πρῶτον

The research to which I previously alluded is still ongoing and will likely work its way into future posts, but I felt compelled to offer the following short meditation for late November/early December. I hope and pray that God's Word will bring encouragement to those who read it and that the full implication of what Christ undertook will resonate in their hearts as His disciples prepare to remember and celebrate His Incarnation.

εἰ ὁ κόσμος ὑμᾶς μισεῖ, γινώσκετε ὅτι ἐμε πρῶτον ὑμῶν μεμίσηκεν. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:18

ei ho kosmos hymas misei, ginoskete hoti eme proton hymon memiseken. — kata Ioannen 15:18

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me first before you. — John 15:18, translation mine

Never one to mince words, Jesus informs His disciples what they can expect from the world for following Him. Although He has taught them at length about how to love, the world will respond largely with hatred to the gospel message. At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”
(Matthew 5:43-45, ESV)

Jesus knows that people will mistreat each other, that this is the modus operandi of the world. He admonishes His disciples to distinguish themselves from the world with the love that comes from and has its model in Himself and in the Father.

Jesus' words in the gospel of John, however, should not give His disciples cause for despair but rather hope and thanksgiving. The precision in His wording assures His disciples that, wherever they go, He has gone before them and that whatever they endure He has endured for their sake first. It is with this understanding of Jesus as the forerunner and the example by which His followers must pattern their lives that the author of the Book of Hebrews writes:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:4-16, ESV)

The word sympathize cognately translates the Greek συμπαθῆσαι (sympathesai), which literally means to suffer with. In their lack of strength, then, Christ not only suffered before His disciples with all the weakness of human flesh but also suffers alongside them, lending them the immeasurable strength which He receives from the Father through the Holy Spirit to endure. The phrase “help in time of need” is in Greek εὔκαιρον βοήθειαν (eukairon boëtheian), which when broken out literally reads “well-timed running to the battle cry.” Christ runs to support His disciples in their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual battles when they cry aloud for help, even when in such straits that they do not know what to pray, for “the Spirit Himself intercedes for [them] with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26b, ESV).

Christians should therefore rejoice in the great gift and support with which Christ has blessed them, employing Paul's attitude when he writes to the church at Philippi, “All things I have strength for in Him who empowers me” (Philippians 4:13, translation mine). Christ, the true vine, is His disciples' strength and foundation: the root which conquered sin and death through love and resurrection. Because Christ went first, beset with all the weaknesses common to man but unblemished by sin, the Christian may follow despite the world's hatred, confident in Christ's leading and His steadfast promise of eternal life.

εὑρίσκω

I am currently engaged in some etymological research toward the next few posts, so November's post will be slightly delayed. Thanks for your patience!

ἵνα ἀγαπᾱτε

ταῦτα ἐντέλλομαι ὑμῖν, ἵνα ἀγαπᾱτε ἀλλήλους. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:17

tauta entellomai hymin, hina agapate allelous. — kata Ioannen 15:17

These things I am commanding you so that you may love one another. — John 15:17, translation mine

For a third time in this discourse, Christ enjoins the apostles to love one another (John 15:10, John 15:12, John 15:17) in order to underscore the importance of this missive. Only the prefatory addition of the phrase “Amen, Amen” could have added more weight to Christ’s words. The command to love one another is the literally crucial point at which Christ is driving and toward which Christ is headed that very evening.

It is tempting to quickly dismiss this and say that one heard Christ the first time or even the second time. Yet Christ repeats himself so that the message will not be lost but will stick in the mind of the listener. Love one another. This is not the natural human response in man’s fallen state. As it is written, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6, ESV) Christ is sending out His apostles so that they might faithfully proclaim this message which He has entrusted to them.

Christ has begun the discourse by assuring the apostles that if they remain in Him, then they will bear much fruit (John 15:4). Here, Christ encourages them that if they observe His commands then they will be able to love another. By this, He teaches them that love comes from the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit, but one must continually practice love as He has commanded in order to remain in Him and His love.

This raises the question naturally as to what love is. From Scripture, one sees that love is not indulgence but sacrifice, i.e., that which makes holy. The apostle Peter writes, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8, ESV). Love after the pattern presented by Christ, that is, sacrificial, forgiving love, redeems that which was unclean and heals that which was wounded, “for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15, ESV).

Love is not passivity but passion, and this passion is not the lust of hedonism but the devotion whose root is πάσχειν, “to suffer or be affected for good or for bad by anything as opposed to acting for oneself” (Liddell and Scott, 536)¹. Love in the vein of Christ’s sacrifice and the apostles’ martyrdom obeys the command: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV). This command is part of the Shema, one of the cores of Jewish worship of God the Father whose importance is such that Christ stated that “this is the great and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:38, ESV). The ardent fervor of this love holds God in the highest esteem and others before oneself, driving each to share one another’s burdens that all loads may be lightened — a suffering that brings relief.

Some may question the rationality of such an attitude, but such love is not irrationality. Rather, presenting yourselves to God as living sacrifices offers Him τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν ὑμῶν (ten logiken latreian hymon), “your logical service” (Romans 12:1c, translation mine). This service springs from the root of all love who is love, namely God. It is a service of love freely and consciously given as God’s grace is given.

To reckon love as an irrational tempest of emotion or physicality is to cheat love of its identity. Where God’s love grants life and hope, irrational counterfeits of love deal death and despair. The life of David sharply illustrates this in his encounter with Bathsheba. Spurred only by the sight of her bathing on her roof, David perpetrates adultery, fraud, and murder in a fit of lust. He literally abandons Uriah, a most trusted general who would have gladly given his life honorably in sacrifice for his king, to a dishonorable death in order to cover the shame of the adultery when Bathsheba’s pregnancy by David dissolves all chance of dissembling (2 Samuel 11:1-17).

The Bible speaks of David as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), but even such a man like David is riddled with flaws and imperfections. That David approximates the heart of God does not preclude the fact that he is a man, prone to err and wander on account of his own lusts. The memory of his own corrupt heart in the Bathsheba incident and other incidents likely induces David to cry out in conciliation when confronted later in life with the sin of his pride, “Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man” (1 Chronicles 21:13, ESV). David knew that God, the author of justice, would deal more justly with him than man, whose notion of justice ultimately issues from his belly or his loins.

Rational love after that which comes from the heart of God stands firm regardless of circumstance. With such love, Christ admonishes the apostles and all men to love one another, knowing that He is poised to make the consummate act of love upon the cross, choosing to offer service in obedience to God and for the benefit of men so that no barrier may exist between God and man except man’s unwillingness to choose to love God as God has loved him. Christ’s love extends so far as to subjugate Himself in such service while fully cognizant of His own right to authority. It is by this logical act of humility that the Son fully shares with men the love He has shared with the Father from before the dawn of time. The interposition of Christ’s blood pays the debt which man owes to God and frees man to fully love with all of his heart, strength, mind, and soul.

¹Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Lexicon Abridged from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.

ἵνα ὁ καρπὸς ὑμῶν μένῃ

οὐχ ὑμεῖς με ἐξελέξασθε, ἀλλ' ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὐμᾶς καὶ ἔθηκα ὑμᾶς ἵνα ὑμεῖς ὑπάγητε καὶ καρπὸν φέρητε καὶ ὁ καρπὸς ὑμῶν μένῃ, ἵνα ὅ τι ἂν αἰτήσητε τὸν πατέρα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου δῷ ὑμῖν. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:16

ouch hymeis me exelexasthe, all' ego exelexamen hymas kai etheka hymas hina hymeis hypagete kai karpon ferete kai ho karpos hymon mene, hina ho ti an aitesete ton patera en to onomati mou do hymin. — kata Ioannen 15:16

You did not elect me for yourselves, but rather I elected you for myself, and I have set you so that you may be underway and bear fruit and that your fruit may last, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give to you. — John 15:16, translation mine

One may ask what purpose Christ has in making this distinction between Him electing His apostles and His apostles electing Him. John's recording of Christ's words in the middle voice holds the key.¹ Had Christ been popularly elected by men as from men, His purpose and servitude would necessarily have been toward men. Yet by this turn of phrase, Christ makes it inescapably clear that He comes from God the Father in the service of the One who made men.

