John 15

The true vine

1 "I am the vine, the true one,*There is emphasis on "true", which implies a contrast with the false one. I suppose that Jesus may have been referring to Jeremiah 2:21: "Yet I had planted you [Israel, see verse 4] a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?" For a similar idea see Isaiah 5:1-7. and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Any branch in me which does not produce fruit He lifts up,*The Greek verb here covers a considerable semantic area. The familiar ‘takes away’ is one of its basic meanings, but ‘lifts up’ is another of its meanings and makes better sense here (the cutting off comes in verse 6). People plant (or buy) vineyards because they want grapes, and you can’t have grapes without branches, so you don’t destroy them without reason. When it’s blossom time you go down the rows looking for any branches that the wind and rain have knocked down—a branch on the ground won’t produce. You lift them up, shake off the dirt and fasten them up, to give them a chance. I take it that’s the picture here—if we have fallen, the Father picks us up, brushes us off and gives us another go. Of course if we never produce, then we are suckers, and He goes ‘snip’ (verse 6). and every one producing fruit He prunes, so that it may produce more fruit.*I understand that a given stretch of vine or branch only produces grapes once, it is only the new growth that produces grapes, so if you want to increase production you must cut the vine back. 3 You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.*Jesus had been ‘pruning’ those disciples for two years or more. 4 Abide in me and I in you.*From the way this is stated I conclude that although this ‘abiding’ is a two-way street, it actually depends on us. That is, as we abide in Him He will abide in us—He won’t stop first; only if we stop abiding in Him will He stop abiding in us. Just as a branch is incapable of producing fruit by itself, except it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

5 "I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who abides in me and I in him, he is the one who produces much fruit, because apart from me you are incapable of doing anything.*We seem to have a hard time getting this through our heads, but our Lord is very clear—all our activism is fruitless. If we wish to produce fruit for Christ’s Kingdom we MUST abide in Him. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown out, like a branch, and dries up; well they gather such and throw them into the fire, and he is burned up.*That is what the Text says, ‘he’ is burned. The direct object of ‘gather’ and ‘throw’ is plural (referring to what normally happens to dead branches), but the subject of ‘be burned’ is singular. The ‘he’ must refer back to the beginning of the verse, to the one who does not abide in Christ. Few figures of speech fit in every detail. Of course an actual branch cannot just decide to jump out of its vine or tree; an outside force must cut or break it off. But we have volition—verbs like ‘abide’ or ‘remain’ clearly imply that the choice is up to us; we can indeed decide to leave our Vine, we can stop believing. Notice again the sequence of events, "if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown out"—a branch that is ‘abiding’ is not thrown; only if you choose to leave will you be thrown. I am a theologian (ThM) and am well aware that people tend to buy into a theological system, or doctrinal package, and they then impose that system on the Bible—if some passage does not fit, they do whatever damage may be necessary to that passage to make it ‘fit’. But I am also a linguist (PhD), and I know that human language is governed by rules—to disobey those rules is a form of lying, and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), so if in interpreting the Bible you disobey those rules, you make a liar out of God, which is not very smart! In this passage the Lord Jesus Christ gives instruction that is perfectly plain. If the Word of Christ says one thing and your doctrinal package says another, then you had better stop and think. Which holds more authority for you, which are you going to follow, the Word of Christ or your doctrinal package? If you choose the latter, you are an idolater—to place your church’s doctrine above the Word of God is a form of idolatry. Idolatry always has negative consequences. 7 If you abide in me and my sayings*The Greek word is ρημα not λογος; if a distinction is intended I suppose the emphasis here would be on the content of what He taught. This is how we abide in Him, by obeying His Word. abide in you, you will ask whatever you desire and it will happen for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit; and you will become disciples to me.*The pronoun is dative, not genitive, so to render ‘my’ disciples is not precise; since Jesus obviously could have used the genitive if that was what He wanted to say, then the choice of the dative is significant. In my own experience, not a few have said in my hearing that they were my disciples; I smiled and said ‘Thank you’, but seldom did I want to claim them (for varying reasons). I take it that here the Lord is saying that He will claim us as His disciples as we produce much fruit.