“These things I command you in order that you may love one another”.

‘In order that you may love one another.’ One purpose of His commands, included in the command that we be fruitful, is that we love one another. Note how He keeps coming back to this need to love one another. This is the end result of His teaching. It is to be the trademark of the people of God. Alas, how we have failed Him in this important requirement. How different history would have been if we had not.

Alternately we may see this as the command to love (a weakened sense of ‘that’ – hina). ‘I command you that you love one another.’

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The result of the Christians’ calling:

v. 17. These things I command you that ye love one another.

v. 18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.

v. 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

v. 20. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.

v. 21. But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.

The Lord again summarizes all the demands of Christian life in the one command, namely, that the Christians love one another. This is not a command in the sense of the Mosaic injunctions, but a truly evangelical admonition. That must be the principal characteristic of the Christians by which they are distinguished from all men, the mutual love which they show toward one another in all their dealings. But this behavior necessarily implies a segregation from the world, from other people among whom the Christians are living. It brings upon the believers the hatred of the world, an undying, malignant hatred, that may sometimes hide itself under the guise of toleration, but never sleeps. Under these circumstances the Christians should feel neither anxiety nor surprise, for it is altogether in accordance with the nature of the world to hate the believers, as they hated Christ, the Lord, before them. There is that ineradicable contrast between Christ and His disciples, on the one side, and the world, the unbelievers, on the other. If the Christians were of the world, if they had the nature, the manner, the character of the world, the world would immediately recognize the affinity and treat them accordingly. But now Jesus, by His choosing them, has separated the believers from the world. So the natural result is this characteristic hatred of the unbelievers, expressed sometimes only in veiled insinuations, then again in open enmity. Christ’s disciples of all times should therefore keep in remembrance the word that the servant is not greater than his lord; the servant cannot expect to experience better treatment than his master is receiving. The Lord Jesus suffered persecution of the most malicious kind during His earthly stay: His disciples can expect no less. On the other hand, if they have kept, observed, and practiced the Word of the Master, the world will be apt to accord the same treatment to their teaching. That is always a ray of hope in a ministry which otherwise has little to commend it to one eager for the service of Christ. The reason for, and the explanation of, the hatred and persecution of the disciples is very simple. In the first place, the children of the world hate the very name of Jesus as the Savior of the world. The idea of a Redeemer from sins is not only distasteful, but absolutely hateful to them. And then, they had no knowledge of the Father that sent forth Jesus into the world with the aim and object that He avowed to have. Had they known God, they would with. out fail have recognized in Jesus Christ the Ambassador and Son of God. This explanation is the comfort of the disciples under whatever persecutions may come upon them, also in these latter days.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Joh 15:17-18. These things I command you, ‘ , I inculcate upon you.“I haveexplained to you the high nature and vast importance of your office, as my apostles; and I have put you in mind of my loving you so as to die for you, that I may inspire you with ardent love to one another; and you will much need the help of this principle in the execution of your office. It will animate you to be diligent; it will inspire youwith fortitude; it will enable you to lay down your life in the cause; for that you will meet with opposition and persecution while you preach the gospel, is certain: but this cannot surprize you, when you consider how I your Master have been hated and persecuted by the Jews.” Dr. Lardner would render the original of the last clause, Joh 15:18 it hated me your chief, , which certainly makes the expression more lively, and exactly parallel to Mat 10:24-25. Thus the expression, , is well translated, of whom I am chief, 1Ti 1:15.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 15:17 . At the close (comp. Joh 15:11 ) of this section, Joh 15:12-16 , Jesus refers once more to its main point, reciprocal love .