Christ's distinction is validated by the many men of Christ's time who spurned Him, as Isaiah prophesied several hundred years before Christ's birth:

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
(Isaiah 53:2-3, ESV)

Isaiah's prophecy is borne out in the reception Jesus received from those in his own hometown, who said,

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
(Mark 6:3, ESV)

Not even the apostles physically came to Christ on their own. Nathanael in his cynicism retorted when told of Jesus, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46b, ESV)

Ultimately, rejection by men captive to sin crucified Christ. By His trial, torture, and death, which Jesus' discourse with His apostles precedes by mere hours, one observes neither popularity nor power as the driving force in Christ's life, but utter subservience to the Father's mission for the Son for the sake of mankind, namely eternal salvation. The message is bound in the latter part of the verse: “so that you may be underway and bear fruit and that your fruit may last.” Christ fully intends for His apostles to branch out and bear fruit that others might be grafted into the everlasting vine, the true one. The empires of men fall and fade, just as Daniel interpreted from the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and prophesied of the Roman Empire and the empires that preceded it:

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
(Daniel 2:44-45, ESV)

Man in his finiteness cannot hope to bridge the chasm of sin between himself and God. For “those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath” (Psalm 62:9, ESV). Man's pattern of shortsighted choices runs throughout history. Even Samuel, one of the most obedient prophets in all Biblical history, does not see as God sees, favoring David's older and more seasoned brothers for anointing as king over all Israel,

but the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
(1 Samuel 16:7, ESV)

Christ makes it clear to His apostles that theirs is not a mission doomed to obscurity and comforts them in light of the coming trial in which all the apostles will desert Him. If there is any doubt in Christ and the validity of His choices, Luke's account describes Christ spending the entire night in prayer with His Father before electing the twelve from among His disciples (Luke 6:12-16). Christ has spent the entire discourse at the last supper with His apostles assuring them that all He has done has been at the behest of the Father and not of His own volition.

To man's irreparable benefit, Christ elected the apostles not as man elects but as His Father elected, personally hand-picking them to be leaders from among those who were not leaders according to man: from tax collectors and fishermen rather than scribes and priests. As it is written,

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
(1Corinthians 1:27-29, ESV)

God does not desire lofty spirits, but the humble and contrite in heart. David writes, “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17, ESV), and the prophet Micah echoes him, writing,

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:8, ESV)

Christ and the Father knew the men that they elected to be apostles, having created them. They knew the men's self-inflicted faults and the God-instilled strengths of each man for the purpose of establishing a church that would transcend the ages and bring God's message of salvation to all the earth. The Father and the Son did not seek the mighty as accounted among men, for they wanted servants and messengers that they could appoint and set so that those whom they sent out could bear the fruit that would last: everlasting fruit from the Tree of Life, namely Christ, the vine.

¹ Translator's Note: The interplay in this passage of John's gospel between the two forms of the Greek verb ἐκλέγω, “I choose, or I elect”, commends the reader to a dissection of the verb. Built from the preposition ἐκ, meaning “out of,” and λέγω, “I lay, I place, I call, I speak, I say,” ἐκλέγω literally means “I call out” or “I place outside.” I have rendered the verb as “elect” on cognate and semantic grounds. Since English lacks a conjugational middle voice, I have added the prepositional phrases to emphasize the reflexive nature of the Greek which John exercises to relay Jesus' reflection of purpose or benefit in the action of election upon Himself as the agent.

ἑτοιμάσομαι

Originally, my goal for κλῆμα 15:5 was to have a post every week delving into Scripture. Due to time constraints in my day to day, I have been unable to devote as much time as I need to faithfully reflect God's Word. Each post has become progressively more rushed, and the study is starting to suffer.

In order to give a better witness to the gospel, I have decided to scale back the frequency of posts to either bi-weekly or monthly. This will hopefully give me more time to research, pray, write, and edit so that God's Word may come through undiluted. I hope you will continue with me on this journey, and I will return with the next post for this study in September.

πάντα ἐγνώρισα

οὐκέτι λέγω ὐμας δούλους, ὅτι ὁ δοῦλος οὐκ οἶδεν τί ποιεῖ αὐτοῦ ὁ κύριος· ὑμᾶς δὲ εἴρηκα φίλους, ὅτι πάντα ἃ ἤκουσα παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου ἐγνώρισα ὑμῖν. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:15

ouketi lego hymas doulous, hoti ho doulos ouk oiden ti poiei autou ho kyrios; hymas de eireka filous, hoti panta ha ekousa para tou patros mou egnorisa hymin — kata Ioannen 15:15

No longer do I call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing; but you I have called friends, because everything that I heard from my Father I made known to you. — John 15:15, translation mine

In legal matters, culpability in crime often rests on the degree of knowledge or intent held by the perpetrator. Premeditated murder earns a weightier sentence than involuntary manslaughter. Patent violators who knowingly infringe receive stiffer fines than the ignorant. God's justice, which our own earthly justice dimly reflects, shares this gradation of culpability.

Christ tells a parable to illustrate the degree of culpability of man before God's law in accordance with the man's knowledge thereof, asking, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions” (Luke 12:42-44, ESV).

Contrasted with this picture of fidelity, Christ illustrates the fate of the willfully disobedient servant, saying, “And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating” (Luke 12:47, ESV). Christ distinguishes this servant from an unknowingly disobedient servant, adding, “But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating,” concluding, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48, ESV).

It is the hearing of the master's orders that makes the servant cognizant of expectation and accordingly culpable in failure. To this end, Christ has told His disciples everything He heard from His Father. Every one who has heard Christ's words therefore has heard everything the Father has chosen to reveal regarding His salvation. First, man had the law as given through Moses, concerning sin and death and the recognition that man is not fit to save himself. Now, through Christ, man has the law of grace concerning salvation and eternal life and the recognition that Christ is both necessary and sufficient to partake in eternal community with God.

Some may ask why this reversion into slavery, trading one master for another. To them I say, freedom is not license, and licentiousness is no ascension. Let us not be confused either, thinking that these parables exculpate us on account of God's mercy from the responsibility to share the Gospel of Christ. God demands our obedience, and He has clearly commanded us through Christ to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15, ESV) and made it known that “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16, ESV).

Let us take the apostle Paul's admonishment to heart: “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16, ESV). The apostle clarifies this by adding, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Romans 6:19, ESV).

The Greek words used for obedient and obedience are based on the verb ὑπακούω (hypakouo), comprised of ὑπὸ (hypo), “under,” and ἀκούω (akouo), “I hear,” i.e., “I listen under the authority of.” When Paul says τὴν άσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν (ten astheneian tes sarkos hymon), translated as “natural limitations,” literally “the weakness of your flesh,” he is speaking of man's inability to rule over himself. We are slaves by our fallen nature and cannot fully appreciate or understand true freedom until we have been perfected in Him who is perfect.

We need the Holy Spirit to control what we cannot, but first Christ must interpose His blood to pay the debt of sin, the price of our freedom. We need the Father to lift us out of the world and graft us into the true vine and prune us so that we may grow into the inheritance of His kingdom. We whom Christ calls friends were not always so. All were once, at heart, enemies of God. After millennia of prophets speaking at the direction of the Holy Spirit, it took God coming down to earth in bodily form to live and preach, to die and rise from the dead in order for many to hear His voice. Now that He has our ear, will we let Him lead the way?

οὐκέτι δοῦλοι

οὐκέτι λέγω ὐμας δούλους, ὅτι ὁ δοῦλος οὐκ οἶδεν τί ποιεῖ αὐτοῦ ὁ κύριος — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:15α

ouketi lego hymas doulous, hoti ho doulos ouk oiden ti poiei autou ho kyrios — kata Ioannen 15:15a

No longer do I call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing. - John 15:15a

Slavery is anathema to modern, enlightened cultures that pride themselves on individual independence. The abomination of man abusing power over his fellow man should be. Yet though we condemn slavery in its most obvious form, we embrace it in other less obvious but equally insidious forms: addiction, immorality, avarice, and wrath. Everyone who indulges in these commits sin, and as Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34a, ESV).

Paul reiterates Jesus' stark statement, writing, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods” (Galatians 4:8, ESV). The Greek word translated as “slave”, δοῦλος, indicates one born into slavery. Apart from the knowledge of God and His Word, we readily sell ourselves to anything but Him. We may not explicitly call what we devote all our time, thought, talent, and treasure as gods, but actions in this vein betray any feeble declarations of independence or irreligiosity.

In and of ourselves, we have no hope. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:4-7, ESV).

