A FAULT LINE WITH THE WORLD

The result of abiding in Jesus is that we are not abiding in the world. The contrast is sharply black and white - no gray allowed.  The result of not abiding in the world is that the world hates us.  Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before you" (John 15:18). The word "know" could be a command instead of a statement (Bernard, 2:491). Facing the hatred of the world, Jesus commands us to know they hated Him first (πρωτον), either first in time or first in importance. Our union with Jesus establishes a fault line with the world leading us to expect persecution from the world.

Jesus states two reasons why the world hates us.  The first reason is because Jesus chose us for Himself (εξελεξαμην - middle voice). "I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you" (John 15:19). Three times Jesus uses the same prepositional clause "out of the world" (εκ του κοσμου) in this one verse. "If you were out of the world the world would love its own; but because you are not out of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you."

The preposition "out of" (εκ) can indicate either origin or separation (BAGD, p. 234). The first clause expresses origin - often used in the sense of family origin. If our birth family is the world, the world would love us.  We are part of the world so why would they not love us? However, we are not out of the world in terms of our birth family any longer. We originate from Jesus. We have a new birth family (point of origin) as those who abide in Jesus.  Our birth family rests in His choice - electing love.  He chose us "out of the world." The final clause indicates separation. The world is the place from which Jesus separates us by His choice to become part of His birth family. The world hates us because Jesus chose us for Himself.

The second reason the world hates us is because they do not know God the Father. "But all these things they will do to you for My names sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me" (John 15:21). Ignorance of God the Father leads to persecution of the Son and His followers.  Ignorance of the nature of God leads to failure in recognizing Jesus. When people don't know who God is they cannot know who Jesus is. Jesus has said that to know God the Father you must know Jesus (John 14:6, 9). Now Jesus reverses the truth - to know Jesus you must know God the Father.

Intimacy with Jesus precludes intimacy with the world. If I am intimate with the world I cannot be intimate with Jesus. If I am intimate with Jesus I cannot be intimate with the world. The world will notice the difference and hate me for it.  The question is: If I am not hated by the world is it because they do not see any difference in me?!

THE OBEDIENCE OF FRIENDS

We don't commonly associate obedience with friendship. We associate affection with friendship and obedience with slavery.  A friend is not ordered to obey like a servant.  There is no duty among friends, we think.  The essence of friendship is voluntary action. Friends can choose how to act while still being accepted as friends.  Yet Jesus says, "You are My friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14).

The condition (εαν ποιητε) expresses a degree of "reduced probability" (Louw Nida, 89.62). It is not certain that we will obey so it is not certain that we will experience friendship with Jesus. Jesus invites us to be His friends, but the friendship is conditioned on doing what He commands. Doesn't this condition turn us into servants not friends?

Jesus goes on to explain that He calls us friends and not servants because a servant doesn't know the mind of the Master, but Jesus discloses to us "all things" (παντα) that He has heard from His Father (John 15:15). The obedience of affection rises out of the self-disclosure of friendship. A friend shares the heart behind the command. Our knowledge changes the nature of our obedience. There is an obedience out of love that is an act of voluntary affection. Such obedience is a choice which explains the conditionality of our friendship with Jesus. In His love, He risks making known (εγνωρισα) His deepest desires to us, and in our love, we choose to obey His commands. When we choose to obey out of love we enjoy the affection of friendship that comes from His self-disclosure (See D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God).

Friendship is commonly mutual. Friends usually choose each other but not so with Jesus. Jesus says, "You did not choose (εξελεξασθε) Me but I chose (εξελεξαμην) you" (John 15:16). The verbs are both in the middle voice indicating that the choice is a matter of personal interest. We did not choose Him for ourselves, but He chose us for Himself. Jesus chooses us to be His friends. Jesus chooses to disclose Himself to us as His friends.  He risks possible rejection to call us His friends.  He invites us into his friendship if we will choose to obey Him out of love. This is not an election (choosing) to eternal life but an election to friendship. Therefore, a person can be a follower of Christ without being a friend of Jesus thus turning orders into duties and relationship into religion. When we obey out of love we enjoy the mutual affection of our friendship with Jesus.

How do we know that we love Jesus? We know we love Jesus when we love one another. The teaching on friendship is bracketed by the command to love one another (John 15:12, 17).