] points backwards , as in Joh 15:11 , namely, to what is contained in Joh 15:12-16 , so far as the contents are of a preceptive nature. And that which is therein enjoined by Jesus on the disciples has for its object ( ), etc., as He had in truth required this duty at the very beginning of the section. The remainder of the section (Joh 15:14-16 ) was indeed not directly of a preceptive nature, but in support and furtherance of what had been enjoined.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Ver. 17. That ye love one another ] That ye hold together, because the world will hate you. A spirit of perversities made way for the ruin of Egypt, Isa 19:14 ; Isa 19:16-17 . Si collidimur frangimur, if we clash we break. Of the ancient Britons, Tacitus tells us that nothing was so destructory to them as their dissensions, Dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur. And of the Thracians, Herodotus saith, that if they had been all of one mind they had been invincible. Keep therefore the staff of binders unbroken, Zec 11:7 ; Zec 11:14 “Keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace,”Eph 4:3Eph 4:3 . In the cause of religion every subdivision is a strong weapon in the hand of the enemy; as in the disagreement of Luther and Zuinglius. The Jesuits have a practice of running over to the Lutherans, pretending to be converts; but it is only to keep up that bitter contention that is between the Calvinists and Lutherans; the virulence whereof is much fomented by these renegade Jesuits.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

17. ] refers (as almost always in John, see Joh 15:11 ; Joh 15:21 ; Joh 16:1 ; Joh 16:25 ; Joh 16:33 ; Joh 17:1 ; Joh 18:1 alli [216] .) back to what has gone before. ‘The object of my enjoining these things on you is (for all since Joh 15:12 has been an expansion of . . ) that ye love one another’ (see 1Jn 4:11 ). Then from the indefiniteness of this word our Lord takes occasion to forewarn them that however wide their love to one another, they cannot bring all within this category; there will be , which will hate them.

[216] alli = some cursive mss.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 15:17 . . “These things” which I have now spoken “I enjoin upon you,” , “in order that ye may love one another”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

17.] refers (as almost always in John, see Joh 15:11; Joh 15:21; Joh 16:1; Joh 16:25; Joh 16:33; Joh 17:1; Joh 18:1 alli[216].) back to what has gone before. The object of my enjoining these things on you is (for all since Joh 15:12 has been an expansion of . .) that ye love one another (see 1Jn 4:11). Then from the indefiniteness of this word our Lord takes occasion to forewarn them that however wide their love to one another, they cannot bring all within this category; there will be , which will hate them.

[216] alli = some cursive mss.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 15:17

Joh 15:17

These things I command you, that ye may love one another.-The end of these teachings was that they must love one another, be ready to suffer for the good of each other, and work for each others good as brethren.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Suffering for Jesus Sake

Joh 15:17-27

We have been appointed for the one purpose of bearing imperishable fruit, but our holy service to the world will never be appreciated. The world has its own god and religion. It hates without cause. The more Christlike we are, the closer we shall be identified with His sufferings. There is no limit to the hatred and persecution which the world will vent on those who have ceased to belong to it because of their identification with the Crucified. But through the pitiless storm, we must be glad; there must be no slackening of our love, which will as certainly conquer hate as tomorrows sun the darkness, Joh 15:26-27. In each Christian century there has been this double witness of the Spirit in the Church. The voice of the Church has testified to the living Christ, not arguing but attesting; and to each word of testimony the Holy Spirit has borne assenting witness. Christian apologetics are of less importance than the witness of obscure but Spirit-led lives.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Joh 15:12, 1Pe 2:17, 1Jo 3:14-17

Reciprocal: 1Sa 19:2 – delighted Pro 29:27 – General Mar 9:50 – have peace Joh 13:34 – That ye love Act 7:26 – ye are Rom 12:10 – kindly 1Co 16:14 – General 1Th 4:9 – for ye 1Th 5:13 – and be Heb 13:1 – General 1Pe 1:22 – unto 1Jo 5:2 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

7

This verse is a repetition of verse 12.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

The passage before us opens with a renewed exhortation to brotherly love. For the third time in this discourse our Lord thinks it needful to press this precious grace on the attention of His disciples. Rare, indeed, must genuine charity be, when such repeated mention of it is made! In the present instance the connection in which it stands should be carefully observed. Christian love is placed in contrast to the hatred of the world.

We are shown first, in this passage, what true Christians must expect to meet in this world,-hatred and persecution. If the disciples looked for kindness and gratitude from man they would be painfully disappointed. They must lay their account to be ill-treated like their Master.-“The world hateth you. Be not moved or surprised. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also.”

