In the previous chapters, Jesus stated six pieces of truth which all began with "I am" about Himself. He said, "I am the bread of life", "I am the light of the world", "I am the door of the sheep", "I am the good shepherd", "I am the resurrection and the life", "I am the way, the truth, and the life". The last of Jesus' great "I am" statements, the seventh one, opens John 15. He said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener." Jesus might have said this in view of the great golden vine on the front of the temple as He and His disciples passed by the temple, walking from the Last Supper room to the olive grove where He was arrested.

As the Son of Man, the representative of the new humanity, Jesus used the picture of the vine and the gardener to impress upon His disciples His humbleness and dependency toward His Father, as the Scripture used this vine and gardener picture to demonstrate God's people and His tender care for them. His humbleness was made more clear when He said His Father would "cut off every branch" in Him "that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." What kind of branches of Him needed to be cut off by the gardener? Was He a perfect man on earth? Yes, He was a perfect man on earth! But He encountered all kinds of temptation while He was on earth. He depended on His Father to "cut off" all potential desires and acts which would yield no fruit. And the gardener, who is His Father, prunes or trims every branch in Him that bears fruit, in order for Him to bear more, bigger and better fruit; even those branches seem healthy, growing, and beautiful. How humble and submissive is our Lord who allows His Father to "cut off every branch in Him that bears no fruit" and prune "every branch that does bear fruit"! He suffered the pain of being worked on. If our Lord had been worked on by His Father, the gardener, what should we expect?

Our Lord first tells us, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." When we believed in Jesus' words and accepted Him as our Savior, God saw us as already "clean" or "washed” because of Jesus' work on the cross. The Word of Life, which is Jesus Himself, also sustains us, continues to make us aware of our sin and keeps us from sin. Once God considers us "clean", He offers us the most intimate union with Jesus. Among the seven great "I am" statements, the last one demonstrates the most intimacy and closeness of believers with Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. ... Remain in me, and I will remain in you. ... If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit." What a beautiful picture of believers being joined to Christ in a living relationship! Like a fetus is connected by the umbilical cord to the mother to get life supply, a branch has to be connected to the vine to get its life supply. Jesus Christ offers His life as a vine to supply all the needs of the life of believers as the branches. In one sense the union itself, the abiding of Christ, seems to depend upon the will of the believers. In another sense, branches do not have consciousness and will. But God granted all believers the freedom and will power by the work of Christ to make an effort to remain in Christ. Remaining in Him is not simply thinking His words as good teaching, but including being in union with Him, sharing His thoughts, emotions, intentions, power and love. Christ Himself already committed to remain in all believers. In a relationship both parties must be engaged. The divine takes the initiative and provides the means and the ability for the union to take place, but it cannot happen without the response of the believers, especially for the involved believers to get life benefit. And God's will be done no matter what.

Where there is life, there is fruit. Every true believers of Jesus bears fruit. The only life capable of producing spiritual life is the very life of Jesus Christ. When believers choose to remain in Christ, they will find that they produce spontaneously and often unconsciously the fruit of Christ-like character and influence. They cannot help to be fruitful once their union with Christ is guaranteed. Jesus pointed out, "No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." On their own, the disciples could not influence others for Christ, nor can we. We might try to and we might do a lot of good things. But those good things would never be good enough to produce fruit which lasts to eternity. All who lack an internal, spiritual union with Christ through personal faith in Him will lead to fruitless lives and fall away. The consequence of remaining in Christ is the bearing of much fruit, but the consequence of not remaining in Him is being cast out, withered, gathered and burned, like our Lord warned His audience, "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." Jesus' audience included not only the disciples who heard His words at that night, but also all who read the Gospels over the years.

For those who choose to remain in Christ, He promised them, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you." When we read His words and invite His words to remain in us, His thoughts and words begin to fill our subconscious thoughts and deepest emotions, like the branches get fed by the vine. His thoughts and desires guide us to ask what we wish in God's will, and God gives us what we request. Answered prayer is a privilege of close abiding; we find our prayers in tune with Jesus' will. Jesus told us the purpose we get this privilege. He said, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." The ultimate purpose of fruit-bearing is to bring glory to God, not man. If people look at our lives and praise us for the beautiful cluster of grapes, something is wrong. The praise belongs to God only. Nothing satisfies God the Father and causes others to praise Him as much as when we bear beautiful fruit, becoming more and more like His Son, because only God can do such works in sinful human beings to redeem them to be true image bearers for Him.