Thankfully, Christ prevailed over the world and its enslavements, even death, in His sacrifice and resurrection. If we accept this truth and the price paid for our freedom, then we will truly be free to become heirs of God's kingdom. Just as heirs are privileged to enjoy the inheritance which is set aside for them, we also are privileged to share in the glory which Christ shares with the Father. The apostle Paul writes, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:16-18, ESV).

Inheritance is not only a privilege. As Paul writes, followers of Christ should expect to share in Christ's suffering as well as His glory. Our motive for following Christ should not be the search of pleasure but the pursuit of God's kingdom and His righteousness. All those in Christ once sought after themselves and the decaying enticements of the world unto enmity with God, leading to death.

Despite its empty results, sin still entices. The apostle Paul had to admonish some of his slipping brothers and sisters in Christ , “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Galatians 4:9, ESV) We who follow Christ today must be equally mindful of the temptation to sin. Though no longer slaves to sin, we should use our freedom judiciously to avoid falling back into that slavery, according to the knowledge of the Father's will which Christ has given us through His Word in which He has enjoined us to remain.

παύω

There is no entry this week for κλῆμα 15:5. Please return next week for the continuation of our examination of John 15.

φίλοι

ὐμεῖς φίλοι μού ἐστε ἐὰν ποιῆτε ἃ ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαι ὑμῖν. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:14

hymeis filoi mou este ean poiete ha ego entellomai hymin. — kata Ioannen 15:14

You are my friends if you do the things I command you. — John 15:14, translation mine

Learning by rote has received much in the way of bad press as of late. The relentless and often haphazard pursuit of progress that typifies our current American culture dictates that teachers avail themselves of more recent and thus ipso facto more effective strategies. While educational innovation can be a worthy goal, the careless discarding of proven methods for the sake of novelty ultimately does didactics a disservice.

Repetition is a natural linguistic expression of emphasis. In Ancient Greek, reduplication of the initial phoneme of a verb serves a grammatical function in that it indicates the perfect aspect. In English, we will often reduplicate words to emphasize the quality or quantity of that which we are describing, e.g., “He's a Christian, I mean a CHRISTIAN-Christian” (source: Corpus of English contrastive focus reduplications, assembled by Jila Ghomeshi, Ray Jackendoff, Nicole Rosen, and Kevin Russell). Christ Himself frequently reduplicated the word “Amen” when pointing out something that He wanted listeners to focus on, saying “Amen, Amen, I say unto you.” Jesus is recorded as having used this construction twenty-five times across all the Gospels, three times in the thirteenth chapter of John's gospel alone (John 13:16,20,21).

Repetition and reduplication for emphasis are not limited to phonemes and words but extend also to discourses and concepts. Parents repeat admonitions to their children ad infinitum so that what is said will sink in. Anyone who has read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy can attest to the repetition of particular laws, especially in Deuteronomy, which is, as its name suggests, the second recitation of the law.

It should come as no surprise then to see Christ repeat many of His teachings. The exhortation to keep His commandments, which are the Father's commandments, falls into this category. Within two chapters of John's gospel, the exhortation is repeated five times:

• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15, ESV)
• “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21, ESV)
• “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.” (John 14:23b-24, ESV)
• “If you observe my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of my Father and remain in His love.” (John 15:10, translation mine)
• “You are my friends if you do the things I command you.” (John 15:14, translation mine)

Keeping God's commandments is indicative of our love for Him, His love in us, and our friendship with Him. The word which is translated as “friends” in John 15:14 is φίλοι, literally those who are held dear, sometimes used in Ancient Greek to describe not only friends but kinsmen, as well.

No one would call a man his friend if he were habitually abandoned by that man. We go to great lengths to maintain friendships with those around us, often fulfilling the requests of friends for the sake of those friendships. Why should we treat Christ any differently? If we claim friendship with Christ, let us live like true friends, and not only as friends but as servants of the one true God in obedience. For the things Christ commands are not mere inclinations but mandatory instructions from the Father to us for our good and the Father's glory.

As the apostle James admonishes, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:22b-25, ESV).

Do not be like Judas, who spurned Christ's friendship and betrayed himself to sin and death. Rather, let us follow the example of the apostle John, who stayed at the cross after all the other apostles deserted Jesus and who, at Christ's behest, received His mother Mary into his home (John 19:26-27). We should likewise receive and respond to that which Christ entrusts to each of us, namely His Word, the message of His salvation. As Jesus said to those who were following Him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31, ESV). Though we be burdened with all manner of sin, if we repent from that sin and accept Christ's sacrificial gift and daily seek His friendship through the reading and practice of His Word, He will free us by the power of His Holy Spirit from the sin that holds us captive.

ψυχή

μείζονα ταύτης ἀγάπην οὐδεὶς ἔχει, ἵνα τις τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ θῇ ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:13

meizona tautes agapen oudeis echei, hina tis ten psychen autou the hyper ton filon autou. — kata Ioannen 15:13

No man has love greater than this, that someone should lay down his life over his friends. — John 15:13, translation mine

Despite the admonitions of certain popular songs, the greatest love of all does not come from learning to love yourself but rather wells up from learning to love God and love as God loves. According to Christ, the highest expression of this is to lay down one's life over one's friends. Christ loved us enough to die over us, and His death and resurrection cover over our sins if we believe and repent and follow Him with earnest hearts.

Though the phrase ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων can be rendered practically verbatim into English, the Greek word used to indicate the life laid down, ψυχὴ (psyche), carries a broader and deeper connotation than the English “life”, though the alternatives present their own problems. The English cognate, psyche, hints at this deeper meaning, but even that does not encompass the entirety of what Christ did for us on the cross. We must turn to Scripture for further elucidation.

At its root, ψυχὴ is derived from the verb ψύχω (psycho), meaning “I blow” or “I breathe”, as well as “I cool”. The verb is one of many in Greek related to breath, each with its own shade of meaning. One of the first instances in which ψυχὴ appears in Scripture is in the Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. In Genesis, God mandates that ὃ ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ ψυχὴν ζωῆς (ho echei en heauto psychen zoes), that is, “what has within itself the breath of life” (Genesis 1:30b, translation mine), may have any green plant for food. In Hebrew, the phrase “breath of life” is נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה (nephesh chayah), נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) corresponding to ψυχῂ as “breath”. Were one to stop there, one might conclude that the word “life” carries all the semantic weight necessary to convey the import of Christ's sacrifice.

Looking back a couple verses, however, reveals ψυχὴ indicating not only the breath of a living creature but the living creature itself, e.g., ἑρπετὰ ψυχῶν ζωσῶν (herpeta psychon zoson), “swarms of living creatures” (Genesis 1:20b, ESV); πᾶσαν ψυχὴν ζῴων ἑρπετῶν (pasan psychen zoon herpeton), “every living creature that moves” (Genesis 1:21b, ESV); ψυχὴν ζῶσαν κατὰ γένος, (psychen zosan kata genos) “living creatures according to their kinds” (Genesis 1:24b, ESV). In each of these instances, the Hebrew root of the word translated as ψυχὴ in the Septuagint is נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh).

This usage also extends to man with some slight differences. According to the Scripture, “then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7, ESV). Though the phrase “living creature” is the same in the Hebrew and the Greek as in Genesis 1:20, the text notes that God breathed into the nostrils of the man, separating him from the animals, about whom no such note is made. In Greek, the verb is ἐνεφύσησεν (enefusesen), used perhaps because ψύχω as a verb historically lost its connotation with breathing to its alternate meaning of cooling, but in Hebrew, the verb root is וַפַּח (naphach), to which נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) is related. The Greek phrase used here for “breath of life”, πνοὴν ζωῆς (pnoen zoes), is derived from yet another Greek verb meaning to blow or breathe, πνέω (pneo), and the Hebrew likewise uses a different term, נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat chayyim).

All this sets a stage in which נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) and ψυχὴ see a broader usage throughout the Old Testament. As the breath of life comes to mean the life within, so also the physical life of man comes to mean his soul. The psalmist David declares, “My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad” (Psalm 34:1, ESV). He also notes that “the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul” (Psalm 10:3, ESV). נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) and ψυχὴ account for not only the man's physical life but his mental and emotional life as well.

