John 15:1
“I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Vinedresser.
(a) I am the true Vine. In the Old Testament, a vine or vineyard often symbolizes the nation of Israel (Is. 5:1–7, Hos. 10:1). Yet Israel had become a corrupt and fruitless vine (Jer. 2:21). Lacking the life of God, it could not bear his fruit. Christ, by contrast, is the true Vine, and those who are in him share his life and bear lasting fruit.
Jesus shares the Parable of the Vine and the Branches with his disciples in the upper room. But is it even a parable? Some call it an extended metaphor, yet it contains all three elements of a parable: a protagonist (the vinedresser), a plot (the tending of the vineyard), and a point (“Abide in me, and you will bear much fruit”). Sometimes called the Parable of the True Vine, it carries one of the most astonishing promises in Scripture—a promise that should have us leaping for joy at the goodness of God.
Yet many believers find this parable troubling. They worry, “If I don’t bear fruit, God may cut me off and cast me into the fire.” They forget Jesus’ promise that he will never cast away anyone who comes to him (John 6:37). Jesus gave this parable to comfort his disciples on the eve of his death. But in the hands of the graceless, it becomes a big stick for compelling proper behavior and good works. Fear-based teaching undermines faith. It leads to uncertainty and unfruitfulness, which is the opposite of what Christ wants.
(b) My Father. Jesus came to reveal a God who loves us like a Father.
The Bible has many names for God, but Jesus gave us the best name of all: “Abba, Father” (see entry for Mark 14:36). Abba is not the name of a distant and mysterious God. Abba is your heavenly Father who cares for you and knows your needs (Matt. 6:31–32). Abba, Father is the name of God who loves you as much as he loves Jesus (John 17:23).
Before Jesus, almost no one called God “Father.” After Jesus, every New Testament writer did. Knowing God as our Father is what makes the new covenant new. See also the entry for John 4:21.
(c) Vinedresser. In several parables—the Two Sons, the Vineyard Workers, and the Wicked Tenants—God is portrayed as the owner of a vineyard. Here, he appears as the vinedresser or farmer. The Greek word geōrgos combines gē (“earth”) and ergon (“work”), meaning “earth-worker” or “tiller of the soil.” God is the Farmer who tends the vine or the Body of Christ. He cares for us and trains us so that we may grow and bear much fruit.
Many believers are surprised to learn that God himself is responsible for, and deeply committed to, their spiritual growth. They have been told that they are responsible and that they must make a commitment to grow, as if that were possible. What a relief to discover that your salvation and security rest on God’s faithfulness, not yours, and that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Php. 1:6).
John 15:2
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
(a) Every branch in me. “Every believer.” Jesus is the Vine, and believers are the branches (verse 5).
(b) In me. The phrase “in me,” which appears six times in seven verses, is the key to understanding the parable. We don’t live for Christ; we live in Christ.
The word “union” does not appear in many English Bibles, yet our union, or fellowship, with the Lord is mentioned hundreds of times in scripture. It is found in phrases such as “in me,” “in Christ,” “in him,” “with Christ,” “with him,” and “Christ in you.”
Like a branch joined to a vine, the believer is one with the Lord (John 15:5). “You are in me and I am in you” (John 14:20). Our union with him is intimate, unbreakable, and the means by which we experience the abundant life that flows from his love.
See entry for Union.
(c) He takes away or “he takes up.” The original verb airō means “to lift or take up.” It can also mean “take away,” but “take up” fits the context. Vinedressers don’t cut off unfruitful branches as doing so would harm the vine. Instead, unfruitful branches are lifted out of the dirt so they cannot take root and grow independently. They are raised and trellised so that their only source of life remains the vine.
The reason some Christians are barren is because they are trying to draw life from the world instead of the Vine. Distracted and burdened, they have drifted from their first love (Rev. 2:4–5). The remedy is to remember how far they have fallen and allow God the Gardener to lift them up to the heights of his love. As we bask in his love, we will bear his fruit effortlessly.
