Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 15:5
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.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Without me ye can do nothing.] – 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: , . – God is not comprehended, but he is the place of all things.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. without meapart, orvitally disconnected from Me.
ye can donothingspiritually, acceptably.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I am the vine, ye are the branches,…. Christ here repeats what he said of himself, “the vine”, for the sake of the application of “the branches” to his disciples: which expresses their sameness of nature with Christ; their strict and close union to him; and the communication of life and grace, holiness and fruitfulness, of support and strength, and of perseverance in grace and holiness to the end from him:
he that abideth in me, and I in him; which is the case of all that are once in Christ, and he in them:
the same bringeth forth much fruit; in the exercise of grace, and performance of good works; and continues to do so as long as he lives, not by virtue of his own free will, power, and strength, but by grace continually received from Christ:
for without me ye can do nothing; nothing that is spiritually good; no, not anything at all, be it little or great, easy or difficult to be performed; cannot think a good thought, speak a good word, or do a good action; can neither begin one, nor, when it is begun, perfect it. Nothing is to be done “without Christ”; without his Spirit, grace, strength, and presence; or as “separate from” him. Were it possible for the branches that are truly in him, to be removed from him, they could bring forth no fruits of good works, any more than a branch separated from the vine can bring forth grapes; so that all the fruitfulness of a believer is to be ascribed to Christ, and his grace, and not to the free will and power of man.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ye the branches ( ). Jesus repeats and applies the metaphor of verse 1.
Apart from me ( ). See Eph 2:12 for . There is nothing for a broken off branch to do but wither and die. For the cosmic relation of Christ see Joh 1:3 ( ).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Without me [ ] . Properly, apart from me. So Rev. Compare Joh 1:3; Eph 2:12.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I am the vine, ye are the branches,” (ego eimi he ampelos humeis ta klemata) “I am (exist as)the true vine, you all are (exist as) the branches,” in the vineyard He had Himself planted when He had called and chosen them, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:26-27. He and they form the body, the church, of which institution He is the head, Eph 1:23.
2) “He that abideth in me, and I in him,” (ho menon en emoi kago en auto) “The one who remains in me and I in him,” drawing life and strength, nourishment and guidance from me and my indwelling and empowering him – as a dynamo for power, and an artesian flow of the water of life for continuous refreshment, Joh 4:14; Joh 7:38-39.
3) “The same bringeth forth much fruit:” (houtos pherei karpon polun) “This one bears much fruit,” as expressed in nine forms, Gal 5:22-23; Gal 5:25; Just as every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; how much, “Much fruit” is through the continual abiding and fruit bearing, is not known, will not be revealed until the judgement seat of Christ, Mat 7:17-20; 2Pe 1:4-9; 1Co 3:14.
4) “For without me ye can do nothing.” (hoti choris emou ou dunasthe poiein ouden) “Because apart from me you all are not able to do anything,” Php_1:11; Php_4:13. Therefore none should glory in the fruit he bears, except the glorying be in Christ Jesus, Gal 2:20; 1Th 5:16; Php_4:4; 1Co 1:29; 1Co 3:21-23. The idea here is one can do nothing that will glorify God, except he be a doer of the Word.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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; (80) 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.
(80) “ Cooperent, (comme ils disent,) c’est a dire, besongne avec icelle.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 15:5 . Abide on me , I say, for I am the vine, ye the branches; thus then only from me (not , Joh 15:4 ) can you derive the living power for bearing fruit. And you must abide on me, as I on you: so ( : he , no other than he ) will you bring forth much fruit. In this way, by means of the preceding , and by means of , . . ., the preceding is confirmed and brought into relief. Hence also the emphatic position of and .
] Instead of , this clause not relative, but appending itself in an easy and lively manner is introduced. See on this classic idiom, Bernhardy, p. 304; Ngelsbach, z. Ilias , p. 6, Exo 3 ; Buttmann, N. T. Gr . p. 327 f. [E. T. p. 382].
] , out of living fellowship with me. Comp. Eph 2:12 ; Tittmann, Synon . p. 94. Antithetic to .
