John Gill Commentary John 15

I am the true vine

The fruit of which he had just been speaking of at supper with his disciples; and then informs them, that he himself is the vine from which that fruit must be expected, which should be partaken of by them in his Father's kingdom; for though Christ may be compared to a vine for its tenderness, weakness, and being subject to cuttings and prunings; all which may express his outward meanness in his birth, parentage, and education, which exposed him to the contempt of men; the weakness of the human nature in itself, his being encompassed with the infirmities of his people, and his sufferings and death for their sakes; yet he is rather called so with respect to his fruitfulness: for as the vine is a fruitful tree, brings forth fruit in clusters, so Christ, as man and Mediator, is full of grace and truth, of all spiritual blessings, and exceeding great and precious promises; from him comes the wine of divine love, of Gospel truths and Gospel ordinances, the various blessings of grace, and the joys of heaven, which are the best wine reserved by him till last: Christ is the "true" vine; not that he is really and literally so, without a figure; but he is, as the Syriac renders it, (arrvd atpn), "the vine of truth". Just as Israel is called a noble vine, wholly a right seed, (tma erz), "a seed of truth", (Jeremiah 2:21); right genuine seed; or, as the Septuagint render it, "a vine", bringing forth fruit, (pasan) (alhyinhn), "wholly true"; to which the allusion may be here. Christ is the noble vine, the most excellent of vines, wholly a right seed, in opposition to, and distinction from, the wild and unfruitful, or degenerate plant of a strange vine: to him agree all the properties of a right and real vine; he really and truly communicates life, sap, juice, nourishment, and fruitfulness to the several branches which are in him.

The metaphor Christ makes use of was well known to the Jews; for not only the Jewish church is often compared to a vine, but the Messiah too, according to them: thus the Targumist explains the phrase in (Psalms 80:15), "the branch thou madest strong for thyself", of the King Messiah: and indeed, by comparing it with (Psalms 80:17) it seems to be the true sense of the passage^F7.

The Cabalistic doctors say^F8, that the Shekinah is called, (Npg), "a vine"; see (Genesis 49:11); where the Jews observe^F9, the King Messiah is so called.

The Jews^F11 say, there was a golden vine that stood over the gate of the temple, and it was set upon props; and whoever offered a leaf, or a grape, or a cluster, (that is, a piece of gold to the temple, in the form of either of these,) bought it, and hung it upon it.

And of this vine also Josephus^F12 makes mention, as being in Herod's temple; of which he says, that it was over the doors (of the temple), under the edges of the wall, having clusters hanging down from it on high, which filled spectators with wonder as for the size of it, so for the art with which it was made. And elsewhere he says^F13, the inward door in the porch was all covered with gold, and the whole wall about it; and it had over it golden vines, from whence hung clusters as big as the stature of a man.

Now whether our Lord may refer to this, being near the temple, and in view of it, and point to it, and call himself the true vine, in distinction from it, which was only the representation of one; or whether he might take occasion, from the sight of a real vine, to compare himself to one, may be considered; since it was usual with Christ, upon sight or mention of natural things, to take the opportunity of treating of spiritual ones.

Though it may be rather this discourse of the vine and branches might be occasioned by his speaking of the fruit of the vine, at the time he ate the passover, and instituted the ordinance of the supper.

And my Father is the husbandman;

or vinedresser. So God is called by Philo the Jew^F14, (gewrgov agayov), "a good husbandman"; and the same the Targumist says of the word of the Lord^F15,

``and my word shall be unto them, (abj arkak), "as a good husbandman".''

Now Christ says this of his Father, both with respect to himself the vine, and with respect to the branches that were in him: he was the husbandman to him; he planted the vine of his human nature, and filled it with all the graces of the Spirit; he supported it, upheld it, and made it strong for himself, for the purposes of his grace, and for his own glory; and took infinite delight in it, being to him a pleasant plant, a plant of renown. The concern this husbandman has with the branches, is expressed in the following verse.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Vid. R. Mosem Hadersan in Galatin. de Arcan. Cathol. verit, l. 8. c. 4.
• F8: Zohar in Exod. fol. 70. 2. & Cabala denudata, par. 1. p. 241.
• F9: Zohar in Gen fol. 127. 3.
• F11: Misn. Middot, c. 3. sect. 8. T. Bab. Cholin, fol. 90. 2. & Tamid, fol. 29. 1, 2.
• F12: Antiqu. l. 15. c. 11. sect. 3.
• F13: De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 5. sect. 4.
• F14: Leg. Allegor. l. 1. p. 48.
• F15: Targum in Hos. 11. 4.

Every branch in me that bears not fruit
There are two sorts of branches in Christ the vine; the one sort are such who have only an historical faith in him, believe but for a time, and are removed; they are such who only profess to believe in him, as Simon Magus did; are in him by profession only; they submit to outward ordinances, become church members, and so are reckoned to be in Christ by being in a church state, as the churches of Judea and Thessalonica, and others, are said, in general, to be in Christ; though it is not to be thought that every individual person in these churches was truly and savingly in him.