Further reading: “Are unfruitful branches lifted up?”
(d) Bears fruit. We bear fruit; we don’t produce fruit. As we abide in Christ, he bears his fruit in our lives.
(e) Fruit refers to the various expressions of Christ’s life in us (e.g., the spiritual fruit of Gal. 5:22). In the natural, we may be apathetic, restless, mean-spirited, and joyless. But as we make our home in Christ, our hearts begin to overflow with his love, peace, joy, and goodness. It is a miraculous transformation that testifies to the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.
(f) Prunes. A vinedresser snips off small sucker shoots and secondary shoots that would otherwise divert energy from the branch.
The original verb kathairō is related to the adjective katharos, which is translated as “clean” in the next verse. To prune or purge is to cleanse. The primary way the Lord prunes and trains us is through his word (2 Tim. 3:16). Although we can learn through trials and hardships, God does not give us sickness and tragedy to teach us things. Instead, he gives us a greater revelation of himself and his love for us.
As we put our faith in what he has said, we are set free from time-wasting, energy-sapping distractions that hinder our spiritual growth. The more we trust in God’s grace, the less we strive in our own strength, and the healthier and more fruitful we become.
John 15:3
“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
(a) You are already clean. By this point, the disciples have been listening to Jesus for several years. They are well and truly cleansed (or pruned) of faithless religion and dead works. Time and again, they have heard Jesus urge people to turn to God in faith. They are pruned and ready for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
(b) Clean. The moment you were joined to the Lord, you were cleansed of all sin and unrighteousness (Heb. 10:2, 1 John 1:7, 9).
(c) The word. “The word” or message of God is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word made flesh and the Living Word who gives life to those who trust him (John 1:1, 14, 5:24). Just as we reveal ourselves by what we say, God reveals himself through his Son (Heb. 1:3). We are saved, cleansed, pruned, and trained by hearing the good news of Jesus.
John 15:4
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
(a) Abide. The original verb menō means “to remain” or “stay in a certain place.” It’s making your home in Christ rather than wandering off or straying. Our home is in Christ, and his home is in us (John 14:23). Christ abides in us through his Spirit (John 14:17). “Surely I am with you always” (Matt. 28:20).
(b) Abide in me. To abide in Christ is to rest in his love (John 15:9). It is depending on him in the same way a branch depends on the vine. It’s looking to him as our Source of life, love, peace, purpose, and joy.
To abide is to rest, relax, and remain. The opposite of abiding is to struggle, strive, and sweat. We abide by keeping our eyes on Jesus and trusting his indwelling Spirit to guide us. We choose to believe that our heavenly Father cares for us and is fully able to accomplish his purposes in our lives.
In the New Testament we are urged to continue in God’s kindness (Rom. 11:22), to continue in the faith (Acts 14:22, Col. 1:23), to continue in the teaching of Christ (2 John 1:9), to continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43), and to continue in what we have learned and been convinced of (2 Tim. 3:14). All these are different ways of saying what Jesus says here: “Abide in me.”
See entry for Abiding.
(c) The branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Flesh can only give birth to flesh (John 3:6). Spiritual fruit comes from the Lord.
We are incapable of producing lasting fruit, but as we rest in Christ, his beautiful character blossoms in our lives. Where there used to be badness, now there is goodness. Where there was sin and falsehood, now there is righteousness and truth. Where there was filthiness and grumbling, now there is thanksgiving and song (Eph. 5:19–20). All this is to the glory of Christ, who bears his good fruit in our lives (John 15:5).
John 15:5
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
(a) I am the vine, you are the branches. Jesus supplies, we receive. What a wonderful picture of our total dependence on Christ. Our union with the Lord is the source of our very life (Gal. 2:20, Col. 3:4). Apart from him we can do nothing, but in him we truly live.
(b) You are the branches. In Christ, you do not need to work to become a branch. You are already a branch.