In perhaps the most dramatic semantic extension, even God the Father speaks of His own soul through Moses, promising the nation of Israel that if the Israelites walk in the ways of the LORD, “I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you” (Leviticus 26:11, ESV). If they turn to idols instead of Him, God warns, “I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and My soul will abhor you” (Leviticus 26:30, ESV). David confirms this, saying of God, “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Psalm 11:5, ESV). The words נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) and ψυχὴ appear in these verses as well, even though God is creator and not creature.

This examination is brought to fruition when we consider Christ, “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7, ESV). As Christ is simultaneously both fully God and fully man, He carries within Himself one soul dedicated to the Father's work.

Isaiah witnesses to the unity of Father and Son as God says to him, “Behold My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen, in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1, ESV). This prophecy is echoed in Matthew's gospel (Matthew 12:18), underscoring its significance. God's soul (ψυχή) delights in Christ, the faithful servant, and the Father's Holy Spirit inhabits the Son as it has from before creation.

If Christ is then fully God and fully man, and if the ψυχή of which Christ speaks of laying down extends beyond mere breath to encompass the soul, it stands to reason that His sacrifice is not only the offering of the breath of life within Himself as the perfect, sinless lamb, but the emptying of His very soul, at once human and divine, so that He might be filled with the sin of the world to become the object of the Father's wrath and save those who believe in Him from impending destruction. Lest it still be unclear, the triune God ripped Himself apart, cutting off the Son from the divine fellowship which He had enjoyed from all eternity so that He might prepare a place for us with Him, making way and room for us through the holes in His hands, back, brow, and side.

Only Christ could have accomplished this work, for “although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:8-9, ESV). We are far from perfect, but we have Christ's example and His words and the promise of His ultimate work of love. Though we cannot offer ourselves for the sins of others, we should expend ourselves as living sacrifices, pointing through our daily witness to the One who can and did offer Himself so that those burdened by sin may find Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matthew 11:30). In seeking His friendship and obeying Him, we accept the salvation He bought, and in lives shining as lights we show others to seek Him as we have sought.

ἀλλήλους

αὕτη έστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ έμή, ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:12

haute estin he entole he eme, hina agapate allelous kathos egapesa hymas. — kata Ioannen 15:12

My commandment is this: that you should be loving one another just as I loved you. — John 15:12, translation mine

Up to this point in the discourse on the vine and the branches, Jesus has spoken of remaining in His and the Father's love, reiterating His reminder (Matthew 22:37-38, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27a) to His disciples of the first Great Commandment: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV). Now Jesus admonishes the apostles and us, who are completed in His joy and love, to pour this same love out to our neighbor, as it is written, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18b, ESV). This does not mean that we are to apply the self-serving narcissism that disguises itself as love to our neighbor. Such alleged love could only make idols of those around us. Rather, we should share the love which Christ has shown us as the only Son of “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3b-1:4, ESV).

This love which Christ has shown us and commanded us to live by does not consider the self first but others before self. We need only look to Christ's sacrifice to see that He loved us enough to become sin itself and die so that we might be saved from our sin and deemed righteous before the Father (2 Corinthians 5:21). We cannot repeat the inimitable and perfect sacrifice of Christ, who “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26b, ESV), but the apostle Paul reminds us of the quality of love which completes lover and beloved in joy, writing, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3, ESV).

A man must be grounded in God's love in order to love his neighbor properly. Godly humility, one should note, is not an exercise in sanctimony and self-flagellation. Such paltry gestures maintain their focus on the self. If we denigrate ourselves to avoid giving honor to another, we violate the second Great Commandment. Rather than seeking places of honor, we should offer them as we are given the opportunity, “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11, ESV).

As followers of Christ, we should “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11b, ESV) in light of the great mercy God has shown us. When Christ spoke the commandment to love one another as He loved us at His last supper with His disciples, He had not yet died. Though the hour of His death had not come at that moment, Christ had already been pouring out His life for His followers in His words and His works over His entire ministry. It is recorded that during the supper, Christ stripped down and washed the feet of His disciples (John 13:1-11), and “when He had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you’” (John 13:12-15, ESV).

If Christ, in His position of authority, could humble Himself to serve in such a way out of His love for us, surely we, who can only boast in Him as our salvation, should do likewise. As Christ lived for us, we must live for Him. As Christ died for us, we must die to ourselves that we might reach out in Christ's name to those around us. All followers of Christ are called, as Paul admonishes, “by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1b, ESV). As a sacrifice is by definition that which imparts holiness and as Christ is the righteousness in him who believes, let we who are in Christ live in such a way that our lives are completely poured out in holy love of God and holy love of neighbor, in both life and death.

χαρά

ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμὴ ἐν ὑμῖν ᾖ καὶ ἡ χαρὰ ῦμῶν πληρωθῇ. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:11

tauta lelaleka hymin hina he chara he eme en hymin e kai he chara hymon plerothe. — kata Ioannen 15:11

These things I have spoken to you so that this joy of mine may be in you and that your joy may be completed. — John 15:11, translation mine

Christ's investment in His disciples cannot be overstated. Not only does He supply those who follow Him earnestly with love and the means and the will to love, He brings them joy. For just as Christ delights in the Father and His love, so also the disciple delights in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For we who have accepted Christ's sacrifice and truly seek Him, this single outpouring of perfect love from the Father washes away our repeated failures to hit the mark of His holy standard. As John writes in one of his epistles, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:15-18, ESV).

As perfect love casts out fear, it fills the void that it drives out. It is this filling that makes us complete and able to conform to the image of and remain in the love of Christ, and we cannot help but to rejoice at God's graciousness. The Ancient Greek of the New Testament captures this relationship between grace and joy at the etymological level. Grace, or χάρις (charis), and joy, or χαρά (chara), both ultimately stem from the same root verb, χαίρω (chairo), “I rejoice, I delight”.

The key is God's delight in His creation and the favor of salvation with which He graces those who respond to His call. Those who respond and faithfully seek God progressively delight in His delight and love with thankful hearts as they mature in Him. If we consider that the word commonly translated as thanksgiving, εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), has its root in χάριτι (chariti), that is, grace, we may summarize it thus: God gives us grace whereupon we, gratified in His love, rejoice in gratitude. No longer under the punishment meted out to us for falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and His righteousness, we may confidently remain in God's love, letting it perfect us so that our own love and joy may become as complete as that of Christ.

If Christ be our foundation in this regard, we may be assured that our joy comes from love, not circumstance. Our happenstance does not dictate our joy. Therefore, we call it joy, not happiness, and we recognize that we are not fortunate, but blessed. In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul echoes Christ's call to remain in His love, admonishing them, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” (Philippians 2:1-2, ESV). It is the love that drives men to unity and community with one another and with God that completes them in joy.

John the Baptist exemplified this when asked if he begrudged Jesus the increase in following from John's disciples. John responded, “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30, ESV). True joy, like perfect love, does not seek the glory of self but pours out toward others. Rather than being incensed at Jesus' arrival, John rightly rejoiced in it, humbly serving the One for whom he had prepared the way. The Scripture translated here as “rejoices greatly,” χαρᾲ χαίρει (chara chairei), literally means “rejoices with joy.” The reduplication of the root underscores the pervasiveness and power of that joy which is shared among friends. Furthermore, the reflection of the construction from John 3:29, ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμὴ πεπληρῶται (he chara he eme peplerotai, “this joy of mine is completed”), in John 15:11 cannot be denied. Christ's gain is John's gain is our gain.

By this, we know that the purest and most persistent joy wells up from the connection we have in the vine, remaining in the Father's love and sharing His love through Christ with one another. Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Philippians, saying, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4, ESV), and still again:

“I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.”
Phillipians 4:10-14, ESV

Paul rejoices first in the Lord and again in the company of those who share not only his joy and his faith but his troubles and burdens as well. His joy is no random happy accident but a trust in Him who provides to those in need, and Paul's gratitude to both God and his brothers and sisters in Christ is evident. We who are in Christ should likewise cheerfully bear each other's burdens and gratefully accept each other's help that we may be completed by Christ in the joy that comes from serving the Father. This is the hallmark of true joy: the κοινωνία πνεύματος (koinonia pneumatos), or “participation in the Spirit” (Philippians 2:1c, ESV), which those grafted into the vine share in common as one body, one spirit in Christ. Abounding thus in the joy of Christ, which surpasses all circumstance, and rooted in “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7a, ESV), we may likewise abound in love, laying down our lives in service to God and one another.