] 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 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 (the ) which is denied to him who is . 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.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1691
OUR IMPOTENCY WITHOUT CHRIST
Joh 15:5. Without me ye can do nothing.
THE various systems of heathen philosophers were all calculated to confirm the pride of man: the tendency of the Gospel, on the contrary, is to humble and abase the soul. Its sublimest doctrines are by far the most humiliating. The sovereignty of God, for instance, annihilates, as it were, our fancied greatness; and the atonement of Christ brings to naught our boasted goodness. Thus the mysterious doctrine of union with Christ proclaims our insufficiency for any thing that is good. Our blessed Lord declares this, first by a comparison [Note: ver. 4.], and then in plain terms, Without me ye can do nothing.
In discoursing upon this assertion, I will,
I.
Explain it
In explaining the words of Scripture we must take care not to strain them beyond their obvious meaning. These must evidently be understood in a qualified sense:
They must not be understood in reference to things which come within the province of the natural man
[A natural man has the same faculties and powers as a spiritual man: his understanding is as capable of comprehending common subjects, or of investigating the depths of human sciences: his will and affections are as capable of being exercised on objects according to their quality, as much as ever they will be when he shall be converted to God: and his memory is as retentive as that of any other man. A spiritual man has no advantage over him in these respects. Consequently, our Saviours assertion must not be interpreted as extending to things purely intellectual, or even moral: since, beyond a doubt, a natural man may either do or forbear many things which come under the designation of morals.]
They refer exclusively to what is spiritual
[There are different gradations or different kinds, of life, if I may so speak: there is a vegetative life, an animal life, a rational life, and a spiritual life: and the powers of each are limited to its own order: a thing which vegetates, is not capable of animal exertion; nor is an animal capable of exercising the faculties of reason; nor does the rational man comprehend or enjoy what is spiritual. If any one order of being will affect the offices of that above it, it must first attain the powers of that superior order: for without the powers suited to the object, its efforts will be in vain. There is indeed this point of difference between the different kinds of life. The three first differ in their nature: but the last differs only in the application of powers previously possessed. Yet is the last called a new nature, because it is produced in the soul by the Spirit of God, who opens the eyes of the understanding, constrains the will, and purifies the affections, and thus, in fact, makes the person so changed, a new creature [Note: 2Co 5:17. with 2Pe 1:4.].
But our Lords illustration will place the matter in the clearest light.
Christ is a vine: his people are the branches; and by virtue derived from him they are enabled to bear fruit. If a branch be broken off from a vine, it can no more bear fruit: it has nothing in itself independent of the stem; and, if separated from the stem, it must wither and die. So we, if separated from, or not united with, the Lord Jesus Christ, are incapable of bearing fruit; because we have nothing in ourselves independent of him, and have no means of deriving grace and strength from him. In respect of natural actions, we can effect all which nature qualifies us to effect: but in respect of spiritual exertions, we are incapable of them; because, in consequence of our separation from Him, we are destitute of all spiritual life and power.]
This is, as clearly as I can state it, the import of our Lords assertion, I shall now proceed to,
II.
Vindicate it
I grant, that in itself the assertion is very broad and unqualified: but in the sense in which it has been explained, it may be fully vindicated:
1.
From Scripture
[Throughout all the Holy Scriptures man is represented as dependent upon God for the communications of his grace. In himself he has nothing but evil [Note: Gen 6:5.]: his whole soul is corrupt [Note: Jer 17:9.]: and he must have the heart of stone taken away, and an heart of flesh given him, before he can keep the commandments of his God [Note: Eze 36:26-27.]. So far is this carried, that the natural man is declared to be incapable of performing a good act [Note: Jer 13:23.], or uttering in a becoming manner a good word [Note: 1Co 12:3. Mat 12:34.], or entertaining with real approbation a good thought [Note: 2Co 3:5. with 2Co 8:16.]. And with this statement our Church fully accords, when, in addressing Jehovah, it says, O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed. As far as the Scripture testimony therefore is admitted, the point is clear; and our Saviours declaration is fully justified.]
2.
