João 15

ARC · Chapter 15/21

1Eu sou a videira verdadeira, e meu Pae é o lavrador.

2Toda a vara em mim, que não dá fructo, a tira; e alimpa toda o que dá fructo, para que dê mais fructo.

3Vós já estaes limpos, pela palavra que vos tenho fallado.

4Estae em mim, e eu em vós: como a vara de si mesma não pode dar fructo, se não estiver na videira, assim nem vós, se não estiverdes em mim.

5Eu sou a videira, vós as varas: quem está em mim, e eu n'elle, esse dá muito fructo; porque sem mim nada podeis fazer.

6Se alguem não estiver em mim, será lançado fóra, como a vara, e seccará; e os colhem, e os lançam no fogo, e ardem

7Se vós estiverdes em mim, e as minhas palavras estiverem em vós, pedireis tudo o que quizerdes, e vos será feito.

8N'isto é glorificado meu Pae, que deis muito fructo; e assim sereis meus discipulos.

9Como o Pae me amou, tambem eu vos amei a vós; permanecei n'este meu amor.

10Se guardardes os meus mandamentos, permanecereis no meu amor; como eu tenho guardado os mandamentos de meu Pae, e permaneço no seu amor.

11Tenho-vos dito estas coisas, para que o meu gozo permaneça em vós, e o vosso gozo seja cumprido.

12O meu mandamento é este: Que vos ameis uns aos outros, assim como eu vos amei.

13Ninguem tem maior amor do que este: de dar alguem a sua vida pelos seus amigos.

14Vós sereis meus amigos, se fizerdes o que eu vos mando.

15Já vos não chamarei servos, porque o servo não sabe o que faz o seu senhor, mas tenho-vos chamado amigos, porque tudo quanto ouvi de meu Pae vos tenho feito conhecer.

16Não me escolhestes vós a mim, porém eu vos escolhi a vós, e vos constitui, para que vades e deis fructo, e o vosso fructo permaneça; para que tudo quanto em meu nome pedirdes ao Pae elle vol-o conceda.

17Isto vos mando: que vos ameis uns aos outros.

18Se o mundo vos aborrece, sabei que, primeiro do que a vós, me aborreceu a mim.

19Se vós fosseis do mundo, o mundo amaria o que era seu, mas, porque não sois do mundo, antes eu vos escolhi do mundo, por isso o mundo vos aborrece.

20Lembrae-vos da palavra que vos disse: Não é o servo maior do que o seu senhor. Se a mim me perseguiram, tambem vos perseguirão a vós; se guardaram a minha palavra, tambem guardarão a vossa.

21Mas tudo isto vos farão por causa do meu nome; porque não conhecem aquelle que me enviou.

22Se eu não viera, nem lhes houvera fallado, não teriam peccado, mas agora não teem desculpa do seu peccado.

23Aquelle que me aborrece aborrece tambem a meu Pae.

24Se eu entre elles não fizesse obras, quaes nenhum outro tem feito, não teriam peccado; mas agora, viram-n'as e me aborreceram a mim e a meu Pae.

25Mas isto é para que se cumpra a palavra que está escripta na sua lei: Aborreceram-me sem causa.

26Mas, quando vier o Consolador, que eu da parte do Pae vos hei de enviar, a saber, aquelle Espirito de verdade, que procede do Pae, elle testificará de mim.

27E vós tambem testificareis, pois estivestes comigo desde o principio.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus presents himself as the true vine, teaching that the disciples are the branches who must remain in him to bear fruit. He repeats the command of mutual love and warns of the hatred the world will have for his followers.

Explanation

The metaphor of the vine and the branches (v.1-8) illustrates the vital dependence the disciples must have on Jesus: apart from him, it is impossible to produce genuine spiritual fruit. The pruning mentioned (v.2) represents the sometimes painful process by which God removes whatever hinders healthy spiritual growth. The command to love one another 'as I have loved you' is taken up again and deepened with the definition of the greatest love: laying down one's life for one's friends (v.13), something Jesus was about to do literally. The warning about the world's persecution (v.18-20) prepares the disciples for the reality that following Christ brings opposition. The practical application today is that lasting spiritual fruit is only born from a living, ongoing connection with Jesus, not from isolated self-effort.

