Joh 1:3; Eph 2:12). Christians cannot live as such if severed from Christ. Nothing is here said about those who are not Christians; but there is a sense in which the words are true of them also.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5.] The interpretation of the allegory which each mind was forming for itself, the Lord solemnly asserts for them. Notice οὗτος—he and no other: ‘it is he, that.…’

χωρὶς ἐμ. is more than ‘without Me,’ it = χωρισθέντες ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ (.), separate from Me, from being in Me and I in you. The ὅτι regards what is implied in χωρὶς ἐμ. οὐ δ. π. οὐδ. rather than the word themselves: because union with Me (μένειν ἐν ἐμοί) is the sole efficient cause of fruit being produced, you having no power to do any thing (not, ποιεῖν καρπόν: for φέρειν is here used throughout), to bring any thing to perfection, to do any of the ἀρεταί of that which ye are, separate from Me.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος κτλ., “I am the Vine, ye are the branches,” the main theme being repeated with slight verbal alteration, as frequently in Jn. Cf. the repetitions of “I am the Bread of Life” (6:35, 41, 48, 51), “I am the Door” (10:8, 9), “I am the Good Shepherd” (10:11, 14); and see on 3:16.

ὁ μένων ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ. The two “abidings” go together; see on 6:56.

οὗτος φέρει καρπὸν πολύν. This was the purpose for which the disciples were chosen (v. 16). For the emphatic οὗτος, “he it is that …,” cf. 4:47.

ὅτι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν. The branch is wholly dependent on the tree, by whose sap it is quickened and made fruitful.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Without me [χωρις εμου] . Properly, apart from me. So Rev. Compare Joh 1:3; Eph 2:12.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 5. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, this one bears much fruit; for apart from me, you can do nothing.”

Jesus begins by summarily reaffirming the nature of the relation. While contemplating the natural vine which He has before His eyes, He recognizes in it the image of the complete dependence on Him in which His disciples are: “Yes, here indeed is what I am to you and what you are to me: I, the vine; you, the branches! Do not therefore allow yourselves ever to fall into the temptation of making yourselves the vine, by desiring to derive anything from yourselves.” The meaning is, therefore: “In me, rich fruitfulness; apart from me, barrenness.” If this second idea is given as a proof of the first (ὅτι, because), it appears at the first glance scarcely logical. But if Christ is so completely everything that the believer can do nothing without Him, does it not follow that the latter can do much, so long as he shall remain united with Him?

Then, in Joh 15:6, the fate of the branch which has become unfruitful, and in Joh 15:7-8, the fate of the branch united with Christ and fruitful in Him.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.