If I won't love Jesus' friends, I can't be Jesus' friend!

INEXHAUSTIBLE JOY!

Jesus intended us to experience a life of inexhaustible joy. The noun translated "joy" (χαρα) was used 7 times in the upper room that night before the cross (Jn. 15:11 (2x), 16:20,21,22,24, 17:13) but had been used only once in John's gospel prior to that night (cf. Jn. 3:29, Morris, John, p. 674). Jesus intends His teaching to produce joy in our hearts. The byproduct of abiding in Jesus is inexhaustible joy.

"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full" (Jn. 15:11). "These things" (ταυτα) looks back to the previous instruction about abiding in Jesus' love by obeying His commands (Jn. 15:10). Jesus emphasizes an inseparable connection between love and obedience throughout His teaching in the upper room. There is a double purpose for abiding in Jesus: 1) that My joy may be in you, and that 2) your joy may be made full.

"My joy" (η χαρα η εμη) is Jesus' own joy not the joy produced by Jesus (Meyer, John, p. 434). The Son and the Father experienced an inexhaustible joy in their love for one another from eternity past.  God was not a lonely God before creation. He was complete in His own happiness. Jesus' joy stood on the twin pillars of eternally abiding in the Father's love and always obeying the Father's commands (Jn. 15:10). The obedience of a slave produces duty, but the obedience of love produces joy so Jesus' joy is the product of His loving obedience. The happiness Jesus enjoyed with the Father is the happiness He wants us to enjoy with Him. We will experience the same joy He experiences with the Father by abiding in His love through obedience to His commands.

Our joy is filled up to its fullest extent when we commune with God in prayer (Jn. 16:24). The word translated "made full" (πληρωθη) means to be filled up or to be completed (BAGD, p. 671). Jesus asks His Father "that they (us) may have My joy made full in themselves" (Jn. 17:13). The pronoun is plural and reciprocal (εν εαυτοις). Joy is relational, communal and reciprocal. Joy is not found in isolation. Our joy is filled up as we experience our love with Jesus and with each other.

The tri-unity of God is a community of infinite love and inexhaustible joy. Our friendship with each other is grounded in our friendship with God - Father, Son and Spirit. Our joy is made complete as we experience the dual community of God and church (1 Jn. 1:3-4).  We will not find true happiness in isolation. Our greatest happiness is relational happiness because we were made to enjoy God in the people of God united as one in Jesus.

O, Lord, my lack of inexhaustible joy stems directly from my lack of love for you and your people. Open my heart to your joy by opening my heart to your love.

GLORIFYING THE GARDENER

Jesus tells us, "By this my Father is glorified" (John 15:8). The words "by this" (εν τουτω) are in the emphatic position at the start of the verse.  Jesus is referring forward not backward to the upcoming purpose clause. We glorify God in two ways: 1) by producing much (πολυν) fruit and 2) by being (or becoming) his disciples.  Abiding in Christ is the means of producing fruit and being his disciple bringing glory to the gardener.

The second half of the verse is problematic.  Jesus is clearly speaking to those already his disciples so how could they glorify the gardener by becoming his disciples? Several translations supply the word "so" which is not in the text thereby turning the second clause into a result of the first clause.  Bearing much fruit proves (or shows) that they are true disciples of Jesus is a common way to interpret the verse.

There is also a textual problem with the verb. Is the verb "become" a subjunctive (γενησθε) mood or a future (γενησεσθε) tense? The manuscript evidence is evenly divided, but it is probably better to take the verb as a future because of the grammatical structure of the passage. Often a purpose clause introduced by "that" (ινα) would take the subjunctive. However, this construction has two verbs connected by "and" (και). As such, it is a special case where the first verb is in the subjunctive mood and the second is a future tense. The future tense indicates a further consequence or future result that stands independently of the first one (Blass/Debrunner, Grammar, p.186). Therefore, being a disciple is not a result of bearing fruit but rather a second way to glorify God. We glorify God by bearing much fruit and by being Jesus' disciples. Both are necessary to glorify God.

What does it mean to be/become a disciple? The verb (γινομαι) is a fairly loose term with multiple meanings. It can mean to come about or take place - to become. It can also man to "be" as a substitute for the verb "is" (ειμι). I suggest that the verb used in this context simply acts as the equivalent of "is" or "are" (BAGD, p. 160). We can translate the verse this way.  "By this, My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and you will continue to be My disciples."

