John 15:1 - Meaning and Application

Here Christ speaks about the fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, that his disciples were to bear, using the picture of a vine. We should notice, first, what this picture teaches us. Jesus Christ is the vine, the true vine.

This shows Christ’s humility, because he speaks of himself using a lowly image. He who is the Sun of righteousness and the bright morning star compares himself to a vine. The church, which is Christ’s body, is called a vine (Psalm 80:8), and Christ is the source from which that vine grows. Christ and his church are both pictured this way.

He is the vine planted in the vineyard, not something that just grew up by itself. He was planted on earth, because the Word became flesh. A vine does not look impressive from the outside, and Christ had no beauty or outward splendor (Isaiah 53:2). Yet the vine spreads far, and Christ will be known as salvation to the ends of the earth. The fruit of the vine honors God and refreshes people (Judges 9:13), and so it is with the fruit of Christ’s saving work. It is better than gold (Proverbs 8:19).

He is the true vine, meaning real and not fake. He is truly a fruitful plant, a plant of honor. He is not like the wild vine that deceived those who gathered from it (2 Kings 4:39), but a true vine that gives what it promises. Empty trees are said to lie (Habakkuk 3:17, margin), but Christ never deceives. Whatever good thing any creature has that helps people is only a shadow of the grace found in Christ for his people. He is the true vine pictured by Judah’s vine, which was rich with the blood of grapes (Genesis 49:11), by Joseph’s vine, whose branches climbed over the wall (Genesis 49:22), and by Israel’s vine, under which he lived safely (1 Kings 4:25).

Believers are the branches of this vine, which means Christ is the root of the vine. The root is hidden, and our life is hidden with Christ. The root supports the whole tree (Romans 11:18), sends life into it, and is everything to its growth and fruitfulness. In Christ there are all the help and supply we need. The branches are many, some on one side and some on another, yet because they meet in the root, they are all one vine. In the same way, all true Christians, even if they are far apart in place or opinion, meet in Christ, who is the center of their unity. Believers, like vine branches, are weak and cannot stand by themselves. They can stand only as they are held up (Ezekiel 15:2).

The Father is the husbandman, the land-worker. Even though the earth belongs to the Lord, it brings him no fruit unless he works it. God not only owns the vine and all its branches, he also cares for them. He planted it, watered it, and gives the growth. We are God’s field, God’s cultivated land (1 Corinthians 3:9). See Isaiah 5:1-2 and Isaiah 27:2-3. He watched over Christ, the root, upheld him, and made him flourish out of dry ground. He also watches over all the branches, prunes them, and guards them so nothing harms them. No farmer ever watched over a vineyard as wisely and carefully as God watches over his church. That is why the church must surely prosper.

The lesson from this picture is that we must bear fruit, and to do that we must remain in Christ. We must be fruitful. From a vine we expect grapes (Isaiah 5:2), and from a Christian we expect Christian fruit, a Christian spirit, Christian living, Christian worship, and Christian purposes. We must honor God, do good, and show the purity and power of the faith we confess. That is what it means to bear fruit. These disciples must be fruitful as Christians in every kind of righteous living, and as apostles in spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ.

To encourage them, Christ warns about the fate of the fruitless in John 15:2. Such branches are taken away. This tells us that many people seem to be branches in Christ, yet they bear no fruit. If they were truly joined to Christ by faith, they would bear fruit. But if they are only tied to him by outward profession, they may look like branches for a while, yet they will soon be shown to be dry branches. Fruitless professors are false professors, professors and nothing more. The verse could also be read, "Every branch that does not bear fruit in me," and that comes to the same thing. Those who do not bear fruit in Christ and in his Spirit and grace are as though they bear no fruit at all (Hosea 10:1). They are threatened with being taken away, both as a righteous judgment on them and as a mercy to the other branches. From the person who has no real union with Christ, and no fruit that comes from it, even what he seemed to have will be taken away (Luke 8:18). Some think this mainly refers to Judas Iscariot, the betrayer.

Christ also gives a promise to those who are fruitful: he prunes them so that they may bear more fruit. Further fruitfulness is the blessed reward of earlier fruitfulness. The first blessing was, "Be fruitful," and it is still a great blessing. Even fruitful branches need pruning so they can grow more. The word means he removes what is extra and overgrown, what slows growth and fruitfulness. Even the best people have something in them that needs correction, something to cut away, some thoughts, passions, or habits that must be purified. Christ has promised to do this by his word, his Spirit, and his providence, and he will remove these things little by little at the right time. This pruning of fruitful branches, so they may become more fruitful, is the care and work of the great husbandman for his own glory.

Believers also benefit from Christ’s teaching, and they should show its power in a fruitful life. Christ says, "Now you are clean" (John 15:3). Their company was clean now that Judas had been removed by Christ’s word, "What you are about to do, do quickly." Until they were freed from him, they were not all clean. Christ’s word separates the precious from the worthless, and it will one day purify the church of the firstborn on the great day of separation.

They were each clean, meaning sanctified, made holy, by the truth of Christ (John 17:17). The faith by which they received Christ’s word had purified their hearts (Acts 15:9). The Spirit of grace, working through the word, had refined them from the dross of the world and the flesh, and had cleaned out the old leaven of the scribes and Pharisees. By now they were fairly well freed from that, especially as they saw their teacher’s bitter rage and hatred against their Master. This applies to all believers. Christ’s word is spoken to them too, and there is cleansing power in that word. It works grace and drives out corruption. It cleanses as fire cleans gold, and as medicine cleanses the body from disease. We show that we have been cleansed by the word when we bring forth fruit that leads to holiness.

There may be a hint here of the law about vineyards in Canaan. Their fruit was treated as unclean and uncircumcised for the first three years after planting. In the fourth year, it was holy, offered as praise to the Lord, and then it became clean (Leviticus 19:23-24). The disciples had now been under Christ’s teaching for about three years, so in a sense, “now you are clean.”