From experience
[Where shall we find one from the beginning of the world to this hour, who ever served God but by a power derived immediately from God [Note: Hos 14:8.]? If any one think he have a power in himself to do good works, let him consult the tenth Article of our Church, which says, The grace of God by Christ prevents us, that we may have a good will; and worketh with us when we have that good will. Or let him rather try what he can effect by any power of his own. Go, and get your soul filled with love to God; or with hatred of sin; or with a contempt for this present evil world and all that is in it: go, determine to do these things; and then carry them into effect: and then we will confess that what our Saviour has affirmed is not true. There is not any one, I apprehend, who will not acknowledge three things necessary to the salvation of his soul; namely, repentance, faith, and obedience. Go then, and repent with real contrition, and unfeigned self-lothing and self-abhorrence. Go, and work up your soul also to faith in Christ, so as to flee to him, and rely upon him, and cleave to him, and glory in him as all your salvation and all your desire. Go too, and get your whole soul cast into the mould of the Gospel, so as to delight in every part of Gods revealed will, and to and all your happiness in the performance of it. Do anyone of these things, and we will confess, either that the word of God is altogether false, or at least that it is so expressed, as to mislead every person who endeavours to understand it. But I will not require so much at your hands. Only go home from this place, and fall upon your knees in your secret chamber before God, and for one half hour pour out your soul before him in fervent supplications for mercy, and in devout thanksgivings for all the blessings of redemption as set before you in the Gospel. Put this matter to a trial: see whether you can effect even this small matter by any power of your own. I am not afraid to abide the test of this experiment, and to constitute this whole assembly judges in their own cause. If then not so much as one amongst you is able to do this small thing, know every one of you that the declaration in my text is true.]
Address
1.
Those who are yet without Christ
[Truly, whilst you are without Christ, you are without any scriptural hope of salvation [Note: Eph 2:12.]. Renounce therefore, I pray you, brethren, all confidence in yourselves. That you have brought forth fruit, I confess; but it has been only wild grapes [Note: Isa 5:2-4.]. But it is a far different fruit that God looks for: and in order to bring forth that, you must be cut off from the stock on which you have hitherto grown, and be graffed into Christ [Note: Rom 11:24.]. Seek then to become living branches of the living vine: seek an union with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith: so shall you be enabled to bring forth fruit to his glory, and be approved by the Great Husbandman in the day that he shall come to inspect his vineyard [Note: ver. 1, 2, 6, 8.] ]
2.
Those who by faith are united to him
[Happy, happy are ye: for, as those who are separate from him can do nothing, you, on the contrary, by virtue of your union with him can do every thing; as St. Paul has said, I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me [Note: Php 4:13.]. In order to this however you must abide in him, just as the branch abideth in the vine. You must be continually receiving out of his fulness the grace which your necessities require [Note: Joh 1:16.]. This life of faith is your wisdom, your happiness, your security [Note: Gal 2:20.]: and the more entire is your affiance in him, the more will you be filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
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,”Phi 1:11Phi 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.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5. ] The interpretation of the allegory which each mind was forming for itself, the Lord solemnly asserts for them. Notice he and no other: ‘it is he, that.’
. is more than ‘ without Me ,’ it = (Me [209] .), separate from Me, from being in Me and I in you. The regards what is implied in . . . . rather than the word themselves: because union with Me ( ) is the sole efficient cause of fruit being produced, you having no power to do any thing (not, : for is here used throughout), to bring any thing to perfection, to do any of the of that which ye are, separate from Me.
[209] Meyer.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 15:5 . “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 . 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. , “in separation from me”. See Eph 2:12 . Grotius gives the equivalents “seorsim,” “separatim,” , . , “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 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
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.
‘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?’
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.
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.
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.
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.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
without. Greek choris, apart from. Compare Joh 1:3 and Joh 20:7 (by itself), the only other occurance in John.
nothing. Greek. ou ouden, a double negative.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5.] The interpretation of the allegory which each mind was forming for itself, the Lord solemnly asserts for them. Notice -he and no other: it is he, that.
. is more than without Me, it = (Me[209].), separate from Me, from being in Me and I in you. The regards what is implied in . . . . rather than the word themselves: because union with Me ( ) is the sole efficient cause of fruit being produced, you having no power to do any thing (not, : for is here used throughout), to bring any thing to perfection, to do any of the of that which ye are, separate from Me.
