Charles Ellicott Commentary John 15:16

"Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." — John 15:16 (ASV)

You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.—Compare Luke 6:12 and following, and in this Gospel John 6:70; John 13:18. The thought of His love for them, which had exalted them from the position of slaves to friends, from fishermen to Apostles, is made to remind them again (John 15:17) of the duty of love to each other. In John 15:20 He reminds them of the words which accompanied His own act of humility in washing their feet (John 13:15–16). The foremost Apostle owed all to His gift and election, and should be ready to sacrifice all for his brothers, as He Himself was.

And ordained you.—The word “ordained” has acquired a special sense in modern English which is here misleading, and it will be better, therefore, to read appointed.

That you should go and bring forth fruit.—Compare Matthew 13:44; Matthew 18:15; Matthew 19:21 for the idea of going away and doing something. It implies here the activity of the Apostles as distinct from that of Christ. Each one as a branch ever joined to Christ was to grow away from Him in the development of his own work, and was to bring forth his own fruit. The margin compares Matthew 28:19, probably, with the thought of their fulfilling the apostles' missionary work. This view has been commonly adopted, but it gives to the word “go” a fullness of meaning which is scarcely warranted.

And that your fruit should remain.—Compare Note on John 4:36; and see 2 John 1:8, and Revelation 14:13.

That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father.—Compare Notes on John 15:7-8.