The devil wants you to doubt your status. “Am I really saved? Am I truly secure?” But Jesus wants you to know with certainty: “You are a branch in me.” Vines and branches cannot be understood in isolation. A vine without branches is not much of a vine, and a branch that is not part of a vine is not a branch. You are not an accessory to Christ but an essential part of his body (1 Cor. 12:27). “We have become united with him” (Rom. 6:5). One with the Lord, you are as holy and righteous as he is (1 Cor. 1:30). His life is your life, his future is your future, and in him you are eternally secure. Since Christ cannot deny or disown himself, he cannot disown you (2 Tim. 2:13).
(c) He bears much fruit. Those who are joined to the true Vine do not need to worry about buds, blossoms, and fruit. Our part is to rest in the Lord and trust that he will do everything to produce his fruit in our lives. Any lifting and pruning that needs to be done will be done by our Father, the Vinedresser. The mystery of grace is that those who live in total dependence on the Lord end up doing more and bearing more fruit than those who toil in the flesh (see 1 Cor. 15:10).
(d) Much fruit. The believer in Christ can expect to be abundantly fruitful. Instead of focusing on the last part of the verse and saying, “I can’t do anything apart from Christ,” we should say, “I am one with Christ, and I can do all things through him” (Php. 4:13). The believers’ default position is a supernatural, blessed, and abundant life (John 10:10).
(e) Apart from me. There is no lasting life outside of the Lord.
John 15:6
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
(a) If anyone. So far, Jesus has been speaking about believers who abide in him. “Everyone who confesses Jesus as the Son of God abides in him” (1 John 4:15). Believers are the branches who abide in Jesus the Vine and are lifted and pruned by God the Vinedresser. Now he shifts his focus to those who do not abide in him.
(b) Does not abide in me. The unbeliever does not live in Christ. God sent his only Son into the world “so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:19). Those who choose to live apart from Christ have no lasting life and bear no lasting fruit.
(c) Thrown away. The discarded branches are the ungodly who refuse to honor God and believe in his Son. Like the bad fish in the Parable of the Net, they are gathered up and thrown away (Matt. 13:48).
(d) Dries up or withers away. Just as the rootless seed withers in the Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:6), any branch not connected to the vine dies for lack of life. Jesus is the Root and the Vine who sustains and nourishes us (Rom. 11:18).
(e) They gather them up. Some older Bibles say “men gather them,” but the word men is not in the original text. From the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, we might infer that the gathering is done by angels (Matt. 13:40–42).
(f) Cast into the fire. At the end of the age, the wicked are thrown into the fiery furnace (Matt. 13:49–50).
Some worry that the Lord will cast away backsliding or underperforming Christians. But those who have been born again cannot be unborn. Those who have been made new creations cannot be unmade. There are more than 130 promises in Scripture guaranteeing the eternal security of the believer.
Further reading: “Eternal Security”
(g) Fire. The ungodly and all those things that are opposed to God’s goodness will be destroyed by fire (2 Pet. 2:6, 3:7).
Fire is an Old Testament image associated with divine judgment (Is. 66:15–16, Obad. 1:18, Zeph. 3:8, Mal. 4:1). Jesus alludes to a fiery judgment in his parables of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matt. 13:40), the Net (Matt. 13:50), the Wedding Feast (Matt. 22:7), and the Sheep and the Goats (Matt. 25:41).
Jesus often spoke of fire in connection with Judgment Day (Matt. 5:22, 13:42, 18:9, Luke 17:29–30). He didn’t fear this fire; he looked forward to it. He knew that it would spell the end of sin and ungodliness and usher in the eternal age. “How I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). After the fires of judgment have purged the earth, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43).
John 15:7
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
(a) Abide in me. For the fifth time in four verses, Jesus exhorts us to make our home in him. Abiding in Christ is the only thing the believer is asked to do. Everything we need for life flows from our vital union with the Lord.
(b) My words. The words of Jesus release life. As Simon Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). We grow and bear fruit by feeding on the words of Jesus and trusting the good promises of the Father.
(c) Ask. Asking is how we receive (Jas. 4:2). Our Father wants us to get in the habit of asking because asking cultivates dependency and intimacy.