Facts, painful facts in every age, supply abundant proof that our Lord’s warning was not without cause. Persecution was the lot of the Apostles and their companions wherever they went. Not more than one or two of them died quietly in his bed.-Persecution has been the lot of true believers throughout the eighteen Christian centuries of history. The doings of Roman Emperors and Roman Popes, the Spanish inquisition, the martyrdoms of Queen Mary’s reign, all tell the same story.-Persecution is the lot of all really godly people at this very day. Ridicule, mockery, slander, misrepresentations still show the feeling of unconverted people against the true Christian. As it was in Paul’s day, so it is now. In public and in private, at school and at college, at home and abroad, “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2Ti 3:12.) Mere churchmanship and outward profession are a cheap religion, of course, and cost a man nothing. But real vital Christianity will always bring with it a cross.

To know and understand these things is of the utmost importance to our comfort. Nothing is so mischievous as the habit of indulging false expectations. Let us realize that human nature never changes, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” and against God’s image in His people. Let us settle it in our minds that no holiness of life or consistency of conduct will ever prevent wicked people hating the servants of Christ, just as they hated their blameless Master. Let us remember these things, and then we shall not be disappointed.

We are shown secondly, in this passage, two reasons for patience under the persecution of this world. Each is weighty, and supplies matter for much thought.

For one thing, persecution is the cup of which Christ Himself drank. Faultless as He was in everything, in temper, word, and deed,-unwearied as He was in works of kindness, always going about doing good,-never was any one so hated as Jesus was to the last day of His earthly ministry. Scribes and High Priests, Pharisees and Sadducees, Jews and Gentiles, united in pouring contempt on Him, and opposing Him, and never rested till He was put to death.

Surely this simple fact alone should sustain our spirits and prevent our being cast down by the hatred of man. Let us consider that we are only walking in our Master’s footsteps, and sharing our Master’s portion. Do we deserve to be better treated? Are we better than He? Let us fight against these murmuring thoughts. Let us drink quietly the cup which our Father gives us. Above all, let us often call to mind the saying, “Remember the word that I spake unto you, The servant is not greater than his Master.”

For another thing, persecution helps to prove that we are children of God, and have treasure in heaven. It supplies evidence that we are really born again, that we have grace in our hearts, and are heirs of glory: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Persecution, in short, is like the goldsmith’s Hall mark on real silver and gold: it is one of the marks of a converted man.

Let us nerve our minds with this cheering thought, when we feel ready to faint and give way under the world’s hatred. No doubt it is hard to bear, and the more hard when our conscience tells us we are innocent. But after all let us never forget that it is a token for good. It is a symptom of a work begun within us by the Holy Ghost, which can never be overthrown. We may fall back on that wonderful promise, “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.” (Mat 5:11-12.) When the world has said and done its worst, it cannot rob believers of that promise.

Let us leave the whole subject with a feeling of deep pity for those who persecute others on account of their religion. Often, very often, as our Lord says, they do it because they know no better. “They know not Him that sent Me.” Like our Divine Master and His servant Stephen, let us pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. Their persecution rarely does us harm, and often drives us nearer to Christ, the Bible, and the throne of grace. Our intercession, if heard on high, may bring down blessings on their souls.

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Notes-

v17.-[These things I command…love one another.] The expression, “these things,” must either refer backwards to what has just been said, or forwards to what is going to be said. I prefer the latter view. “I press on you these repeated charges to love one another, because you must expect the hatred of the world. The more the world hates you, the more you ought to love one another and stick together.”

v18.-[If…world hate…hated Me…you.] The object of this verse is to encourage and comfort the disciples under the hatred and enmity of the unbelieving Jews. “Do not be surprised and discouraged if you find yourselves hated and persecuted by an unbelieving world. Do not think the fault is yours. You know, and have seen, and must remember that this same world has always hated and persecuted Me before you, although it could lay no fault to my charge.”

