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.