τηρεῖν

ἐάν τὰς ἐντολάς μου τηρήσητε, μενεῖτε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῇ μου, καθὼς έγὼ τάς ἐντολάς τοῦ πατρός μου τετήρηκα καὶ μένω αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:10

ean tas entolas mou teresete, meneite en te agape mou, kathos ego tas entolas tou patros mou tetereka kai meno autou en te agape. — kata Ioannen 15:10

If you observe my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of my Father and remain in His love. — John 15:10, translation mine

Attention is hard to come by in this present age. Notice or notoriety are easily enough acquired, but attention, as in attention span and attention to detail, is in short supply. We know we are missing something, else we would not have deemed the deficit of attention a disorder. Yet despite this and other passing acknowledgments, our inclination to impatience drives us to praise those who respond off the cuff as quick-witted and those who are slow to speak as slow of mind.

Jesus, though master of the turn of phrase, did not invest in easily digested and just as easily discarded sound bytes, but rather made the audacious claim, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35, ESV). If this be true, it would stand to reason that one would want to pay close attention to or, as the word's Latin roots suggest, hold onto Jesus' words.

Christ's admonition to observe His commandments, the words He spoke to His disciples, deserves the same consideration. This emphasis on the observation of the Father's commandments given through Christ is mirrored in Matthew's gospel where Jesus tells His disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a, ESV). Both evangelists combine forms of the Greek verb τηρέω (tereo, “I observe, I watch, I keep, I guard”) and forms and derivations of the Greek verb ἐντέλλομαι (entellomai, “I command, I enjoin”) to convey Jesus' words concerning the observation of commandments.

The word observe comes from the Latin servare, which also means to watch or guard and which is used to translate the forms of τηρέω in both verses for the Latin Vulgate. Observation, when properly done, is a time-consuming and painstaking task. Scientific observation is a studied watch of phenomena in consideration. The object is kept under close scrutiny and extensive time must be devoted to its study in order to support any conclusions arising therefrom. Just as one hour of perfunctory research into a phenomenon cannot confirm a hypothesis, a cursory glance at a smattering of Scripture cannot provide the basis for a firm foundation in Christ. The observation of the Father's commandments through Christ is a life's work and the proof of remaining in Him and His love.

This is not to say that our works will save us — far from it! For if we were righteous on our own account, there would have been no need for Christ. Salvation comes from God, and that through His grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV). Whatever good works we may bear in Christ are the fruit, not the seed: not the stimulus, but the response.

The word translated as “commandments” should serve as a reminder of this. Ἐντολάς, derived from the verb ἐντέλλομαι, “I command”, is at its root based on the verb τέλλω (tello), or “I make to arise”, and more generally, “I accomplish, I cause to be done.” With the prefixture of the preposition ἐν (en), that is, “in, on, by means of,” the verb ἐντέλλομαι takes on the character of something akin to “I accomplish in or upon.” With the commandment remaining the accusative direct object to be accomplished, Christ's disciples, as the dative indirect objects of the charge in Matthew's gospel, become the instruments by which God achieves His purposes. This should come as no surprise, “for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).

The Father reveals His will through Christ and the Word and makes that which He has commanded to arise in us and come to fruition, stirring us to action according to His good counsel. We must therefore remain in His Word to know what He commands and remain in His love to know how to love. Christ is right when He says that we can do nothing without Him (John 15:5), we with our all-too-short attention spans and affectation to detail. Yet we have hope in the everlasting Word of Him who goes before us, for though we be incomplete in love — in short, fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) — in Christ we are complete, and in His word we are completed.

ἀγάπη

καθὼς ἠγάπησέν με ὀ πατήρ, κἀγὼ ὑμᾶς ἠγάπησα· μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ έμῇ. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:9

kathos egapesen me ho pater, kago hymas egapesa: meinate en te agape te eme. — kata Ioannen 15:9

Just as my Father loves me, I also love you: in my love remain. — John 15:9, translation mine¹

God's love, eternal and unchanging, is the firmament upon which our faith stands. As Moses testified, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4b, ESV) and Christ reiterated, “the words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works” (John 14:10, ESV), we may trust on the testimony of at least two witnesses that Christ does indeed love us as the Father loves us. If we do not trust Christ to testify about Himself, though self-testimony be admissible even in our courts today, we may “believe on account of the works themselves” (John 14:11b, ESV) that Christ performed and on account of the testimony of the evangelists who were eyewitnesses. We have ample reason to respond as Moses exhorted Israel to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5b, ESV).

The fervency of this admonition springs from the striking difference between love which comes from God the Father and what the world passes off as love. Jesus explicitly tells His disciples to remain in the love that is His, which in turn is the Father's. John's use of the emphatic possessive pronoun έμῇ in postnominal appositive position demarcates this divide. Whereas Christ demonstrated such utterly sacrificial love on the cross as to put all others above Himself, most of all the Father, to whom Christ submitted in an excruciating act of obedience, the world loves only that from which it stands to gain in comfortable and countable acts of reciprocity.

Some may ask what Father, whose love is so unshakeable and impeccable, would send His own Son to die as an object of wrath. To those who doubt God's love, Isaiah rebuts:

• Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD
• or what man shows Him His counsel?
• Whom did He consult
• and who made Him understand?
• Who taught Him the path of justice,
• and taught Him knowledge,
• and showed Him the way of understanding?
• Isaiah 40:13-14, ESV

Man is as nothing compared to God. Until man can create his own universe from nothing and establish its physical and moral laws and define love, he must accept God's definition in this one.

We have it on good authority that “anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love” (1 John 4:8, ESV) and that with God “there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17b, ESV) and that God will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 48:11). God wants to make it undeniably clear that His love exceeds the love of the world, and to demonstrate this unsurpassable love, He died for us not when we were His friends but when we were His enemies. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10, ESV).

Only in Christ can we have true peace, for as Jesus declared to His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27a, ESV). One need only look to the present age, to say nothing of the millennia of human history, that the world gives detente, not peace; conditions, not grace. God, on the other hand gives us an assurance that is true, a hope outside ourselves. Christ emptied Himself and became that which God hates, namely sin, to draw us to dwell in the Father's love. As it is written, “for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV). The debt of our sin had to be paid first so that God might indwell us by His Holy Spirit and not destroy us in our wickedness. The Holy Spirit then acts as our counselor, teaching us to obey the Father's commands which are given to us through His Son, who by completing us in love helps us to love completely.

¹ Translator's Note: I have rendered the two aorist verbs from John 15:9, ἠγάπησέν and ἠγάπησα, as indefinite presents in English, whereas most modern translations use the present perfect for this verse. Use of the present for aorist verbs is not unprecedented, as Martin Luther rendered the same verse thus in German: “Gleichwie mich mein Vater liebt, also liebe ich euch auch. Bleibet in meiner Liebe!” (John 15:9, Luther)

I believe John 15:9 and the previous two verses primarily conform to the pattern of Greek known in grammatical circles as the gnomic aorist, which is used to express eternal truths, as with proverbs. Given the proverbial nature of what Christ is relating, it seems appropriate to render the verses in befitting English idiom. I would possibly even venture an emendation of my previous translations such that John 15:7-9 would read “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, whatever you may be wishing, ask, and it shall come to be for you. In this my Father is glorified, that you should bear much fruit and become my disciples. Just as my Father loves me, I also love you: in my love remain.”

In this way, the present subjunctive θέλητε (thelete, “you may be wishing”) is drawn out to remind the Christ follower that whatever his immediate and present need and desire in life, the aorist imperative invitation to ask (αἰτήσασθε, aitesasthe) always stands. This is in accord with the Scripture that encourages us to “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16b, ESV). If we remain in Christ and seek the will of the Father, He will grant whatever we ask.

μαθηταί

ἐν τούτῳ ἐδοξάσθη ὁ πατήρ μου, ἵνα καρπὸν πολὺν φέρητε καὶ γένησθε έμοὶ μαθηταί. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:8

en touto edoxasthe ho pater mou, hina karpon polyn ferete kai genesthe emoi mathetai. — kata Ioannen 15:8

In this my Father is glorified, that you should bear much fruit and become my disciples. — John 15:8, translation mine

Those who seek God's will do not seek also their own glory. Though He may bestow a measure of it upon His creation, it is not the creation's, but God's, shared from the overflow of His perfect love. Christ tells His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16, ESV). No follower can be the forerunner of Him who is “the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev 1:8, 21:6, 22:13, ESV). Therefore, let him who is in Christ put the Almighty first in his heart.

