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John 15

KJV · Chapter 15/21

1I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

9As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

12This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

19If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

20Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

21But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

22If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

23He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

24If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

25But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

26But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

📖 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 15:14Redefines what it means to be Jesus’s friend: it is not just closeness, it is obeying what He commands.
  15. John 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. John 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. John 15:17Sums up this part of the discourse by directly repeating the command to love one another.
  18. John 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. John 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. John 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. John 15:21Points to the root cause of this persecution: ignorance about who God really is, the One who sent Jesus.
  22. John 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. John 15:23Reinforces the connection between Jesus and the Father: rejecting one means, in practice, rejecting the other as well.
  24. John 15:24Applies the same reasoning to Jesus’s works: seeing the unique miracles He performed and still rejecting Him removes any possible excuse.
  25. John 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. John 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. John 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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