While Jesus and His disciples continued walking toward the olive grove, He spoke often to His disciples about love. He mentioned love so many times in the following verses from 9 to 17. He said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." Jesus called His disciples to remain in Him in His love, the most deep and sweet love which can truly satisfy love-hungry souls and which is also the source of true love. To remain in Jesus is to remain in His sweetest love. And Jesus loves His disciples with the same kind of love the Father has for His beloved Son. Jesus committed His unreserved love to His disciples. Now He taught His disciples how to respond to His love or love Him back. He said, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love." Jesus showed His love to His Father by having obeyed His Father's commands and by choosing to remain in His by love. Jesus wanted His disciples to demonstrate their true love for Him by obeying His commands. To love Jesus is to know Him. If we are too busy to read God's Word daily, we will find it hard to know Him. We need to know the true and perfect Jesus Christ revealed through Scripture to let Him teach us His will and strengthen us to obey Him. When we reveal our true love to Jesus through our obedience motivated by love, Jesus promises to share His joy in all circumstances with us. He said, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." Jesus possessed a greater joy than any person has ever experienced despite He suffered deeper than any person has ever known. His joy included His delight in His love relationship with His Father and His disciples. He wants our joy to be produced or completed through remaining in Christ's love. He desires us to find true and complete joy in our loving relationship with Him. On the other hand, if we fail to remain in Jesus' love and fail to keep His commandments, which is our reality from time to time, then we do not have the fullness of the joy He promises. Do you feel familiar with this kind of experience? It is such a pity to be a Christian who for some time is half-hearted in his obedience to Christ. Since this kind of person doesn't love sin enough to enjoy its pleasure, and doesn't love Christ enough to share His divine joy. 

Next, Jesus commanded His disciples "Love each other as I have loved you." The disciples are commanded to love in a particular way, according to the way Jesus loved. What was the love of Jesus like? Jesus told us, "Greater love has no one than this:  that he lays down his life for his friends." It is a love that will lay down one's life for his friends. As Jesus would shortly lay down His life for the disciples, He stressed that His disciples would need to lay down their lives for one another. In this way, the disciples can claim they love each other as Jesus has loved them. Only Jesus' friends are going to get His sacrificial love. If you are a believer, Jesus calls you His friend. He said, "You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." Jesus takes His believers as His friends to share His confidence. Jesus' friend is a confidant who shares the knowledge of His superior's purpose and voluntarily adopts it as his own. Friends understand the Friend while servants do not necessarily understand the Master. 

Then Jesus introduced a thought right at the point where the disciples might feel proud that they are the friends of Jesus, bearing great fruit for God. Jesus said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last." The disciples can never choose Jesus to be their friend, nor can we. Jesus chose them based on divine election. Jesus took the initiative out of His love for His own. Jesus said He chose and appointed His disciples to go and bear fruit which will last. This fruit will last until eternity only because it comes from the life of Christ. The faith, hope and love of anyone whom God allows us to help do not rest on us, but on God's life-giving power forever. Any human decision brought about by mere human influence would not count. Only fruit produced through Christ will remain for eternity. Jesus promised eternal fruit to His own friends who remain in Him. The primary expression of this fruit that Jesus speaks of here is the love between Him and His disciples, and within His disciples. This divine love manifested within the believers will bear witness to Jesus before the world, which will lead some to find eternal life, and will also reveal the judgment of those who reject it. The result of such fruit bearing, of living in union with Christ and sharing in His love, will be answered prayer, as Jesus said, "Then my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." Prayer in Jesus' name is prayer that is in union with Him and in keeping with His character and His purposes. Jesus' disciples have the assurance that Jesus has chosen and appointed them to bear fruit which will last, and His Father will answer their prayers asked in His name. This assurance corresponds to the fact that apart from Jesus the disciples can do nothing. The final verse in this section, Jesus repeated, "This is my command: Love each other." Like Jesus said before, obedience to Jesus' command is the evidence that we love Him, but the most wonderful thing is that the content of His command turns out to be love. Love each other as He has loved. For me the most profound truth is "Jesus loves me". He knows all my flaws and all my sins, He loves me! Because of this, my joy doesn't depend on circumstances, but on who Jesus is in my life. And more importantly, I need His grace and mercy to love the ones I have no love and cannot work it up on my own. Love for one another characterizes fruitful disciples. Are we one of them? The final reference to love for one another ties together this passage and provides a striking contrast to what immediately follows, Jesus' warning of the world's hatred of the disciples.

Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ... Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." The world is that which is in rebellion against God. Jesus related what He has experienced to what the disciples will now experience. The people who choose to reject Christ also reject His followers. Hostility to Christ causes hostility toward Christians. This does not mean that the world has no hatred for others besides Christians. Nor does it mean that someone who is hated by the world is necessarily being true to God. The world is filled with haters who hate others for all kinds of reasons. But Jesus does say His disciples shouldn't be surprised when opposition arises. And His disciples should take comfort from their union with the Lord when they experience the world's hatred. There is great comfort when the persecution is the result of loyalty to Jesus and not because of a tactless, unloving, judgmental attitude or sense of superiority. To receive the same treatment from the world for the sake of Christ as Jesus Christ received is a cause for joy, not self-pity. 

The world hates the disciples the same as it hates Jesus because they are Jesus' friends. The world wants nothing to do with Jesus Christ and will persecute those who belong to Him. Jesus told us, "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." The world does love to have more people to travel on hell bound journey. So to be loved by the world is definitely not something to be desired. The world's hatred of the believers, therefore, is an encouragement to them since it is due to the fact that they have been transferred to walk on the heaven bound journey. Jesus has confronted His opponents many times with the fact their rejection of Him revealed their alienation from God. Now Jesus says that their alienation will lead them to reject His disciples as well. He says, "They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. ...  He who hates me hates my Father as well." Jesus' name refers to His identify and His Character as it is made manifest. He states the reason the world reject Him is their ignorance of the One who sent Him. The disciples are actually experiencing the deep-seated rebellion of sinful humanity against the holy God. Jesus gives His disciples the bigger perspective, helps them to understand what they going through is part of the world's rejection of the Father and His Son.

Then Jesus explained that the world is guilty of its ignorance of the Father because of the witness He has borne in word and deed. He said, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. ... If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father." Christ's words and works condemn the world's manner of life. The life of a true believer also condemns it. God's law is written deep in the heart of everyone. When a true believer plans his life around God, others will become uncomfortably aware they are not giving God His rightful place in their lives. Some will repent. Other will not, but does everything possible to silence their guilty conscience. Those who refuse to repent will try to escape believers' company or will accuse believers of being narrow-minded. The dislike may easily be carried out in direct opposition or persecution. Actually, they are the foolish ones who deceive not only others but also themselves, even to a degree that they think they are "offering a service to God." The rejection of Jesus and His disciples is found in the very Scripture to which those rejecting them claim to be loyal. Jesus cited a verse, "They hated me without reason." Jesus uses the Scripture to assure His disciples God is in control so that they shouldn't be surprised by the way the world will treat their Lord and themselves.

When Jesus said He had chosen His disciples out of the world, He didn't order them to hide. Instead, He sent His Holy Spirit to be with disciples to make them capable to give His gospel to the whole world, to make disciples of all nations. He commanded His disciples, "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me. And you must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning." We might think that we are not the ones who were with Jesus from the beginning when He was preaching on earth. But Jesus was with us even before our own beginning of life. He chose us to be His own before we were even born. And the living Scripture is not limited by time and space. The living Scripture makes us present with Jesus all the time. So we must testify. When we encounter hatred, opposition, ignorance and slander for our testimony to Christ, He encourages us to keep in mind our two most precious resources, the Holy Spirit and the Scripture. The Holy Spirit is able to bring people of all background to Jesus Christ who is revealed by the Scripture, through the testimonies of believers who surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ for His purpose and His glory.

At the beginning of chapter 16, Jesus told His disciples, "All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. ... I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you." Jesus wanted His disciples to consider this warning as another great resource to help them to stand firm when persecution comes. Jesus wants us to focus on our personal growth in the likeness of Him by remembering that our faith in Him brings us persecution as an opportunity to bring glory to God the Father. The beautiful cluster of fruit named "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" which we bear especially during persecution will demonstrate to the whole world our likeness to our Lord Jesus Christ, and give glory and pleasure to God our Father.