The Lord Himself declares through the prophet Isaiah:

• For my name's sake I defer my anger,
• for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
• that I may not cut you off.
• Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
• I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
• For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
• for how should my name be profaned?
• My glory I will not give to another.
• Listen to me, O Jacob,
• and Israel, whom I called!
• I am he; I am the first,
• and I am the last.
• Isaiah 48:9-12, ESV

In spite of our rebellion, God will make manifest His perfect love to the glory of His holy name. The furnace of affliction is the pruning of the branches meant to wipe out the disease of sin from our blighted natures. Where we are faithless, He remains faithful. He has kept His covenant with man in spite of man's incessant and continued breaches. May all glory be to God the Father from whom flows all holiness and patience and grace and love!

This warrants an outpouring of love and gratitude on account of the great mercy shown. It is to this purpose that God tries those in the vine, to make them more like Christ in humility, holiness, and love. As a result, the connection of the branches to Christ is strengthened to spare them from the falling out that comes from seeking the glory of self. By this discipline in the vein of the life of Christ, who bore our sin and suffered the cross, the Father makes us disciples of Christ to bring us into new life with Him.

Who then is the disciple? The Greek word translated as disciple, μαθητῆς (mathetes), cognate with the root of the word mathematics, means one who learns by seeking and rigorous inquiry. The disciple must therefore “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33a, ESV) through the rigorous study of God's word and, as the Holy Spirit convicts and leads, bear the fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,” and “self-control” (Galatians 5:22b-23a, ESV).

As the disciple preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ through word and deed, God is truly glorified. For just as the Word was sown among us and as we ripen through the pruning and care of the Earth-worker if we remain in the vine, so we too produce a harvest that God uses to sow and spread the Word anew to make the vine grow, one body in Christ.

Thus are we perfected as disciples, spurred on by faith in the promise of Christ, the promise of everlasting life. This promise rests on the love shown in His sacrifice. As Christ loved us, so we, His disciples, must love, for “anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:8-9, ESV).

ὃ ἐάν θέλητε αἰτήσασθε

Ἐὰν μείνητε ἐν ἐμοὶ καὶ τὰ ῥήματά μου ἐν ὑμῖν μείνῃ, ὃ ἐάν θέλητε αἰτήσασθε, καὶ γενήσεται ὑμῖν. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:7

ean meinete en emoi kai ta hremata mou en hymin meine, ho ean thelete aitesasthe, kai genesetai hymin. — kata Ioannen 15:7

If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, whatever you wish, ask, and it shall come to be for you. — John 15:7, translation mine

I have heard some express the belief that prayer is pointless. Some have declared it not only pointless but have also condemned it as an exercise in sanctioned cupidity. The argument asserts that selfless followers of Christ should not be wasting time begging for selfish desires. Some may even argue that because God already knows what we need, petitioning Him displays a lack of faith.

It does not help that in recent years the so-called prosperity gospel with its focus on earthly riches and physical comfort has diluted the message of Christ's suffering and sacrifice. Accusers seize on this disparity to justify their negative stereotypes of Christian faith as sanctimony and prayer as greed.

Christians may shrug this off as mere denominational discrepancies or ecclesiastical adiaphora, but, as the body of Christ, we should accurately reflect Him. It is critical for followers of Christ to fully understand what he means when he says, “Whatever you wish, ask, and it shall come to be for you.”

The first thing to understand is that God is not a cosmic concierge. As the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit hold sway over man, not man over God. Christ had already told His disciples, “Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14, ESV). Our petitions should seek the Father's glory, not our own self-aggrandizement.

The apostle Paul adds, writing of Christ, “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16, ESV). As the Son is one with the Father, it is meet that He should share in the Father's glory. In light of this dynamic, petitions should be presented in deference to Father and Son through the Holy Spirit, not in false humility that seeks to be praised but in thankful consideration that seeks to serve.

Despite what some may teach and others may accuse, prayer does not seek first the comfort of man. Suffering and need remind the Christ follower to rely wholly on God. Paul relates to the church a period of terrible trial:

… we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.
2 Corinthians 1:8b-10

Had Paul devoted all his energy and thought to the want and suffering of his ordeal, it would have enslaved him. Instead, Paul's focus on God freed him to preach the gospel and accomplish the Father's will. Likewise, the writer of Hebrews exhorts all Christians, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11, ESV).

It is with this mind that we should approach prayer, as a training of our focus on God through constant conversation with Him. If this be the goal, prayer will reflect God's perfect will rather than man's capricious desire. This underscores the importance of remaining in Christ — to discern the will of God and to carry out His purpose as His body, the Church.

As God spoke to Moses, “You shall therefore lay up these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 11:18, ESV). Constant devotion to prayer and Scripture are integral to abiding in God's Word, namely Christ, the vine. This is not only for individual enrichment but the enrichment of all through the preaching of the words of God, the gospel, to present and future generations as He prescribed, that is, “to teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 11:19, ESV).

As members of Christ's body, we participate in the divine fellowship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just as no emissary may ask that which does not represent the one who sent him, no petition invoking Christ's name outside of His holy character will be granted by the Father. Yet if we glorify God through a life of prayer truly made in Christ's name, we will share in His glory alongside Christ, whose sacrifice redeems us.

πῦρ

Ἐὰν μή τις μένῃ ἐν ἐμοί, ἐβλήθη ἔξω ὡς τὸ κλῆμα καὶ ἐξηράνθη καὶ συνάγουσιν αὐτὰ καὶ εἰς τὸ πῦρ βάλλουσιν καὶ καίεται. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:6

ean me tis mene en emoi, eblethe exo hos to klema kai exeranthe kai synagousin auta kai eis to pyr ballousin kai kaietai. — kata Ioannen 15:6

“If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown outside like the cutting and is dried up, and they gather the cuttings and throw them into the fire, and the cuttings are burned up.” — John 15:6, translation mine

Damnation is not a popular topic. The current zeitgeist condemns the mere concept as antiquated, intolerant, and unfair. I have heard the subject characterized as Old Testament thought in opposition to, as C.S. Lewis called it, the allegedly indulgent grandfather God of the New. Though caked with centuries of patina, this particular gnostic heresy must still be addressed as it perpetually tries to creep into the Church like poison oak.

Proponents of this erroneous ditheism cite Old Testament prophets speaking of God's coming wrath in juxtaposition to Christ's admonition to “judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1, ESV) or other cherry-picked verses to make their point. God does explicitly speak of the execution of His wrath against false vines that bear Him no fruit:

• And now I will tell you
• what I will do to my vineyard.
• I will remove its hedge,
• And it shall be devoured;
• I will break down its wall,
• and it shall be trampled down.
• I will make it a waste;
• it shall not be pruned or hoed,
• and briers and thorns shall grow up;
• I will also command the clouds
• that they rain no rain upon it.
• Isaiah 5:5-6, ESV

The consequences of not following God, particularly when claiming His favor, are bleak. Yet Isaiah is not the only witness to this aspect of God's justice and righteousness.

Christ Himself speaks of the same damnation and judgment. John records the same reaction to fruitless branches from Jesus' mouth (John 15:6) as Isaiah records from from the Father's. Matthew witnesses Jesus saying, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). Mark tells of Jesus preaching, “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43, ESV). Luke testifies the same through recalling Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where the rich man was condemned to eternal fire for his lack of compassion and rejection of God's ways (Luke 16:19-31, ESV). All four evangelists depict Jesus describing God's wrath as fire and damnation as eternal torment. In this, the Son and the Father agree, for as Christ Himself said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works” (John 14:10b, ESV).

As man cannot separate the Father and the Son, the next heresy condemning damnation is the belief that God is a sadist. This belief must rest on the premise that man deserves everything he thinks he desires without question. The selfishness that screams, “I am too lovable to be damned” exalts the man above the Maker, thinking that God loves man on man's own intrinsic worth. Yet man's intrinsic worth comes from what God has put into him, namely the breath of life and creation in God's image.

Accordingly, the man who refuses the Father's tending refuses the very thing that gives him life. The spiritual sclerosis that blocks the sap of the vine from entering the heart is an act of suicide, cursing God for what He has made out of the overflow of love inherent in His character. It is the limb that rejects the body, attacking the thing meant to save it. Consequently, the hardened cutting falls out of the vine and dries up.

