John 15:8-27

15:8 My Father is honored ¹  by this, that ²  you bear ³  much fruit and show that you are ⁴  my disciples.

15:9 “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain ⁵  in my love. 15:10 If you obey ⁶  my commandments, you will remain ⁷  in my love, just as I have obeyed ⁸  my Father’s commandments and remain ⁹  in his love. 15:11 I have told you these things ¹⁰  so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. 15:12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. ¹¹  15:13 No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life ¹²  for his friends. 15:14 You are my friends ¹³  if you do what I command you. 15:15 I no longer call you slaves, ¹⁴  because the slave does not understand ¹⁵  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ¹⁶  I heard ¹⁷  from my Father. 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you ¹⁸  and appointed you to go and bear ¹⁹  fruit, fruit that remains, ²⁰  so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. 15:17 This ²¹  I command you – to love one another.

The World’s Hatred

15:18 “If the world hates you, be aware ²²  that it hated me first. ²³  15:19 If you belonged to the world, ²⁴  the world would love you as its own. ²⁵  However, because you do not belong to the world, ²⁶  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ²⁷  the world hates you. ²⁸  15:20 Remember what ²⁹  I told you, ‘A slave ³⁰  is not greater than his master.’ ³¹  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed ³²  my word, they will obey ³³  yours too. 15:21 But they will do all these things to you on account of ³⁴  my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. ³⁵  15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ³⁶  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. 15:23 The one who hates me hates my Father too. 15:24 If I had not performed ³⁷  among them the miraculous deeds ³⁸  that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. ³⁹  But now they have seen the deeds ⁴⁰  and have hated both me and my Father. ⁴¹  15:25 Now this happened ⁴²  to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ ⁴³  15:26 When the Advocate ⁴⁴  comes, whom I will send you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he ⁴⁵  will testify about me, 15:27 and you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

[15:8]  ¹ tn Grk “glorified.”

[15:8]  ² tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause is best taken as substantival in apposition to ἐν τούτῳ (en toutw) at the beginning of the verse. The Father is glorified when the disciples bring forth abundant fruit. Just as Jesus has done the works which he has seen his Father doing (5:19-29) so also will his disciples.

[15:8]  ³ tn Or “yield.”

[15:8]  ⁴ tc Most mss (א A Ψ Ë¹³ 33 Ï) read the future indicative γενήσεσθε (genhsesqe; perhaps best rendered as “[and show that] you will become”), while some early and good witnesses (Ì^66vid B D L Θ 0250 1 565 al) have the aorist subjunctive γένησθε (genhsqe; “[and show that] you are”). The original reading is difficult to determine because the external evidence is fairly evenly divided. On the basis of the external evidence alone the first reading has some credibility because of א and 33, but it is not enough to overthrow the Alexandrian and Western witnesses for the aorist. Some who accept the future indicative see a consecutive (or resultative) sequence between φέρητε (ferhte) in the ἵνα (Jina) clause and γενήσεσθε, so that the disciples’ bearing much fruit results in their becoming disciples. This alleviates the problem of reading a future indicative within a ἵνα clause (a grammatical solecism that is virtually unattested in Attic Greek), although such infrequently occurs in the NT, particularly in the Apocalypse (cf. Gal 2:4; Rev 3:9; 6:4, 11; 8:3; 9:4, 5, 20; 13:12; 14:13; 22:14; even here, however, the Byzantine mss, with א occasionally by their side, almost always change the future indicative to an aorist subjunctive). It seems more likely, however, that the second verb (regardless of whether it is read as aorist or future) is to be understood as coordinate in meaning with the previous verb φέρητε (So M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek §342). Thus the two actions are really one and the same: Bearing fruit and being Jesus’ disciple are not two different actions, but a single action. The first is the outward sign or proof of the second – in bearing fruit the disciples show themselves to be disciples indeed (cf. 15:5). Thus the translation followed here is, “that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.” As far as the textual reading is concerned, it appears somewhat preferable to accept the aorist subjunctive reading (γένησθε) on the basis of better external testimony.

[15:9]  ⁵ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ⁶ tn Or “keep.”

[15:10]  ⁷ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ⁸ tn Or “kept.”

[15:10]  ⁹ tn Or “reside.”

[15:11]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “These things I have spoken to you.”

[15:12]  ¹¹ sn Now the reference to the commandments (plural) in 15:10 have been reduced to a singular commandment: The disciples are to love one another, just as Jesus has loved them. This is the ‘new commandment’ of John 13:34, and it is repeated in 15:17. The disciples’ love for one another is compared to Jesus’ love for them. How has Jesus shown his love for the disciples? This was illustrated in 13:1-20 in the washing of the disciples’ feet, introduced by the statement in 13:1 that Jesus loved them “to the end.” In context this constitutes a reference to Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross on their behalf; the love they are to have for one another is so great that it must include a self-sacrificial willingness to die for one another if necessary. This is exactly what Jesus is discussing here, because he introduces the theme of his sacrificial death in the following verse. In John 10:18 and 14:31 Jesus spoke of his death on the cross as a commandment he had received from his Father, which also links the idea of commandment and love as they are linked here. One final note: It is not just the degree or intensity of the disciples’ love for one another that Jesus is referring to when he introduces by comparison his own death on the cross (that they must love one another enough to die for one another) but the very means of expressing that love: It is to express itself in self-sacrifice for one another, sacrifice up to the point of death, which is what Jesus himself did on the cross (cf. 1 John 3:16).