These branches are unfruitful ones. What fruit they seemed to have withers away and proves not to be genuine fruit. What fruit they bring forth is to themselves, and not to the glory of God, being none of the fruits of his Spirit and grace. And such branches the husbandman

takes away ;
removes them from that sort of being which they had in Christ.

By some means or another he discovers them to the saints to be what they are; sometimes he suffers persecution to arise because of the word, and these men are quickly offended, and depart of their own accord; or they fall into erroneous principles, and set up for themselves, and separate from the churches of Christ; or they become guilty of scandalous enormities, and so are removed from their fellowship by excommunication; or if neither of these should be the case, but these tares should grow together with the wheat till the harvest, the angels will be sent forth, who will gather out of the kingdom of God all that offend and do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire, as branches withered, and fit to be burnt.

And every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may
bring forth more fruit .
These are the other sort of branches, who are truly and savingly in Christ; such as are rooted in him; to whom he is the green fir tree, from whom all their fruit is found; who are filled by him with all the fruits of his Spirit, grace, and righteousness. These are purged or pruned, chiefly by afflictions and temptations, which are as needful for their growth and fruitfulness, as the pruning and cutting of the vines are for theirs; and though these are sometimes sharp, and never joyous, but grievous, yet they are attended with the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and so the end of bringing forth more fruit is answered; for it is not enough that a believer exercise grace, and perform good works for the present, but these must remain; or he must be constant herein, and still bring forth fruit, and add one virtue to another, that it may appear he is not barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ, in whom he is implanted.

These different acts of the vinedresser "taking away" some branches, and "purging" others, are expressed by the Misnic doctors^F16.

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: Misn. Sheviith, c, 2. sect. 3. by (hlwoyp) , and (hdwryz) . The former, the commentators ^F17 say, signifies to cut off the branches that are withered and perished, and are good for nothing; and the latter signifies the pruning of the vine when it has a superfluity of branches, or these extend themselves too far; when some are left, and others taken off.
• F17: Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to
you .
]. These words being inserted in the discourse concerning the vine and branches, and the pruning and purging them to make them fruitful, are thought, by the learned Dr. Lightfoot, to be an allusion to the law in (Leviticus 19:23) ; by which the fruit of trees, for the first three years, were accounted uncircumcised or unclean, and in the fourth year fit for use; concerning which the Talmudists have a whole tract, called (hlre) , "Orla"; the apostles having enjoyed the ministry of Christ, and been his disciples about such a time.

Though the "now" seems to refer to the removal and taking away of that withered and unfruitful branch, Judas. Christ, in (John 13:10) , has told his disciples, that they "were clean, but not all", because the betrayer was among them; but he being discovered by Christ, and ordered by him to be gone, went out from among them about his wicked design; and now Christ could say of them all, that they were clean.

Which may be understood of their regeneration and sanctification, in which their hearts were sprinkled with clean water; were washed with the washing of regeneration; had their hearts purified by faith in the blood of Christ, and had pure principles of grace formed in their souls; of all which the Gospel of Christ was the instrumental means.

Or of their justification by the righteousness of Christ, by which they were justified from all sin; and were all fair, and without spot; which was through the Gospel of Christ revealing his righteousness to them, or through the sentence of justification he, by his Spirit, passed upon their consciences.

Abide in me, and I in you
The former of these is an exhortation to continue in the exercise of faith and love upon Christ, holding to him the head, cleaving to him with full purpose of heart, and so deriving life, grace, strength, and nourishment from him; the latter is a promise encouraging to the former; for as Christ is formed in the hearts of his people, he continues there as the living principle of all grace. And so,

as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine, no more can you, except you abide in me ;
which strongly expresses the necessity of abiding in Christ by fresh repeated acts of faith: and it is easy to observe, that when believers depart from Christ, though it be but partially, and for a time, for they cannot finally and totally depart from him, in what a poor, withered, fruitless condition they are, both in their frames and duties.

I am the vine, you are the branches
Christ here repeats what he said of himself, "the vine", for the sake of the application of "the branches" to his disciples: which expresses their sameness of nature with Christ; their strict and close union to him; and the communication of life and grace, holiness and fruitfulness, of support and strength, and of perseverance in grace and holiness to the end from him:

he that abideth in me, and I in him ;
which is the case of all that are once in Christ, and he in them:

the same bringeth forth much fruit ;
in the exercise of grace, and performance of good works; and continues to do so as long as he lives, not by virtue of his own free will, power, and strength, but by grace continually received from Christ:

for without me you can do nothing ;
nothing that is spiritually good; no, not anything at all, be it little or great, easy or difficult to be performed; cannot think a good thought, speak a good word, or do a good action; can neither begin one, nor, when it is begun, perfect it. Nothing is to be done "without Christ"; without his Spirit, grace, strength, and presence; or as "separate from" him. Were it possible for the branches that are truly in him, to be removed from him, they could bring forth no fruits of good works, any more than a branch separated from the vine can bring forth grapes; so that all the fruitfulness of a believer is to be ascribed to Christ, and his grace, and not to the free will and power of man.