The principle of the verse will be found true in every age. It is not the weaknesses and inconsistencies of Christians that the world hates, but their grace. Christians should carefully remember that their spotless and blameless Master was bitterly hated by the world when He was on earth, and they must count it no strange thing if they are treated in the same way.

Hengstenberg thinks that the words “ye know” should be taken as an imperative, and not an indicative, like “remember,” in Joh 15:20. I doubt this; but the construction of the Greek language makes it an open question.

The Greek word rendered “before” is literally “first.” It is the same that is translated “before” in Joh 1:15 and Joh 1:30.

v19.-[If ye were of the world, etc.] In this verse our Lord shows the disciples that the hatred of the world, however painful to bear, is a satisfactory evidence of their state before God. It is like “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you,” and “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.” This comes out more clearly if we invert the order of the verse. “The world hates you because you are not like itself, but have a different faith and live a different life, and because I have drawn you out of it to be my disciples and apostles. The world always loves what is like itself, and would love you if your standard of faith and life was like its own. The very hatred of the world, therefore, is a satisfactory evidence that you are my disciples.”

Luther remarks, “Towards each other, apart from Christ, the men of the world are as little friends as dogs and cats. In all that concerns Christ they are unanimous in hatred.”

The expression “his own,” means literally “its own thing,”-its own spirit, tone, character, faith, and life.

The whole verse contains rich experimental comfort for true Christians. There are few things that we are so slow to realize as the enmity of natural man against God, and all that have anything of God’s image; and forgetfulness of it often brings believers into much trouble and perplexity of mind. They do not expect the world’s hatred, and are surprised when they meet with it. This verse teaches plainly that they ought not to be surprised.

Burgon quotes a saying of Bishop Sanderson: “The godly are in the world as strangers, and in a foreign, yea in an enemy’s country; and they look upon the world, and are looked upon by it, as strangers; and are used by it accordingly.”

v20.-[Remember the word, etc.] Our Lord continues in this verse the same subject: viz., what the disciples must expect from the world. He reminds the eleven of the things He had said before, when He first sent them out to preach. (Mat 10:24; Luk 6:40.) He had always told them they must not expect to be better treated than He had been Himself. He quotes the proverbial saying that “a servant must not expect to fare better than his master.” “Did they persecute Me? Then they will persecute you. Did they keep, mind, and attend to my teaching? As a rule the greater part did not, and you must expect the same.”

We ought to observe carefully how strongly this lesson about the world is laid down by our Lord. It was doubtless spoken for all time, and with a special reference to believers’ slowness to realize it. If there is anything that true Christians seem incessantly forgetting, and seem to need incessantly reminding of, it is the real feeling of unconverted people towards them, and the treatment they must expect to meet with. Wrong expectations are one great cause of Christians feeling troubled and perplexed. That word “remember,”-“do remember,”-has a mine of meaning in it.

Gataker, Bengel, and some others, think that the Greek word rendered “keep,” here means “to observe with a malicious intention” to carp at it: but this seems improbable. Whether, however, there is not a latent irony in the sentence is doubtful.

v21.-[But all these things…name’s sake.] Our Lord here tells His disciples that He Himself was the cause of all the enmity and hatred they would meet with. They would be hated on account of their Master, more than on account of themselves.

“These things” must refer apparently to the expression, “hate, persecute, and keep your saying.”

It may be some comfort to a persecuted Christian to think that it is for His Master’s sake that he is ill used. He is “filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” (Col 1:24.) He is “bearing the reproach of Christ.” (Heb 11:26.)

[Because they know not…sent Me.] This sentence is elliptical. It means that dark ignorance was the great cause of the conduct of the unbelieving Jews. They did not rightly know God the Father who had sent Christ into the world. They did not know that Christ was the Messiah whom the Father had promised to send. In this state of ignorance they blindly persecuted Christ and His disciples.

This judicial blindness and hardness of the Jewish nation in the time of our Lord and His Apostles is a thing that ought to be carefully observed by all Bible-readers. (See Act 3:17; Act 13:27; Act 28:25-27; 1Co 2:8; 2Co 3:14.) It was a peculiar judicial blindness, we must remember, to which the whole nation was given over, like Pharaoh, as a final punishment for many centuries of idolatry, wickedness, and unbelief. Nothing but this seems thoroughly to account for the extraordinary unbelief of many of our Lord’s hearers.