[15:13]  ¹² tn Or “one dies willingly.”

[15:14]  ¹³ sn This verse really explains John 15:10 in another way. Those who keep Jesus’ commandments are called his friends, those friends for whom he lays down his life (v. 13). It is possible to understand this verse as referring to a smaller group within Christianity as a whole, perhaps only the apostles who were present when Jesus spoke these words. Some have supported this by comparing it to the small group of associates and advisers to the Roman Emperor who were called “Friends of the Emperor.” Others would see these words as addressed only to those Christians who as disciples were obedient to Jesus. In either case the result would be to create a sort of “inner circle” of Christians who are more privileged than mere “believers” or average Christians. In context, it seems clear that Jesus’ words must be addressed to all true Christians, not just some narrower category of believers, because Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is his act of love toward his friends (v. 13) applies to all Christians equally (cf. John 13:1).

[15:15]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:15]  ¹⁵ tn Or “does not know.”

[15:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “all things.”

[15:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “learned.”

[15:16]  ¹⁸ sn You did not choose me, but I chose you. If the disciples are now elevated in status from slaves to friends, they are friends who have been chosen by Jesus, rather than the opposite way round. Again this is true of all Christians, not just the twelve, and the theme that Christians are “chosen” by God appears frequently in other NT texts (e.g., Rom 8:33; Eph 1:4ff.; Col 3:12; and 1 Pet 2:4). Putting this together with the comments on 15:14 one may ask whether the author sees any special significance at all for the twelve. Jesus said in John 6:70 and 13:18 that he chose them, and 15:27 makes clear that Jesus in the immediate context is addressing those who have been with him from the beginning. In the Fourth Gospel the twelve, as the most intimate and most committed followers of Jesus, are presented as the models for all Christians, both in terms of their election and in terms of their mission.

[15:16]  ¹⁹ tn Or “and yield.”

[15:16]  ²⁰ sn The purpose for which the disciples were appointed (“commissioned”) is to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains. The introduction of the idea of “going” at this point suggests that the fruit is something more than just character qualities in the disciples’ own lives, but rather involves fruit in the lives of others, i.e., Christian converts. There is a mission involved (cf. John 4:36). The idea that their fruit is permanent, however, relates back to vv. 7-8, as does the reference to asking the Father in Jesus’ name. It appears that as the imagery of the vine and the branches develops, the “fruit” which the branches produce shifts in emphasis from qualities in the disciples’ own lives in John 15:2, 4, 5 to the idea of a mission which affects the lives of others in John 15:16. The point of transition would be the reference to fruit in 15:8.

[15:17]  ²¹ tn Grk “These things.”

[15:18]  ²² tn Grk “know.”

[15:18]  ²³ tn Grk “it hated me before you.”

[15:19]  ²⁴ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ²⁵ tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ²⁶ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ²⁷ tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ²⁸ sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.

[15:20]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Remember the word that I said to you.”

[15:20]  ³⁰ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

[15:20]  ³¹ sn A slave is not greater than his master. Jesus now recalled a statement he had made to the disciples before, in John 13:16. As the master has been treated, so will the slaves be treated also. If the world had persecuted Jesus, then it would also persecute the disciples. If the world had kept Jesus’ word, it would likewise keep the word of the disciples. In this statement there is the implication that the disciples would carry on the ministry of Jesus after his departure; they would in their preaching and teaching continue to spread the message which Jesus himself had taught while he was with them. And they would meet with the same response, by and large, that he encountered.

[15:20]  ³² tn Or “if they kept.”

[15:20]  ³³ tn Or “they will keep.”

[15:21]  ³⁴ tn Or “because of.”

[15:21]  ³⁵ tn Jesus is referring to God as “the one who sent me.”

[15:22]  ³⁶ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ³⁷ tn Or “If I had not done.”

[15:24]  ³⁸ tn Grk “the works.”

[15:24]  ³⁹ tn Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).

[15:24]  ⁴⁰ tn The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.

[15:24]  ⁴¹ tn Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.

[15:25]  ⁴² tn The words “this happened” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to complete an ellipsis.

[15:25]  ⁴³ sn A quotation from Ps 35:19 and Ps 69:4. As a technical term law (νόμος, nomos) is usually restricted to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT), but here it must have a broader reference, since the quotation is from Ps 35:19 or Ps 69:4. The latter is the more likely source for the quoted words, since it is cited elsewhere in John’s Gospel (2:17 and 19:29, in both instances in contexts associated with Jesus’ suffering and death).

[15:26]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “Helper” or “Counselor”; Grk “Paraclete,” from the Greek word παράκλητος (paraklhto"). See the note on the word “Advocate” in John 14:16 for discussion of how this word is translated.

[15:26]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “that one.”