(d) Whatever you wish. When you are living from your union with the Lord, you can be confident that the desires of your heart are his desires and your thoughts are his thoughts (Ps. 37:4, 1 Cor. 2:16). This gives you the boldness to pray with the confidence that you will be heard and will receive what you ask for (Matt. 21:22, 1 John 5:14).
(e) It will be done because you have prayed according to the will of God. When we align our faith with the promises of God, good things happen.
John 15:8
“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
(a) My Father. When the Son is revealed in our lives, it brings glory to the Father.
(b) Bear much fruit. The Lord reminds us that we are not to try to produce fruit, but we are to abide in him (the Vine) and bear his fruit.
(c) Fruit are the various expressions of Christ’s life in us (e.g., the spiritual fruit of Gal. 5:22). See entry for John 15:2.
(d) Prove. Just as fruit reveals the tree, spiritual fruit reveals the disciple. We don’t produce fruit to prove that we are disciples; rather, Christ’s fruit in us reveals that we are part of the Vine.
The sons and daughters of God have nothing to prove and need not fear being cast out of God’s family. What God has joined together (you and the Lord), no one can separate. Our identity is secure, but the world will only recognize us as God’s children as we bear his fruit in our lives.
(e) Disciples. A disciple is a follower of Christ. In context, Jesus is referring to those sitting with him in the upper room—the eleven disciples and other unnamed followers.
The word “disciple” does not appear in the New Testament epistles because a Christian is much more than a follower. A Christian is a dearly loved child of God and a co-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:15–17). A Christian is one with the Lord and bears his indwelling Spirit as a guarantee of the glorious inheritance to come (2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:14).
John 15:9
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
(a) The Father has loved me. The unconditional love God has for the Son (John 3:35, 17:23, 26) is the same love he has for the whole world (John 3:16). See entry for John 17:23.
(b) I have also loved you. In the same way the Father loves the Son (unconditionally), the Son loves you. There is nothing you can do to make Jesus love you any more or any less. He never changes his mind about you. Just as your behavior does not affect the sunlight that falls on the earth, nothing you do can dim the white-hot love of God for you. His unshakable love is a solid foundation you can stand on.
(c) Loved. The original verb agapaō means “to be well pleased, fond of, or contented.” It is related to the noun agapē, which describes the unconditional love that comes from God (Rom. 5:8, Eph. 2:4). These words capture God’s heart for you. Your heavenly Father is fond of you. You are his favorite, and he is well pleased with you. He looks at you with deep contentment, knowing that you are his dearly loved child.
(d) Abide in my love. Every believer knows what it means to begin in the love of God, but not every believer continues in the love of God. The danger is not that God will stop loving you—it cannot happen—but that you might drift from his love. If you begin to doubt his love, you won’t get kicked out of his family, but you will become vulnerable to deception. You may start to think that God loves you for what you do. “I did well today, God loves me. I failed, he loves me not.” You’ll become an insecure and unstable believer who bears no fruit.
When you are resting in God’s love, you will never put a foot wrong. But lose sight of his love, and you’ll miss everything. This is why the number one takeaway for the believer is to abide, remain, rest, hold fast to, and dwell in the love of God.
John 15:10
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
(a) If you keep My commandments. Obedience is a fruit of trusting Jesus (1 John 3:23).
In the new covenant, obedience follows trust, and we trust him because we know him. However, someone with an old covenant mindset reverses the order: “If you wish to know him, you must keep his commandments.” Perversely, this mindset will have the very opposite effect as it will cause you to trust in yourself while alienating you from Christ (Gal. 5:4).
(b) My Father; see entry for John 4:21.
(c) My Father’s commandments. God commands us to believe in Jesus and love one another (1 John 3:23)
In contrast with the heavy yoke of Moses (Act 15:10), the yoke of Jesus is light (Matt. 11:30). “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3
(d) Abide in his love. To abide in the love of the Father is to abide in the love of Jesus (see previous verse).