The one active verb in John 15:6 of which man is the agent is μένῃ, to remain. After deciding not to remain in Christ, the dried out man can do naught but passively wait to be gathered and thrown into the fire. The fall from the vine is not because of the sadism of the Father, but rather the masochism of man, born out of hatred of self on account of origin unto eternal death. It is useless to curse God for stamping into us an indelible reminder of Him and our need for His presence in our lives. As we stem from the Father's work, remaining in Christ and the Father's will is the only viable option.

καρπόν

μείνατε ἐν ἐμοι, κἀγω ἐν ὐμῖν. καθῶς τὸ κλῆμα οὐ δύναται καρπὸν φέρειν ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἐὰν μὴ μένῃ ἐν τῇ ἀμπέλῳ, οὕτως οὐδὲ ὑμεῖς ἐὰν μὴ ἐν ἐμοὶ μένητε. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:4

meinate en emoi, kago en hymin. kathos to klema ou dynatai karpon ferein af' heautou ean me mene en te ampelo, houtos oude hymeis ean me en emoi menete. — kata Ioannen 15:4

“Remain in me, and I (will remain) in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself if it does not remain in the vine, so neither can you if you do not remain in me.” — John 15:4, translation mine

Unlike God, no man can see into another man's heart. Interpersonal relationships depend on the externalities by which one deduces another's inner character. Some take advantage of this knowledge gap to defraud their fellow man, but Christ gave His disciples advice on how to distinguish true godly character from false:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”
Matthew 7:15-18, ESV

Like a tree with its fruit, a life outwardly bears hallmarks of its healthiness. A perverse heart does not open the arms except to glut itself, nor does a malicious spirit extend the hand except to strike another down. Even the most painstaking attempts to disguise a corrupt core fall like limbs from a rotten tree. A sick interior always betrays the death within itself.

In the same fashion, the life of Christ inside those who remain in Him cannot be hidden. Born of and fed by the sap of God's Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Christ follower in turn feeds those who receive it. This fruit is the good works which grow out of the grateful response of the disciple to God's calling to repent and seek Him. These works do not earn God's salvation but proclaim it.

It is with this understanding that Solomon writes, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30, ESV). Man has lost access to the tree of life since Adam and Eve disobeyed God (Genesis 3:22), and all his striving has not won it back. We are not immortal of our own power. If we bear good fruit, we cannot claim credit. If we gain wisdom in capturing souls to God, we do so in Christ's name. As the vine produces fruit through the branches, so Christ bears fruit through His body of followers. Salvation accordingly comes as God's grace, and our righteousness is Christ in us.

Christ is our tree of life if we remain in Him and drink in His Word. If we fail to remain in Him and instead spurn His teachings, we will bear rotten fruit. God speaks through the prophet Isaiah:

• And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
• and men of Judah,
• judge between Me and and My vineyard.
• What more was there to do for my vineyard,
• that I have not done in it?
• When I looked for it to yield grapes,
• why did it yield wild grapes?
• Isaiah 5:3-4, ESV

The answer is that “the backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways” (Proverbs 14:14, ESV). When God looked to His people who had turned away from Him, He saw the rottenness and bitterness that leached from their hearts into the fruit of their lives.

Although tempting at first bloom, the hollow fruit of wickedness starves and weakens. The ripe fruit of a life in Christ feeds and strengthens to eternal life. Let us not slide back into our former lives of dryness and decay, for “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12, ESV).

καθαροί

Ἤδη ὑμεῖς καθαροί ἐστε διὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν λελάληκα ὑμῖν — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:3

ede hymeis katharoi este dia ton logon hon lelaleka hymin — kata Ioannen 15:3

“Already you are clean on account of the word that I have spoken to you.” — John 15:3, translation mine

In his natural depravity, man's fixation on filth is solely surpassed by his concomitant compunction toward cleanliness. After being stuffed daily on a diet of lascivious, murderous, and narcissistic images, the average American receives a copious second helping in self-help images as a digestive aid to cope with the inevitable indigestion. Yet this incessant quest to make us palatable to ourselves without the rigor of an actual scouring can only palliate the pain of our sin according to the law of diminishing returns.

Christ asserts on the contrary that it is the word that He has spoken that cleanses a man. The author of Hebrews agrees, writing that “the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12, ESV). God's Word prunes man, cutting away selfishness so that self-sacrifice may grow in its place.

God Himself affirms to Moses, “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut 8:3, ESV), which Jesus reiterates to Satan when tempted in the desert (Luke 4:4). Not only does God's Word prune, but it also gives life, just as the sap of the vine gives life to the branches.

This invigorating and incisive power of the Word has been eternally with God. John the evangelist confesses that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2, ESV). God's Word is eternal and everlasting and, as John further expounds, is Christ Himself (John 1:3-18). The author of Hebrews concurs, relating that “Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8, ESV).

With Christ as the eternal Word, man can be assured of His durability and truthfulness. When Christ says , “λελάληκα, I have spoken,” His use of the present perfect indicates the completeness of His action. Christ has told His disciples all that they need to know about salvation. And, lest anyone dismiss Christ's words as idle talk, He not only spoke them but lived them, and not only lived them but died on them and was raised from the dead.

The life and sacrifice of Christ is to be the template for our lives. Paul writes in this vein:

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5:24-27, ESV

This admonition to self-sacrifice, the ultimate form of love, is not only for the married. Each disciple must submit to Christ and His lordship in baptism, following His complete and perfect Word, which is Himself, as He demonstrated. God cleanses us (καθαίρει, kathairei, John 15:2) as we are pierced (διϊκνούμενος, diiknoumenos, Hebrews 4:12), literally reached through, by His Word. Consequently, our lives must be lives of sacrifice for our brothers and sisters not only in Christ, but also in the flesh, remembering that while we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-11; Colossians 1:19-23). In this alone, our living connection with Christ and His Word, we ripen and bear fruit to His glory and our salvation.

αἴρει / καθαίρει

Πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό, καὶ πᾶν τὸ καρπὸν φέρον καθαίρει αὐτὸ ἵνα καρπὸν πλείονα φέρῃ. — κατὰ Ὶωάννην 15:2

Pan klema en emoi me feron karpon airei auto, kai pan to karpon feron kathairei auto hina karpon pleiona fere. — kata Ioannen 15:2

“Every branch in Me not bearing fruit He carries off, and every branch bearing fruit He prunes (cleanses) so that it may bear much fruit.” — John 15:2, translation mine

Dead branches require little to no provocation to break off from a trunk or vine. Without a link to the main sap line, the branch can no longer produce. It is not fed, and cannot in turn feed any flowers or fruit that might have sprung from it. So it is with those who claim Christ and yet harden their hearts against His Word.

Living branches, on the other hand, flower and fruit as they receive the sap and its nutrients. Yet a good gardener will frequently prune back branches in order to increase their yield. Although this often leaves the branch bare and exposed at its core, it will come back twofold or threefold. So it is with those who claim Christ and let the Father, the earth-worker, prune them.

John plays the verbs αἴρει and καθαίρει against each other phonetically to amplify this dichotomy in the ancient Greek. The verb αἴρει signifies the carrying off of the dead branches. There is no resuscitating the branches that are already dead. The dessicated limbs which can only be trashed or burned did not dry out in having sap pushed into them from the roots but in resisting the sap through their own hardening.

Likewise, God has not been stingy with His blessings to all men, for as God told Adam, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is one the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food” (Gen 1:29, ESV). But man's stubbornness in rejecting God's gift and seeking his own sustenance sealed his fate, and God turned Adam over to his own desires. Yet all the advances from Adam's time until now in farming, hunting, or even genetic engineering cannot create matter ex nihilo. The raw materials must still be provided by God.

Conversely, the verb καθαίρει signifies the pruning back of the living branches. Τhe adjective καθαρὸς (katharos), or clean, forms the root of this verb, and pruning is the cleansing of the branch. Just as a gardener trims the branches of a vine to remove dying tendrils or unnecessary and twisted growth, so God applies His discipline to the faithful who accept His pruning of all that is dying, unnecessary, or twisted in them.