In leaving this passage we should not fail to notice the singular frequency with which our Lord speaks of “the world.” Six times he mentions it. We should also notice the singular resemblance between the line of argument adopted in the passage, and the line of John in the third chapter of his first Epistle. The Apostle writes his Epistle in that part, as if he had this chapter before him.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Joh 15:17. These things I command you, that ye may love one another. A verse characteristic of the structure of this Gospel, forming like chap. Joh 5:30 at once a summary (to a large extent) of what has preceded, and a transition to what follows.

All the great truths spoken by Jesus are intended to promote that which is the truest expression of the Divine, that which is the real ground and end of all existencelove. On the other hand, again, the mutual love of believers is that armour of proof in which they shall be able best to withstand the hatred of the world.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Section 5. (Joh 15:17-27; Joh 16:1-27.)

A new place with God.

All this involves, as has been seen, a new place with God. We must not expect to have it presented as we find it done by Paul at an aftertime. Only by degrees could the full truth be made known: and for this the Spirit of truth Himself must come. What we have now before us is the result of Christ’s departure from the world. His disciples being left in it as His representatives and witnesses, with the Spirit also in it, and the consequences of this, while with the Father there would be enjoyed a freedom of access in His Name before unknown. It is in fact a new place with God, but in practical life down here, which is so much the theme in all John’s doctrinal unfolding.

1. The identification of. His disciples with their Lord, whose representatives on earth they are now to be is the first thing here. The world itself would identify them. The hatred with which it had followed Him it would now show to His people. They need not Wonder at it If they were separated from it in spirit and character, as also by His choice of them to be His own outside it, then there was consistency in such opposition. He could non commend Himself: how could they? His persecutors would, of course, be theirs: while those who kept His word would keep theirs also. The Object of their hatred was was,~ above all, Himself, and ultimately the Father, who had sent Him. They had had fullest evidence of His mission in His words and works: works unparalleled by those of any other: so that the sin of their rejection of Him Was manifest. They hated, alas! both Himself and His Father. Their own Scripture had been fulfilled, “They hated Me without a cause.”

2. Amid all this opposition, they were not alone to be His representatives, but His witnesses: they and the Spirit whom He would send to them from the Father. There would be thus a double witness, -the unseen Spirit being known in the mighty works which would be done. He would be in this way also the Advocate, plead for God and for His people, even though it might be to deaf ears. As the Spirit of truth also, the truth would commend itself to the conscience, if the heart were closed. Their own testimony would be that of men in personal acquaintance with those details of His life and ways which they have, in fact, made known to us. The human witness would be a natural and needed supplement to the divine.

Spite of all, it was necessary to warn them that the opposition of the world to Him would not thus be overcome. They would be put out of the synagogues: nay, men’s hearts would so pervert their consciences that they would kill them, and offer that to God as acceptable service. We find this conspicuously enough in such an one as Saul of Tarsus, “concerning zeal, persecuting the Church:” so little does a good conscience certify a soul to be right with God!

3. The Lord goes on to speak again of the coming of the Spirit, with regard to the character of His testimony. So important for them was it that it was even expedient that He should depart, that the Advocate might come. Again He speaks of Him by that assuring title, which declares how thoroughly He has made their cause His own. According to the divine purpose, Christ must go to the Father, or the Spirit would not come; for it is to a glorified Christ that He testifies. Christianity in its full character is, in fact, the fruit of His ascension, as Paul makes fully plain, who was Himself converted by the “gospel of the glory” (2Co 4:4; 2Co 4:6).

For this, however, we must yet wait: here we have, first, the result of the presence of the Spirit thus sent from the rejected One in glory, as the necessary demonstration of the world’s sin, with the judgment of its prince, and the manifestation of the Father’s righteousness. “He will convict” does not necessarily imply that men will receive the conviction. The guilty do not necessarily own the righteousness of their sentence. The world assuredly, does not own it. None the less has God demonstrated the guilt of the world, and placed men under responsibility to receive His sentence. There lies the way into inconceivable blessing in that salvation for the guilty which the gospel proclaims.