[209] Meyer.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 15:5. ) he, and he only [the same].-, do) This verb is taken in the strict sense. Elsewhere we have the expression , to make or produce fruit: but here , to bear fruit.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 15:5
Joh 15:5
I am the vine, ye are the branches:-[The only branches recognized in the word of God are individual Christians. Branch churches are denominational organizations presents a thought utterly foreign to the New Testament. Every Christian is a branch of the vine. His life is drawn from the vine. No denominationalism is warranted here.]
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit:-[It is absolutely impossible for the Christian who is in vital union with Christ to be fruitless. The life within him will force itself out in holy words and actions. There is no such thing as a do-nothing real Christian. Not only fruit, but much fruit and good fruit.]
for apart from me ye can do nothing.-The disciples apart from Jesus were as lifeless and unable to bear fruit as the branches separated from the vine. [Here is the explanation of so much of the inefficiency of the church today. Men and women are not living in vital union with Christ. They go where Christ cannot go with them. They do what Christ cannot see with allowance, and say what he ought not to hear. They drive him away from them. Therefore there are no spiritual fruits.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
vine: Rom 12:5, 1Co 10:16, 1Co 12:12, 1Co 12:27, 1Pe 2:4
same: Joh 12:24, Pro 11:30, Hos 4:8, Luk 13:6-9, Rom 6:22, Rom 7:4, 2Co 9:10, Gal 5:22, Eph 5:9, Phi 1:11, Phi 4:13, Phi 4:17, Col 1:6, Col 1:10, Jam 1:17, 2Pe 1:2-18, 2Pe 3:18
without: or, severed from, Act 4:12
can: Joh 5:19, Joh 9:33, 2Co 13:8, Phi 4:13
Reciprocal: 2Ch 32:31 – left him Pro 12:12 – the root Eze 17:23 – and it Eze 34:27 – the tree Mat 13:21 – root Mar 4:8 – fell Mar 4:20 – which Joh 3:21 – that his Joh 6:56 – dwelleth Joh 14:20 – ye in Act 9:36 – full Act 13:43 – persuaded Rom 8:10 – if Christ 1Co 1:9 – the fellowship 1Co 3:7 – General 2Co 3:5 – that 2Co 5:17 – be Eph 2:12 – without Eph 4:16 – whom Col 2:7 – built Col 3:11 – and 1Jo 2:5 – hereby
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE UNION OF CHRIST AND THE BELIEVER
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
Joh 15:5
The vine was a national emblem, like our rose, thistle, or shamrock, or like the lily of France. One of Isaiahs most striking parables was the Parable of the Vineyard. He compared Israel to a vineyard planted by the Lord, protected and cultivated, but which brought forth only wild grapes, and was condemned and destroyed. Now Jesus takes up the old parable to make it a parable of the new covenant with heaven.
I. The union of Christ and the believer.The great thought here is perhaps the deepest thought of all the Christian religion: the most essential truth of the reality of the union of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with His believers, called Christians. He is the vineand the vine is no good without the branchesand we are the branches. The anxious disciples may say, We cannot live without Thee; and He answers, But ye shall not live without Me. As the branches of that climbing tree live by the life that springs from its root, so shall you live by My life in you. Ye cannot see the sap that flows from the stem into the branches, neither shall ye see Me with your eyes, but yet shall feel the power of My life. Your union shall be closer than ever; a vital union. But oh, beware! lest you be separated from Me in spirit like that dead branch. Let not the world tear you from Me, for then you would be as that branch that dies.
II. The branches bear fruit.The full beauty of this paragraph appears when we realise that the branches are as necessary to the stem as the stem is to the branches. The branches bear fruit, so that from Christ grew the Church. Your faith and life spring from His life, your Divine power to do good comes from Him, and God proves His confidence in us by entrusting to us, wholly and entirely, without any reservation, the fulfilment of His purpose on earth. He bids us do the work that Jesus did in the world, aye! and greater work, because Jesus could only do them one at a time in one country. We can do them always, everywhere. Each of us is then the appointed minister of Christ. We have His eyes to look with love on the poor, His hand to help the sick, His tongue to speak the word of truth, His feet to carry far and wide the message of eternal life. Christ depends upon us; He cannot work without us. He is the vine, we are the branches; and since He wants us to be fruitful, He watches us with constant care. As the gardener prunes away those luxuriating branches which would spend the life of the vine in fruitless growth, God cleanses His vine with the discipline of religion to rid us of those tendencies to self-love and self-indulgence which mar our Christian service.