Fun facts

  • The vine was a national symbol of Israel in the Old Testament (Psalm 80:8-16, Isaiah 5:1-7), often described as a vine that disappointed God's expectations — Jesus now presents himself as the true and faithful vine that Israel should have been.
  • The quotation 'they hated me without a cause' (v.25) comes from Psalms 35:19 and 69:4, texts that early Christians understood as messianic prophecies fulfilled in the rejection Jesus faced despite his complete innocence.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. João 15:1The vine was a well-known image in Jewish tradition for describing the people of Israel itself, used many times in the older texts. Jesus takes this familiar image and applies it to Himself, saying that it is to Him that the branches, the disciples, need to stay connected in order to bear fruit.
  2. João 15:2Continues the image of the vine: the gardener cuts off the branch that produces nothing, and prunes the one that already produces, so that it will yield even more fruit.
  3. João 15:3Ties the cleansing mentioned here to the same idea as the foot washing in chapter 13: the disciples are already clean because of the word Jesus has taught them.
  4. João 15:4The central point of the metaphor: just as a branch cut off from the vine cannot produce anything on its own, the disciples also depend entirely on remaining connected to Jesus.
  5. João 15:5Completes the image: Jesus is the vine, the disciples are the branches — without that constant connection to Him, they simply cannot do anything fruitful.
  6. João 15:6The image comes straight from winemaking: a branch cut from the vine withers and is no longer good for anything except being burned as firewood, useless for producing wine. It directly continues the image from the start of the chapter about what happens to a branch that separates from the main trunk.
  7. João 15:7Ties the effectiveness of prayer to the condition of remaining in Jesus and keeping His words — a continuation of the promise about asking in His name, made earlier in chapter 14.
  8. João 15:8Bearing much fruit is not just a personal benefit: it glorifies the Father and serves as concrete proof that someone is truly a disciple of Jesus.
  9. João 15:9Jesus places the love He has for the disciples on the same level as the love He receives from the Father, and asks them to remain living within that love.
  10. João 15:10Explains how to remain in that love: by keeping Jesus’s commandments, the same way He remains in the Father’s love by keeping His commandments.
  11. João 15:11Jesus reveals the purpose behind everything He is teaching here: that His joy may be in them, and that this joy may be complete.
  12. João 15:12Repeats the central command already given in chapter 13: to love one another following the pattern of Jesus’s own love for them.
  13. João 15:13Defines the greatest possible degree of love: someone laying down their own life for their friends — a statement that already anticipates what Jesus is about to do.
  14. João 15:14Redefines what it means to be Jesus’s friend: it is not just closeness, it is obeying what He commands.
  15. João 15:15A servant obeyed without knowing the master’s full plans; a friend, by the thinking of the time, was someone with whom information and trust were shared. Jesus describes a shift in His relationship with the disciples: from those who only receive orders to those treated as people who know what is behind them.
  16. João 15:16Reverses the common expectation: the disciples did not choose to follow Jesus on their own initiative, it was He who chose them and appointed them to bear lasting fruit.
  17. João 15:17Sums up this part of the discourse by directly repeating the command to love one another.
  18. João 15:18Begins a shift in tone, warning about the rejection to come: if the world hates the disciples, it is worth remembering that it hated Jesus first.
  19. João 15:19Explains the root of this hostility: the disciples no longer belong to the world’s system of values, because they were chosen to come out of it, and that is what stirs up rejection.
  20. João 15:20Jesus repeats the principle already used in chapter 13, that the servant is not greater than the master: if they persecuted Jesus, they will also persecute the disciples, but some will keep their word too.
  21. João 15:21Points to the root cause of this persecution: ignorance about who God really is, the One who sent Jesus.
  22. João 15:22Jesus explains that His own coming and teaching increased people’s responsibility: before, they could claim ignorance, now they no longer have that excuse.
  23. João 15:23Reinforces the connection between Jesus and the Father: rejecting one means, in practice, rejecting the other as well.
  24. João 15:24Applies the same reasoning to Jesus’s works: seeing the unique miracles He performed and still rejecting Him removes any possible excuse.
  25. João 15:25This line is also a quotation from an ancient psalm, which already spoke of someone persecuted unjustly without having done anything wrong. John uses this quotation to show that the rejection Jesus was facing was not an isolated, meaningless episode, but repeated a pattern already described long before in the Scriptures.
  26. João 15:26Describes the future role of the Holy Spirit, called here the Spirit of truth, who will come from the Father, sent by Jesus, and will testify about who He is.
  27. João 15:27Ties the disciples’ own future testimony to that of the Holy Spirit, since they had accompanied Jesus personally from the very beginning of His ministry.

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