John 15:8

John 15:8. Herein was my Father glorified, that ye might bear much fruit and become my disciples. The last verse had expressed the highest and closest communion that can be established between the believer and the Father revealed in the Son, a communion so high, so close, that the former asks whatsoever he will and it is done unto him. But that is the attainment of all God's purposes, the issue of all His dealings, with His people. The ‘Herein' of this verse is, accordingly, not to be explained by the words that follow, as if the meaning were that the glory of God is found in His appointing His people to bear much fruit and be disciples of Jesus. That is the result of His purpose rather than the purpose itself. The purpose is union, communion, fellow ship; and out of these flows an ever-increasing bearing of fruit (‘ much fruit'), and an ever-growing conformity (‘become' not ‘be') of the believer with his Lord, alike in privilege and in life. Herein was my Father glorified belongs, therefore, to the previous verse, to that abiding in Jesus, and that asking and receiving in Him, which expressed the purpose of the Father (comp. chap. John 14:13). At the point we have reached this is supposed to be accomplished, and as a consequence of such abiding fellowship with the Father and the Son comes the growing fruitfulness, the deepening discipleship, of those who are true branches of the fruitful vine. Hence the rendering ‘was glorified' seems preferable to ‘is glorified,' which we retain in chap. John 13:31. It is an ideal state of things with which we are dealing; and the much fruit and the discipleship referred to do not belong only to the present, but, like the ‘cleanness' spoken of in John 15:3, are also future and continuous.