Bible Commentaries

I ¹ am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

(1) We are by nature dry and fit for nothing but the fire. Therefore, in order that we may live and be fruitful, we must first be grafted into Christ, as it were into a vine, by the Father's hand: and then be daily moulded with a continual meditation of the word, and the cross: otherwise it will not avail any man at all to have been grafted unless he cleaves fast to the vine, and so draws juice out of it.

² If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

(2) Whoever rests in Christ's doctrine abides in him, and therefore brings forth good fruit, and the Father will not deny anything to such a person as this.

^a Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

(a) As one would say, "Herein will my Father be glorified, and herein also will you be my disciples, if you bring forth much fruit."

³ As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: ^b continue ye in my love.

(3) The love of the Father towards the Son, and of the Son towards us, and of us toward God and our neighbour, are joined together with an inseparable knot: and there is nothing more sweet and pleasant than it is. Now this love shows itself by its effects, a most perfect example of which Christ himself exhibits to us.

(b) That is, in that love with which I love you, which love is the responsibility of both parties.

⁴ Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

(4) The doctrine of the gospel, as it is uttered by Christ's own mouth, is a most perfect and absolute declaration of the counsel of God, which pertains to our salvation and is committed unto the apostles.

⁵ Ye ^c have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

(5) Christ is the author and preserver of the ministry of the gospel, even to the end of the world, but the ministers have above all things need of prayer and brotherly love.

(c) These words plainly teach us that our salvation comes only from the favour and gracious goodness of the everlasting God towards us, and of nothing that we do or can deserve.

⁶ If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.

(6) When the faithful ministers of Christ are hated by the world as their master was, it should not cause them to fear, but rather strengthen and encourage them.

⁷ But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

(7) The hatred that the world bears against Christ proceeds from the stupidity of the mind, which nonetheless is voluntarily blind, so that those of the world cannot give any excuse to explain away their fault.

^d If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

(d) As one would say, "If I had not come, these men would not have been wrong in saying before God's judgment seat that they are religious, and void of sin: but since I came to them, and they completely rejected me, they can have no cloak for their wickedness."

But [this cometh to pass], that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their ^e law, They hated me without a cause.

(e) Sometimes this word "law" refers to the five books of Moses, but in this place it refers to the whole scripture: for the place that he refers to is found in the Psalms.

⁸ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

(8) We will surely stand against the rage of the wicked by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit speaks in no other way and is consistent with what he spoke by the mouth of the apostles.