John 15:12
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
(a) My commandment. Christ’s command to love one another is sometimes referred to as the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21, Gal. 6:2), or the new commandment (John 13:34, 1 John 2:8, 2 John 1:5).
(b) Even as I have loved you. In the new covenant of grace, we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Jesus was once asked to name the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus replied that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matt. 22:36-38). Note that this is the greatest commandment in the law. Under the law-keeping covenant, the flow was from you to the Lord (Deut. 6:5, 10:12). You loved God because it was a law that came with consequences. But in the new covenant of grace, we love one another with the same love that Christ loved us.
Further reading: “What is the law of Christ?”
John 15:13
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
Greater love. By definition the agape-love of God is unconditional and self-sacrificing (Eph. 5:2, 25, 1 John 3:16). God will never make you jump through hoops to earn his love. He won’t love you any more if you succeed and he won’t love you any less if you fail. There is nothing you can do to make him love you more, and nothing you can do to make him love you less.
See entry for The Love of God.
John 15:14
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.
(a) You are My friends if. There are two ways to read this verse: Someone with an old covenant mind-set reads it as prescription, a law-to-be-obeyed. “Keep the commandments, and Jesus will consider you his friend.” But in the next verse, Jesus tells his disciples that they already are his friends, regardless of their law-keeping performance. If Jesus is the friends of sinners, he is surely the friend of us.
The other way to read this verse is as a description: “My friends do what I command.” Jesus is not preaching law; he’s exhorting his disciples to be who they already are – his friends.
(b) Do what I command you. Jesus’ command, which is easy to obey, should not be confused with the burdensome commands of Moses. Our Lord commands that “you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 15:12). In the old covenant, our relationship with God was based on our love for him. But in the new, everything we do is a response to his love for us. We trust and obey him because we know how much he loves us.
John 15:15
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
I have called you friends. Jesus called his disciples “friends” and not “brothers” because they remained outside of the family of God. They were not yet Christians and could not become so until Jesus was raised from the dead (see Rom. 10:9). It is good to be God’s friend, but it’s even better to be his child. Our adoption into the new creation family of God is only possible because of what Christ accomplished on the cross.
John 15:16
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
Whatever you ask. The God Jesus revealed is a listening and responsive Father (Matt. 6:8, 7:11, 18:19, Luke 11:13, John 16:23, 26). He hears your prayers and knows your needs even before you ask him (Matt 6:8).
John 15:20
“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Persecute. The original verb diōkō, which is related to the Greek verb diō (meaning “to flee”), has both positive and negative meanings depending on the context. In a positive context, it means “to pursue” or “strive for.” We are to pursue love (1 Cor. 14:1), pursue righteousness (1 Tim. 6:11), and pursue the things which make for peace (Rom. 14:19). In a negative context, it means “to persecute, harass, or oppress” (e.g., Matt. 5:10–12). It can also mean “to drive out or expel” (e.g., Matt. 23:24).
John 15:25
“But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’
Written in their Law. Jesus is quoting Psalm 35:19 or 69:4. The Psalms do not form part of the Law of Moses or the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Jesus is referring to the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament. For similar examples, see John 10:34, 12:34 and 1 Cor. 14:21.
John 15:26
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,
The Helper is the Holy Spirit; see entry for John 14:16.
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Thank you so much for you commentary on John 15:2! Reading it was so life-giving for me today. I’ve been wondering and meditating on John 15:2 where Jesus said every branch IN ME does not bear fruit, He TAKES AWAY. WHY would a branch IN JESUS not bear fruit?? and so harsh that it gets taken away! BUT! here’s what “takes away” means–>He lifts up, pick up, raise up! THANK YOU LORD JESUS! Even when I get distracted and even busy with religious things, and inevitably feel empty, Jesus LIFTS me up! REMEMBER your first love Rev. 2:4-5.
I’m there too this was very encouraging and helps me to be a better version of His hands and feet. To love better, to love in truth with the Love He produces as a stay connected to Him!