Thus the parable is complete, for its shows us God planting Christ in the world, and bringing forth from Christ His Church and giving to His Church the Divine life of His Son, and training the Church to do His work; and it shows us ourselves having the Divine life abiding in Christ, enabled to work out Gods purposes and to attain, at last, His ends. There cannot be any fruit unless He sends it.
Prebendary the Hon. J. S. Northcote.
Illustration
A story is told of a Welsh preacher having engaged to preach on some special occasion. The hour of service had arrived, but the preacher did not appear. A servant was sent to call him, and she said he had a Companion, for she had overheard the remark, I shall not go unless Thou goest with Me. They understood, then, that he was praying, and when he went into the pulpit he was not alone, for Christ went with him, and the power of the Gospel prevailed over the hearts and consciences of men.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5
Ye are the branches. Much speculation has been done over this statement. It is true that Jesus was talking to his apostles only at this time, but that was because no other disciples were present. It is also true that the apostles were the first branches because of their official place in the great “plant of renown” (Eze 34:29), but all vines have branches besides the first ones. Most of the things Jesus said about the branches and the necessity of their connection with the vine (Himself), are true of all disciples. Without me ye can do nothing. The first word is from CHOWS, which Thayer defines, “Separately, apart,” and he explains his definition at this passage, “without connection and fellowship with one.” It is the same truth stated in the preceding verse, of the necessity of being connected with Christ in order to bear fruit. To be connected with Christ today means to be in his body (the church), because if one is excluded from that body he is out in Satan’s territory (1Co 5:5), where he cannot bear any spiritual fruit.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 15:5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; because apart from me ye can do nothing. The transition from Joh 15:4 to Joh 15:5 appears to be similar to that from chap. Joh 5:19-23 to chap. Joh 5:24,a transition from the principle to its application to men. In substance the lesson is the same as before; and it has only to be distinctly observed that the words ye can do nothing refer to the efforts of one already a believer. The state of faith is presupposed.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
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 (, 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.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Jesus continued to stress the importance of believers abiding in Him (i.e., cultivating intimacy through loving obedience, Joh 14:23; Joh 15:10) to bear much fruit. The negative alternative illustrates the positive truth. No contact with the vine results in no fruit. Jesus had spoken of no fruit (Joh 15:2), some fruit (Joh 15:2), more fruit (Joh 15:2), and now He spoke of much fruit (Joh 15:5).
Obviously it is impossible for a branch to bear any fruit if it has no contact with the life-giving vine. Many unbelievers appear to bear the fruit of godly character and conduct, but their fruit is phony. It is similar to plastic fruit that one could hang on trees to give them the appearance of being healthy and productive. It is natural, though not inevitable, that a branch that has vital connection with the vine bear some fruit. The way to bear much fruit is for the branch to maintain unhindered fellowship with the vine by allowing the vine to have its way with the branch. The alternative would be resisting the Holy Spirit’s work by neglecting and disobeying God.
Lack of fruit in the life, therefore, may not necessarily be an indication that the branch has no vital relationship to the vine (i.e., that the person is unsaved). It may indicate that the branch, though connected to the vine, is not abiding in it (i.e., that the believer is not cultivating an intimate relationship with the Savior).
"How strange that in our day and time we have been told so often that fruitlessness is a sure sign that a person is unsaved. Certainly we did not get this idea from the Bible. Rather, the Bible teaches that unfruitfulness in a believer is a sure sign that one is no longer moving forward, no longer growing in Christ. It is a sign that the Christian is spiritually sick, and until well again, cannot enjoy spiritual success." [Note: Zane C. Hodges, Absolutely Free! p. 118.]