In John 15:1-171I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 17These things I command you, that ye love one another. (John 15:1‑17), the Lord presents to us the new Christian company, not indeed in its formation or administration (for this the time had not yet come), but in its moral marks and spiritual privileges. It is seen as a company governed by the love of Christ and, abiding in His love, bound together by love to one another. In the words that follow (vs. 18 and onwards), the Lord passes in thought outside the Christian circle of love to speak of the world circle of hate, thus warning His disciples of the true character of the world, by which they will be surrounded, and preparing them for its persecution.
Sharing With Christ
If we share with Christ the love, joy and holy intimacies of the inside circle, we must also be prepared to share with Christ in His hatred and reproach from the world. There is no suggestion that the disciples should attempt to make the best of two worlds, as men speak. It must be Christ or the world; it cannot be Christ and the world. A company that in any way exhibits the graces of Christ would be recognized by the world as identified with Christ, and the hatred which the world had expressed to Christ would be shown to His people. His hatred and His persecution would be theirs.
The world is a vast system embracing every race, class and false religion, having in common their hatred of God. The world by which the disciples were immediately surrounded was the world of corrupt Judaism. Today the world with which believers are mainly in contact is the world of corrupt Christendom. Its outward form may change from age to age, but at heart it is ever marked by alienation from God and hatred to Christ.
Hated by the World
Why should these simple men be hated by the world? Were they not mainly a company of poor people who loved one another, who lived in an orderly way, being subject to the government, without interfering with their politics? Did they not go about proclaiming good news and doing good deeds? Why should such be hated?
The Lord gives two reasons for this hatred. First, they were a company of people that Christ had chosen out of the world (vs. 19). Second, they were a company of people who confessed the name of Christ before the world (vs. 21). The first cause would more particularly call forth the hatred of the religious world; the second, the hatred of the world in general. Through all time nothing has so enraged religious man as the sovereign grace that, passing by all man’s religious efforts, picks up and blesses the outcast and the wretched. The very mention of the grace of God that blessed a Gentile widow and a Gentile leper led the religious leaders of Nazareth to rise up in wrath and hatred against Christ. The sovereign grace that blesses the younger son enrages the elder son (Luke 15).
Persecuted
Further, the disciples are warned that this hatred will show itself in persecution. “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” This active expression of hatred is more directly connected with the confession of the name of Christ, for the Lord can say, “All these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake.” The persecution, whether of Christ or His disciples, proved they had no knowledge of the One that sent Christ — the Father.
There is, however, no excuse for such ignorance. The Lord’s words and the Lord’s works left the world without excuse either for hatred or ignorance. If Christ had not come and spoken unto the world words such as never man had spoken, if He had not done among them works which none other man had done, they could not have been reproached with the sin of willful enmity against Christ and the Father. They would still have been fallen creatures, but it would hardly have been demonstrated that they were willful and God-hating creatures. But now there was no cloak for their sin. There was no hiding the fact of the world’s guilt: It had come out. Christ had fully revealed—by His words and works — all the Father’s heart. It only brought out man’s hatred of God. The world as such was left without hope, for, according to their own law, they hated Christ without a cause. Thus the world’s hatred is no longer ignorance: It is sin. It is a causeless hatred. Alas! we, even as Christians, may at times give the world cause for hatred, but in Christ there was no cause. There is, indeed, a cause for the hatred, but it lies not in the One that is hated, but in the hearts of those who hate. His own will share that hatred, if they are faithful to Him.
H. Smith (adapted)