The hardening or yielding of the individual's heart to God's direction and tending is a response to didactic pain. Ironically, the one who hardens his heart to escape the pain will eventually, unless he repents, suffer the eternal pain of the second death, whereas the one who yields to accept the pain will suffer for the moment but grow into new life. The apostle James admonishes us, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4, ESV) and again, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12, ESV). By accepting God's pruning in our lives, we may come before Him at the last, sanctified by the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ and nourished and cleansed by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

γεωργός

Καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ γεωργός έστιν. — κατὰ Ὶωάννην 15:1β

kai ho pater mou ho georgos estin. — kata Ioannen 15:1b

“And my Father is the earth-worker.” — John 15:1b, translation mine

Human effort has done much to subdue the world, but many things still grow wild around and inside us. If we are insufficient to the task of saving ourselves and the world, one may well ask how it can be done. Christ reminds us that God is the earth-worker. The compound word γεωργός, comprised of the words γῆ (ge, earth) and ἔργον (ergon, work, task, deed), describes this facet of God's personality.

Jesus makes an incisive point in referring to His Father this way. Man's first job, tending the garden of Eden, was patterned after this aspect of the Father. Yet upon Adam's and Eve's disobedience, God cast them out of Eden, saying, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19, ESV). The earthen man, created to cultivate, became the crop in need of cultivation.

Keenly aware of the longstanding rift between God and man, Isaiah wrote:

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
Isaiah 5:1-2, ESV

After man's expulsion from the garden, God had planted Israel to cultivate her as His chosen people, as choice vines, and to instill His Law in them that they might reflect it before the nations. Israel instead refused His cultivation and turned wild, yielding no good fruit.

Despite this, God in His infinite love and mercy planted Christ, the intercessor who at once incorporates and exceeds the Law given Moses. The Father “saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld Him” (Isaiah 59:16, ESV). Where man failed to obey (Isaiah 59:11-15), Christ did only the will of the Father (John 15:19) and fulfilled the Law in its entirety. Beyond this, Christ accepted the full punishment due men for all time, reconciling man to God and reinstating man in the Father's service if man will repent from his sin and believe in the salvific power of Christ's sacrifice.

For our part, all we can do is accept the gift already given, remembering that God is at work in our earthen natures through His grace. We do not work to earn a wage from God, for we are His adopted sons, not hired hands. Rather, we can accept God's ingrafting into Christ's body, the church, through repentance from sin, baptism into Christ, and confession of faith. Once connected with the vine, we can accept His nourishment by reading His Word, relying on His provision, and responding to Him through prayer. Our will shall thus align with His, and we will more readily accept His pruning, casting off the things that keep us from Him and ridding ourselves of the idols which fail to feed us.

ἄμπελος

Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινὴ — κατὰ Ὶωάννην 15:1α

Ego eimi he ampelos he alethine — kata Ioannen 15:1a

“I am the vine, the true one” — John 15:1a, translation mine

Christ introduces the metaphor of the vine to his disciples with an implicit dichotomy. That He qualifies Himself as the true vine suggests that other false vines exist. Strengthening this suggestion, the adjective ἀληθινὴ, true, receives extra emphasis through its postnominal appositive placement. The English equivalent would be the difference between Jesus saying, “I am the vine, the true one,” versus “I am the true vine.”

The identity of the false vine or vines is not explicitly related. The commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, however, infers a reference to Isaiah 5, wherein the prophet talks of a vineyard planted by the Lord. Isaiah prophesies:

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
Isaiah 5:7, ESV

Israel and Judah themselves were false vines, having abandoned God's righteousness for man's licentiousness and true worship for lip service. God's displeasure was made known through the prophets, but when the people did not turn from their wickedness, He sent them into exile. In the time of Jesus' incarnation, many prided themselves on slavish devotion to their interpretation of God's Law. Jesus, though, decried their devotion as false and their worship as hollow.

Lest we rest secure in our historical distance from Jesus' words or God's words through Isaiah, we should be mindful that Israel and Judah are not the only false vines. Any society or subculture that promises instant wealth, immense power, or a painless life on sheer human effort ignores the brokenness of the world and the incapacity of man. In such a vine, the branches must feed the root. Devotees must vainly hope that their subsidiary effort will make the vine healthy.

Christ as the vine feeds the branches Himself. The only sinless life became the only selfless sacrifice that could atone for our sins and purchase our salvation. With every branch in Christ an ingraft, none can live apart from Him. Living in the true vine requires a surrender, a willingness to admit one's inabilities and accept the invitation that God extends through Jesus Christ, His Son.

This cuts across the grain of the American cult of self-sufficiency, but the cutting is necessary for the ingrafting to begin. We must humble ourselves before God and place our trust in Christ, believing Him when he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, ESV). If we seek other vines, there is no hope of life. If we claim Christ but reject the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the ingrafting will never take. We must allow the Holy Spirit given by the Father upon our ingrafting into the vine, Jesus Christ, to work in us and through us. Thereby we can receive eternal life, not by our own herculean efforts at righteousness, but by God's outpouring of His righteous Spirit.

κλῆμα

ἐγὼ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος, ὑμεῖς τὰ κλήματα. ὁ μένων ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος φέρει καρπὸν πολύν, ὅτι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν. — κατὰ Ὶωάννην 15:5

Ego eimi he ampelos, hymeis ta klemata. Ho menon en emoi kago en auto, houtos ferei karpon polyn, oti choris emou ou dynasthe poiein ouden. — kata Ioannen 15:5

“I am the vine; you, the cuttings. The one who remains in me and I in him, this one bears much fruit because without me you can do nothing.“ — John 15:5, translation mine

Christ's words planted an image of the connection between Himself and His disciples that has lasted two millennia. Calling Himself ἡ ἄμπελος (he ampelos), or the vine, Christ claims the role as root and life source. The individual cuttings, κλήματα (klemata), or branches, only have life within them insofar as they remain connected to the root vine. Just as a branch would wither and die if cut off from the sap provided by the vine, so Christ's disciples cannot live without Him.

The image of the vine and the branches is well-known, as evidenced by its popularity in the names of Christian churches. Yet popular usage does not always entail comprehension, and Christians can treat Christ's words as mere stock words and catchphrases. Repetition without reflection is mere regurgitation.

As most people in America do not grow their own food, I suspect this disconnect with the specifics of viticulture has left a deficiency in our understanding of the image Christ intended. There is a further linguistic disconnect in the translation from the ancient Greek of the Gospels to modern English. Though we usually translate κλήματα as branches, the word itself stems from the verb κλάω (klao), “I break” or “I break off.” Thus, κλῆμα literally means “a thing broken or broken off,” hence, cutting.

Is the Christian then a thing broken off in Christ? How can one remain in something and be broken off? The answer is that the breaking does not refer to our connection with Jesus. Christ wants His followers to know and understand that they are ingrafts, branches broken off from their previous lives of separation from Him and grafted into new life in communion with Him.

Just as no cutting can graft itself into a vine, so too must the Christ follower be grafted into Christ by the Father through the calling of the Holy Spirit. This is not to say that God only calls an elite few. Many are called, but in order for a gardener to graft a cutting onto a vine, the cutting must be yielding and pliable. In this way, the graft can take and the cutting's fibers be inextricably connected to the vine's over time so that the cutting may become a branch that does not fall out or wither.

Christ deliberately chose His words to invoke all the time, trouble, and toil of the ingrafting process in the listener's mind. If man is by nature apart from Christ and must be grafted in to live, then the man has no vital strength of his own. Rather, just as vine ingrafts are susceptible to disease, drought, and detachment, man is vulnerable to being corrupted, crushed, and cut off. This raises a question: how may one remain in Christ?

The exploration of that question is the primary goal of κλῆμα 15:5, specifically:

• to equip followers of Christ with a deeper appreciation for and understanding of the richness of God's Word,
• to invite believers and non-believers to seek deep into the Word of God, which is Christ (John 1:1), and engage in civil discussion about its implications,
• to go beyond rote repetition of crafted phraseology (Matthew 6:7) in the understanding and conveyance of God's Word,
• and to encourage participants to digest the heart and guts of the Word, i.e., Christ, in line with His admonition to take and eat (John 6:53) and assimilate this into their daily lives.

To achieve this, some ground rules are necessary. Differences of opinion and interpretation may be expected, but insults, slander, and profanity will not be tolerated. Incendiary comments will be pruned, and open discussion will be limited to the first day of each post. Comments will be moderated thereafter.

Creating a community and an atmosphere for civil conversation is my sincere hope and prayer for κλῆμα 15:5. I hope you will join me in this examination of God's Word. Μενῶμεν ἐν αὐτῷ (Menomen en auto. Let us remain in Him).