What is a disciple?  Disciples (μαθηται) are learners or pupils - students and followers of a teacher (BAGD, p. 485). Learners are always learning and never learned.  Disciples are continuously in process. Discipleship is a developmental process - a growing way of life - just as fruit growing on a branch is a process.  Jesus is not talking about the point of origin but a continuing process. We have been pupils in the past. We are pupils now, and we will be pupils in the future. To return to the analogy of the vine and the branches, discipleship culminates at the end of life when the fruit of our lives is full and luscious thereby glorifying God, the master gardener.

WHAT HAPPENS TO FRUITLESS CHRISTIANS?

The analogy of the vine and the branches in John 15 is all about fruit bearing. We bear fruit through our communion with Jesus just as the branches bear fruit through their connection to the vine. When we fail to remain in communion with Jesus, we become fruitless because apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5). Fruitless branches are cast away not because of a lack of life but because of a lack of fruit (John 15:6).

The analogy is an extended figure of speech and figurative language should not be taken literally. Jesus is not a literal vine and God, the Father, is not a literal gardener.  We are not literal branches. The throwing away is not a literal throwing away and the fire is not a literal fire.

The fruitless believer is thrown away "like a branch" (ως το κλημα) so what happens to fruitless branches is an illustration of what happens to fruitless Christians.  We are judged for our uselessness and set aside as worthless to the master gardener if we become fruitless Christians.  There are 5 verbs that illustrate God's progressive judgment of fruitless Christians.

1) Fruitless Christians are discarded or thrown aside (εβληθη εξω). God stops using us in His work. We become useless and hinder His purpose to bear fruit.  He sets us aside when we fail to stay in communion with Him. 2) Fruitless Christians are dried up (εξηρανθη). The word was used to describe the withering of trees and plants or the drying up of a river (BAGD, p. 548).  It is a passive verb. When we are set aside by the gardener (passive voice), the discarding causes us to begin to wither spiritually. We lose our vitality. We become brittle and bitter, and we break easy. Jesus said that if salt loses its potency it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled (Mt. 5:13). Fruitless Christians may even be removed from life on earth (1 John 5:16).

The next 3 verbs all have plural subjects. "They gather them and they cast them into the fire and they are burned." The first 2 verbs are present active indicatives and the 3rd is a passive, yet all 3 can be translated as idiomatically passive. All the discussions explaining the identity of "they" in this verse are 'fruitless' discussions!  The construction is a Semitic idiom for an impersonal subject (Moulton, Grammar, 2:447-448). A third person plural subject was used with an active voice as a substitute for an impersonal passive in the Hebrew style of writing so the identity of the subject is simply impersonal.

I think these 3 verbs all refer to what God does with fruitless Christians at the Judgment Seat of Christ.  1) Fruitless Christians are gathered together at the judgment of Christians. 2) Fruitless Christians are tested by fire. The fire is a figure of speech for God's holy evaluation of our lives. The fire reveals the worthlessness of our fruitlessness (1 Cor. 3:13). 3) Fruitless Christians are left with nothing because they did not abide in Him and through that abiding produce fruit that possessed eternal value. The sum total of their lives is burned up (καιεται). This is precisely the imagery for the judgment of Christians that Paul uses (1 Cor. 3:13-15). The fruitless Christian suffers loss, but he is saved "as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:15).

O Lord, keep me walking and talking with you so that I do not become fruitless in my life!

THE CONDITION FOR BEARING FRUIT

Jesus identifies two conditions - which are really one condition - necessary for fruit bearing in John 15:4. "Abide in Me, and I in you." Abiding is necessary for producing fruit. The branch is not capable of producing fruit by itself (αφ εαυτου) "unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me."

Some form of the verb "abide" (μενω) is used 11 times in this chapter. The word means to remain, stay or continue (BAGD, p. 503), and it can have the sense of dwell or live together. For example, the word is used of Mary who stayed or lived with her sister, Elizabeth, for 3 months (Luke 1:56).