The glory that comes to God through our fruitfulness also brings comfort and honor to us (John 15:8). If we bear much fruit, our Father is glorified. The apostles, in carrying out their calling faithfully, would glorify God by bringing souls to conversion and offering them to him (Romans 15:9, Romans 15:16). In the same way, all Christians, each in their own place and calling, glorify God by good works. When Christians live in a clearly good and helpful way, many are led to praise our Father in heaven.

If we bear much fruit, we also show that we are truly Christ’s disciples. We prove it by our lives, and we make our confession believable. In this way, we both show and honor our discipleship, and we become a name, a praise, and a glory to our Master, like true disciples indeed (Jeremiah 13:11). Then, in the great day, he will own us as his own, and we will receive the reward of disciples, a share in the joy of our Lord. The more fruit we bear, the more we grow in what is good, and the more he is glorified.

To be fruitful, we must abide in Christ, that is, remain joined to him by faith and do all our religious duties through that union. This is the duty Christ commands: “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4). It is a great concern of every disciple to keep up a steady dependence on Christ and fellowship with him, to hold fast to him, and to keep drawing strength from him. Those who have come to Christ must remain in him. We abide in him by faith, and he abides in us by his Spirit. We must remain in Christ’s word by giving attention to it, and let it remain in us as a light for our path. We must rest in Christ’s merit, meaning his righteousness and his saving work, as our reason to hope and our comfort.

This abiding in Christ is necessary if we are to bear fruit (John 15:4-5). “Without me,” he says, “you can do nothing.” If we remain in him, we bear much fruit. If we are separated from him, we can do nothing at all. Abiding in Christ is necessary for doing much good. A person who keeps trusting Christ, loving him, living on his promises, and following his Spirit bears much fruit. Such a life is useful, steady, pure, heavenly, and satisfying. It answers the purpose of human life well. Union with Christ is a noble principle, and it produces all that is good.

It is also necessary for doing any good at all. Christ is not just the way to grow in what is already good in us, he is the root and spring of every good thing. “Without me you can do nothing,” not even the smallest spiritual work. We depend on the grace of the Mediator, that is, the one who stands between God and us, for every part of the spiritual and divine life, just as we depend on God’s providence for life in this world. In both cases, “in him we live and move and have our being.” Apart from Christ’s merit, we can do nothing toward our justification, meaning being counted right before God. Without Christ’s Spirit, we can do nothing toward our sanctification, meaning being made holy. Without Christ, we can do nothing rightly, and nothing that will bear fruit pleasing to God or helpful to ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5). We depend on Christ, not only as a vine depends on a wall for support, but as a branch depends on the root for sap.

The result of turning away from Christ is terrible (John 15:6). “If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch.” This describes the sad condition of hypocrites who are not truly in Christ, and of apostates, people who once seemed to follow him but do not remain in him. They are thrown out like dry and withered branches, cut off because they clutter the tree. It is only right that those who think they do not need Christ should not receive his benefit. Those who reject him will be rejected by him. Those who do not remain in Christ will be left to themselves, fall into shameful sin, and then be rightly cast out from the fellowship of believers.

Such people wither, like a branch broken off from a tree. They may seem to flourish for a while with an outward profession, one that looks believable or at least acceptable, but soon they dry up and come to nothing. Their abilities wither, their zeal and devotion wither, their reputation withers, and their hopes and comforts wither too (Job 8:11-13). Those who bear no fruit will soon bear no leaves. How quickly the fig tree withers after Christ curses it.

“Men gather them.” Satan’s servants and helpers pick them up and make them an easy target. Those who drift away from Christ soon join themselves to sinners. Like sheep who wander from Christ’s fold, the devil is ready to seize them. When the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, an evil spirit came over him. Then they are thrown into the fire. Those who lead others into sin are, in effect, casting them there, because they are making them children of hell. Fire is the proper place for withered branches, because they are good for nothing else (Ezekiel 15:2-4).

“They are burned.” That is the final result, and the wording makes the warning very serious. They are not burned up quickly, like thorns under a pot (Ecclesiastes 7:6). The text says they are burning, and the sense is of an unending fire that cannot be put out and never uses itself up. This is what comes of leaving Christ, and this is the end of barren trees. Apostates are “twice dead” (Jude 12), and this saying makes it sound as if they were twice damned. Some understand the gathering of these branches as a picture of the angels at the great day, when they will gather out of Christ’s kingdom all that causes sin and bundle the weeds for the fire.

There is also a blessed promise for those who abide in Christ (John 15:7). “If my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish from my Father in my name, and it will be done.”

See here, first, how our union with Christ is kept alive by the word. Christ had said earlier, “If you abide in me,” and also, “I in you.” Here he explains what that means: “my words abide in you.” It is in the word that Christ is set before us and offered to us (Romans 10:6-8). It is through the word that we receive him and hold fast to him. So when the word of Christ lives richly in us, Christ himself lives in us.

If the word is our constant guide and warning, if it feels at home in us, then we abide in Christ, and he in us. Second, how our fellowship with Christ is kept alive by prayer: “You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.” What more could we want than to have what we ask for? Those who abide in Christ, and find their delight in him, will have their heart’s desire through Christ. If we have Christ, we will lack nothing that is truly good for us.

This promise includes two things. First, if we abide in Christ and his word abides in us, we will not ask for anything except what is fit and right for us. The promises living in us are ready to be turned into prayers, and prayers shaped that way cannot fail. Second, if we abide in Christ and his word, we have such favor with God, and such help through Christ’s mediation, that our prayers will be answered with peace. Christ’s mediation means his bringing our requests before God as our one who stands between God and us.