John 15:7,8

“ If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done for you. 8. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so you shall become my disciples. ”

The parallelism between the two conditions indicated, John 15:7, would lead us to expect as the form of the second the words: “And I abide in you” rather than: “And my words abide in you.” Jesus wishes to make known to His own by this change of expression, that it is the constant remembrance of and habitual meditation upon His words, which is the condition on which He will be able continually to make His strength dwell in them and act through them. In this relation, the disciple will not begin by acting, but simply by asking. For he knows that it is the divine strength thus obtained which must do everything. The words of Jesus, meditatively considered, become in the believer the food for holy thoughts and pious purposes, heavenly aspirations, and thereby the source of true prayers. While meditating on them, he comprehends the work of God; he measures its depth and height, its length and breadth, and fervently asks for the advancement of that work in the definite form which answers to the present needs. A prayer thus formed is the child of heaven; it is the promise of God (the word of Jesus) transformed into supplication; in this condition the hearing of it is certain and the promise which is so absolute: It shall be done for you, has no longer anything that surprises us.

The Alexandrian authorities read the imperative ask, the others the future you shall ask. The first has more liveliness.

The result of this fruitfulness of the disciples will be the glorification of the Father (John 15:8). What is there that honors the vine-dresser more than the extraordinary productiveness of the vine to which he has with partiality given his care? Now, the vine-dresser is the Father (John 15:1). The ἐν τούτῳ, herein, refers evidently to the ἵνα, in order that or that, which follows; this conjunction here takes the place of ὅτι, because the idea of bearing fruit presents itself to the mind as an end to be attained.

The aorist ἐδοξάσθη, properly has been glorified, characterizes this result as immediately gained at the moment when the condition, the production of fruit, is realized. Winer and others prefer to see in this aorist an anticipation of the final result.

While contemplating with filial satisfaction the glory of His Father, which will result from time to time from the activity of the disciples, Jesus seems to press to His heart these precious beings with a redoubled affection. They will thus continue the work of their Master, who has only thought of glorifying the Father, and will deserve more and more the title of His disciples. Καί : and thus. Instead of the future and you shall become, the Alexandrian authorities read the subjunctive: and that you may become (γένησθε, dependent on ἵνα).

Tischendorf himself rejects this reading, which is only a correction after φέρητε.

The dative ἐμοί is more pressing and more tender than the genitive ἐμοῦ would be: “You will belong to me more closely as my disciples.” One must always become a disciple; one is not such once for all.

As the vine does not itself bear any cluster, and offers its fruits to the world only through the medium of the branches, so Jesus will diffuse spiritual life here on earth only through the instrumentality of those who shall have received it from Him. In forming a Church, He creates for Himself a body for the pouring forth of His life and for the glorification of God on the earth. The vine keeps itself in the background in this great work, that it may only allow the branches to appear; it is for them, in their turn, to put themselves in the background, that they may render homage to the vine for all which they effect. The epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians set forth, in a completely original form, this same relation between Christ and believers. The figures of the head and body correspond absolutely, in these letters, to those of the vine and the branch in this passage. When Paul says of the glorified Christ “ that all the fulness of the Deity dwells bodily in him,” and “ that we have all fulness in him,” he only formulates the meaning of the parable of the vine and the branch, as it has just presented itself to us. And this also explains why the propagation of the spiritual life advances so slowly in humanity. The vine effects nothing except through the branches; and these too often paralyze the action of the vine, instead of propagating it!

The condition for abiding in Christ is to remain under the action of His word (John 15:7) in the enjoyment of His love, and this latter depends on obedience to His commandments, and especially to that of brotherly love: John 15:9-17.