Jesus states the first condition as a command, "Abide in Me." It is an aorist active command (μεινατε) indicating action that is undefined in terms of duration. However, the two following uses of abide in this verse are in the present tense indicating that the abiding is to be an ongoing abiding as opposed to an event. We must continue to remain in Christ in order to produce fruit because the power that produces the fruit flows from the vine, Jesus Christ.

The command that we remain in Christ implies that we are already in union with Christ otherwise how could we remain? Since it is a command for us to take action, it also implies that we can stop remaining in Christ.  These 2 implications, taken together, show us that the verse is talking about our communion with Jesus not our union with Jesus. We are never commanded to be in union with Christ, but we are commanded to stay in communion with Christ. The source of life is being in Him. The source of fruitfulness is remaining in Him.

Jesus states the second condition as an addition to the first, "And I in you" (καγω εν υμιν). There are 3 ways to understand the clause (Morris, John, p. 670).  1) Jesus is commanding Himself to remain in them, but this makes little sense.  2) The second command is a continuation of the first one. "Remain in Me and make sure I remain in you." 3) The second condition is actually a promise predicated on the first condition. "Remain in Me and I promise to remain in you." This makes the best sense of the verse (Meyer, John, p. 430). We can only take care of our part in the relationship.  We cannot make Jesus remain in us. He promises to remain in us on the condition that we remain in Him so the two conditions are really one condition. The result of this mutual living together is fruit bearing.

The vine does not block its life flow into the branches, but the branches might block the life flow from the vine.  Jesus does not disconnect from us. We disconnect from Him, and the result is fruitlessness. Personal, persistent and continuous intimacy with Jesus produces fruitfulness because He promises that His life will flow into us as we remain connected to Him. Our continuous communion with Jesus unleashes the power of His spiritual life flowing into us to produce fruit.

THE GARDENER'S JOB

There are two levels of fruitlessness in the analogy of the vine and the branches (John 15:2). There are "no fruit" branches and "some fruit" branches, but both are still branches (Christians). God, the Father, is the gardener. He intends that all branches will bear "much fruit" so He cultivates the branches in order to make them fruitful.  What does the gardener do to make us fruitful Christians?

LEVEL ONE, NO FRUIT CHRISTIANS: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away." The verb translated "takes away" (αιρει) has three possible meanings (BAGD, p. 24). The first meaning is to lift up or pick up. The verb is used of picking up stones to stone Jesus (John 8:59). The second lexical meaning is to lift up and carry.  The man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda lifted up and carried his pallet (John 5:8,10,11,12). The third meaning is to take away or remove with the sense of killing someone.  The crowds screamed about Jesus to Pilate, "Away with this man" (Luke 23:18). So which interpretation would be correct in John 15:2?

Many translations understand the verb in the sense of take away, remove or cut off.  This interpretation would be a judgmental action, and verse 6 is used to bolster the argument that this is an act of judgment by God. Some even view it as the "sin unto death" where God removes a person from this life (1 John 5:16). I think it is better to understand the verb in the sense of lift up. This fits better with the sequence of "no fruit" and "some fruit" in this verse. It also conforms to the normal process of gardening. The branches of the vine grow heavy and trail across the ground. If left on the ground they not only become fruitless but eventually rot. The gardener's first job is to lift up the branches so that they can become fruitful.  God does this in our lives whenever we become fruitless because we are mired in the dirt of life. God's first action with fruitless Christians is not to condemn us but to assist us. He lifts us up from the dirtiness of the life into which we have fallen.

LEVEL TWO, SOME FRUIT CHRISTIANS: "Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." The verb translated "prune" (καθαιρει) originally meant to clean, sweep or cleanse (NIDNTT, 3:102). The noun form was used as a technical term in agriculture for the use of chemicals to get rid of parasites or fungus. The gardener cleanses the branch of impurities and cuts away the extra woody growths that will hinder the production of fruit. The gardener's goal is to help he branch produce more fruit.

God, the spiritual gardener, takes both of these actions in our lives as needed.  When we become mired in the dirt of life and stop producing fruit, God lifts us up so we can grow spiritually. When we are struggling to produce fruit because parasites are affecting our lives or distractions are impeding our growth, the gardener cleanses us with the insecticide of grace and cuts away the distractions in our lives.  He will not let us continue as we are but will work to clean us up and prune us down.  We may not like the process, but the product is God's luscious fruit.