John 15 Verses 1-8

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 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. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”   

The above is one of the seven “I am” statements in the book of John.  The Lord compares himself to the “true vine;” the Father to the “husbandman;” and the disciple to the “branch.”  The mental picture in my mind is that of a grape vine and the workings of a grape vine.  Without the vine the branches cannot bear fruit.  The vine provides the nutrients for the branch to bear fruit.  Without the vine, the branch can do nothing.  Likewise, the Lord is the vine to which we as disciples are attached.  Without the vine we cannot bear fruit.  We must have the nourishment of the Lord in order to bear fruit.  If we are detached from the Lord we cannot bear fruit.   

The husbandman of a vineyard is careful to prune the branches.  A branch that bears not fruit causes stress and must be removed in order for the other branches to bear more fruit.  Likewise, we as disciples are compared to branches.  Our duty as a branch is to bear fruit.  If we do not bear fruit then we will be cut off from the vine.  Moreover, even if we bear fruit, as a branch we need to be pruned to remove those things that limit our ability to bear more fruit.  We all have things we need to be purged from.  We have habits and ways that are counterproductive to bearing fruit.  Thankfully our husbandman (the Father) purges us (often in the way of chastisement) so that we can bear more fruit.   

“He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:”  We are to abide in the Lord, and the Lord will abide in us.  The way in which the Lord abides in us is given in the following verse: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you…”  The way the Lord is abiding in us as disciples is that his words are abiding in us.  That teaches me that I have a responsibility to read, study, and meditate on the words of God so that I can bear fruit.   

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”  The subject matter is bearing fruit.  If we are abiding in the Lord and his words are abiding in us, then when we ask the Lord to help us so that we bear more fruit, then he has promised it will be done unto us.   

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”  Bearing fruit glorifies the Father.  Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  We have been created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of doing good works.  We bear fruit by doing the good works we have been created for.  Matt. 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  Again by bearing much fruit we glorify the Father.   

John 15 Verses 9-13 

John 15:9 “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” 

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”  To understand the love of Christ for his people, we need to understand the love of the Father for his people.  The Lord loves us in the same way as the Father loves us.  The Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).  The Father gave us to Christ to save us from our sins: John 6:37-39: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.  And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  The Father loves us with an everlasting love: Jer. 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”  We cannot be separated from the love of God: Rom. 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”  To “abide” in the Lord’s love means to “dwell” in His love.  When we are walking in unrighteousness, we are not dwelling the Lord’s love.  Now that does not mean that he doesn’t love us as we have already shown that the scriptures plainly teach that we cannot be separated from the love of God, but we have a state of dwelling in that time in which God does not love unrighteousness.  Christ is always dwelling in the Father’s love.  So long as we are keeping the commandments of God, we also are dwelling in the Father’s love.  

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”  When we abide in the love of the Lord and in the love of the Father, our joy remains in us and our joy is full.  When we are not abiding in their love, we lose the joy that we otherwise could experience.   

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”  When we examine the way that the Lord has loved us we note some important characteristics of his love for us: 

    1. He has loved us with an everlasting love.

    2. His love is unconditional toward us. 

    3. His love is sacrificial.

    4. His love is an active love. 

The Lord has commanded us that we love one another as he has loved us.  Thus, our love to one another should be without end; it should be unconditional; it should be sacrificial; and it should be an active love, i.e., not in word only. 

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  The greatest love we can manifest is to love one another by laying down our life for our friends.  This is both totally sacrificial and active.  The Lord is the greatest example of this as He laid down his life for us.