Christ has been in the world: He has been rejected and cast out of it; it is too plain to be denied that He died a malefactor’s death. Men may say for themselves, that individually they had no hand in it. This they do say: how is it possible they can be guilty of what was done by men of another race, and of another time? Well, look at the Jew in the centuries that have elapsed since then: has not His blood been upon them, and on their children? Have they not bought for themselves “a field to bury strangers in” with the “price of blood?” If Christ was not what He claimed, was He not worthy of the sentence under which He suffered? If you do not believe in Him, do you not affirm that sentence to be righteous? Who were these Jews, who put Him to death? Were they not a people carefully prepared for centuries to receive the One they rejected? If you had been among them, would not you have rejected Him too?

Scripture at any rate affirms that “as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” It does not say that the life is the same, and the difference in this respect may be due to many causes: but it says, the heart is. And it speaks of Israel as a field specially cared for and cultivated, to show precisely what one may expect from the soil of the human heart. Their own law had given a dreadful description, drawn too from experience, of what God had found in them: and the apostle, quoting it, says, “We know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law.” Granted, you say perhaps, but that is Israel. See then how he concludes: what the law says it does indeed say to those who are under the law: -true, but for what purpose? why, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God” (Rom 3:19). That is, Israel is not an exception as to man’s state before God, but rather, an unexceptionably perfect example. If Israel be found such as this, one need go no further, -the whole world is condemned.

This, though the sentence of the law, applies as well, as must be evident, to the rejection of Christ. The unbelief for which the world is condemned is naturally characteristic of us all: and those who are brought to receive Him are just those who will most fully own this; the language of the prophet will be theirs: He was despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” If there be difference as to any, it is the mercy of God that has made the difference.

But the presence of the Spirit convicts the world also of righteousness: “of righteousness, because I go unto the Father, and ye see Me no more.” We hear in the prayer that follows, His appeal in this way: “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee: and these have known that Thou hast sent Me.” Here He puts in contrast the world, which is about to demonstrate its ignorant hatred of the Father by the murder of the Son, with Himself, against whom they are showing their enmity. In this open conflict, with whom will He show Himself? His accusers dare to condemn Him in the Father’s Name; and the bitter cry upon the Cross might seem to justify their accusations. He must come openly out and show with whom He is: and in resurrection from the dead God manifests Himself accordingly. He rises, and with abundant witness, but not to show Himself to the unbelieving world, but to return in glory to the Father. The world sees Him no more till He comes back to judge it. God and the world are in demonstrated opposition.

Righteousness has acted: and righteousness will act further in the nearing future, in taking out of the world which has rejected them also, those whom He has linked with Himself, as in His prayer. Resurrection and ascension will demonstrate as to them also with whom the Father is. In heaven they will be “made the righteousness of God in Him.” A marvellous display! but the Lord does not here speak of it. It is of the testimony of the Spirit’s presence in the world that He is here speaking.

But what remains, then, for the world itself? Judgment! and already the prince of this world has been judged. We must not understand this to mean that sentence has been executed upon him: which plainly is not the case. It is pronounced, but certainly he is not shut up in the abyss as yet (Rev 20:1-3); and still less in the lake of fire (ver. 10). Branded with his doom, he yet is suffered, in the wisdom of God, to be still abroad, the subtle tempter or the cruel persecutor of the disciples of Him whom he has, in both characters, assailed before.

The Lord turns to brighter themes: emphasizing once again that it is the Spirit of truth that is to come to them, to guide them into what as yet they could not bear: -in fact, into the whole range of truth, and to lead out into the blessed future. In all this the glory of the Son would be revealed: for all things that the Father hath being His, there remains nothing beyond this of which to speak. As Paul says by the illumination of the Spirit now, “All things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Col 1:16-17). Let us remember with adoring hearts, that we are “heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ;” and let us seek to enter into the amazing grace of such a revelation with all the energy that the Spirit can give.

4. The Lord again speaks of His departure, in terms which His previous words might have enabled them to understand. He was indeed going to the Father; yet by the coming of the Spirit He would, as it were, again be with them: for, as He had said, in that day they would know as they had never known, that He was in the Father, and they in Him, and He in them. But His words only show them lost in the mysterious sorrow of His departure, -the departure again of Him who had come into the world to bring in the long-expected blessing, and was going back with His end, as it seemed, unachieved, to leave them with their failed hopes! The present sorrow was too heavy upon them for the hope beyond to be realized as yet. The sorrow was plain; the hope was a perplexity.

5. But the Lord goes on to the results Godward of the new place He was about to take, and again declares the value of His Name in access to the Father. It was not to be as if He stood between, and they must come to Him, that He might go to the Father for them. No, He had opened the way for direct approach. Moreover the Father Himself loved them for the love they had to Him whom they had received as come out from the Father. Let them prove for themselves the sweetness of this way of access, that they might realize the fulness of joy resulting from so wonderful a place of intimacy as would now be theirs. For as yet they had asked nothing in His Name: they had not learned to identify themselves with Him who as yet had not taken His place for them with God. But the sanctuary now stood open, the allegories in which He had hitherto spoken to them were to be exchanged for open speech that suited this. There was now to be in the nearest place with God a Man in heaven. Henceforth there is for men an entrance into that within the veil, whither the Forerunner has entered for us.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Observe here, 1. With what frequency and importunity our Lord inculcates and presses the duty of mutual love upon his disciples: I command you to love one another.

It denotes the great importance of the duty, and the great averseness and backwardness of our hearts to the performance of it.

And if we consider the disciples as apostles and ministers of the gospel, it intimates to us the necessity of mutual love amongst the dispensers of the gospel, as conducing exceedingly to the welfare and benefit of the church of God, over which he hath set them.

Observe, 2. The argument which our Saviour makes use of to press his disciples in general, and his ministers and ambassadors in particular, to love each other: and that is, because the world would certainly hate them.

Learn hence, That the world’s hatred of the members and ministers of Christ, is, and ought to be, esteemed by them a strong argument to excite and persuade them to love one another; for this is subjoined as an argument to press mutual love, that we are sure to meet with the world’s hatred.

Observe, 3. The several arguments by way of encouragement which Christ propounds to comfort his members and ministers against the world’s hatred.

The first argument is taken from his own lot and usage; when here, in the world, he met with the very same before them: The world hated me before it hated you.

Learn hence, That hatred and persecution from the world need not seem hard to the saints, if they consider what a stock Christ had before them upon him: he is the prime object of the world’s hatred and they who hate his members much, do hate him more, because of their likeness to him and resemblance of him.

A second argument of comfort under the world’s hatred is this, that it will evidence they are not of the world, but chosen out of the world. Because ye are not the world, but I have chosen you our of the world, therefore the world hates you Joh 15:19.

Hence learn, 1. That the children of God, though in the world, yet they are not of the world, they have not the spirit of the world in them, nor is the conversation of the world led by them.

2. That the differnce betwixt them that are of the world, and those that are chosen out of the world, is of God’s making: I have chosen you out of the world.

3. That such Christians as are separated from the world in judgment, affection, and practice, must for that reason expect to be hated and persecuted by the world: Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hates you.

The third argument for consolation and support under the world’s hatred, is taken from our relation to Christ, as servants to a master, Remember that the servant is not greater than his Lord Joh 15:20 : as if Christ had said, “Is is equal that you should expect better treatment than myself, either as to your persons or ministry, or that you should expect that the world should better receive your doctrine than it did mine before you.

Learn hence, That neither the members nor ministers of Christ can nor ought to expect better treatment in and from the world, than their master found before them: The servant is not above his master, nor greater than his Lord.

A fourth argument to support them under the burden of the world’s hatred, is taken from the goodness of the cause for which they were to suffer: namely, for Christ’s name’s sake, All these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake Joh 15:21.

Hence learn, 1. That it is the duty of all, but especially of the ministers of Christ, to own the name of Christ, to stand up in defence of his name and truth, his glory and honour, what opposition soever they meet with for the same.

Learn, 2. That the great quarrel of the world against the disciples of Christ, is for the name of Christ; whatever may be pretended, this is the ground of the quarrel.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 15:17-21. These things I command you, &c. Again I would remind you, that if you would continue thus to be the objects of these my Fathers gracious regards, you must carefully practise your duty to each other, as well as to him; you must continue to love one another; and this you should the rather do, as you will be the mark of common hatred and persecution. Yet, if the world hate you You will have no reason to be offended or surprised at it; for ye know that it hated me Mild and benevolent as my conduct has always been; before it hated you Before it discharged its venom and malignity on you. If ye were of the world If your dispositions and actions were like those of the bulk of mankind; or if your doctrines and practices were conformable to its customs and maxims; the world would love its own No doubt you would meet with general approbation, and be much caressed; but because ye are not of the world Because your desires and designs, your spirit and conduct, are quite opposite to theirs, and I have chosen you out of the world Have called you not only to separate yourselves from, but to oppose its vices and follies, and even to be leaders in that holy and necessary opposition; therefore the world hateth you Notwithstanding that the cause in which you are engaged is most honourable, and your lives most useful and beneficent. And for the very same reason must the world in all ages hate those who are not of the world. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant, &c. To reconcile you to the persecutions you are to meet with, you ought always to bear in mind what I told you on this subject the first time I sent you out, (see Mat 10:24,) that no servant can expect to be better treated than his master; and therefore, seeing they have persecuted me, they will naturally persecute you. If they have kept my saying Have conformed themselves to my doctrine; they will keep yours also Will be properly influenced by it, and will walk according to it; therefore, by the reception my doctrine meets with, you may judge how yours will be relished. But all these things will they do unto you All the opposition which they will show to your persons and ministry, will be exerted for my names sake Because of the enmity which they have to me, and the cause in which I am engaged; because they know not him that sent me Because they are not acquainted with the nature and perfections of that God to whom they boast so near a relation, and who has sent me into the world to declare and establish a religion which shocks their prejudices, and is contrary to their carnal and worldly spirit. And in all ages and nations, they who know not God will, for this cause, hate and persecute those that do.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ver. 17. I give you these precepts, that you may love one another.

The pronoun cannot refer to the which follows: I command you this, that you love one another. For the plural proves that this expression includes all the preceding instructions and suggestions since Joh 15:1, particularly the words of Joh 15:12-16. The must therefore be translated by in order that; it indicates, in conformity with the idea of Joh 15:12, the purpose of these injunctions.

This work is all love; love in its first origin, the love of the Father; love in its great manifestation, the love of Christ; finally, love in its end, the full flowering of mutual love among believers. Love is its root, its trunk and its fruit. This is the essential characteristic of the new kingdom, whose power and conquests are due only to the contagion of love. This is the reason why Jesus leaves no other law than that of love to those who, through faith, have become members of His body.

Luthardt observes that in the first seventeen verses of this chapter, there is found only one particle of connection. This long asyndeton has an especial solemnity. Here is the last wish of Jesus speaking to His own (see Joh 17:24).

Such a style could not belong to a Greek author; these words came forth from Hebrew thought.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

6. The warning about opposition from the world 15:17-27

Jesus had discussed the Father’s unity with the Son, the Son’s unity with His disciples, and the disciples’ unity with one another, as recorded in this chapter. It was natural then that He should also address the disciples’ relationship with the world. His reference to their mission led Him into this subject (Joh 15:16).

"This study [Joh 15:1-16] began in the vineyard and ended in the throne room! The next study will take us to the battlefield where we experience the hatred of the lost world." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:359.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Again Jesus repeated the absolute importance of His disciples loving one another (cf. Joh 13:34; Joh 15:10; Joh 15:12; Joh 15:14). This was not only a repetition for emphasis, but it set the stage for Jesus’ teaching on the world’s opposition that follows.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)