Verse 6
If a man abide not in me - Our Lord in the plainest manner intimates that a person may as truly be united to him as the branch is to the tree that produces it, and yet be afterwards cut off and cast into the fire; because he has not brought forth fruit to the glory of his God. No man can cut off a branch from a tree to which that branch was never united: it is absurd, and contrary to the letter and spirit of the metaphor, to talk of being seemingly in Christ - because this means nothing. If there was only a seeming union, there could be only a seeming excision: so the matter is just where it began; nothing is done on either side, and nothing said to any purpose.
He is cast forth - Observe, that person who abides not in Christ, in a believing loving, obedient spirit, is -
1. Cut off from Jesus, having no longer any right or title to him or to his salvation.
2. He is withered - deprived of all the influences of God's grace and Spirit; loses all his heavenly unction; becomes indifferent, cold, and dead to every holy and spiritual word and work.
3. He is gathered - becomes (through the judgment of God) again united with backsliders like himself and other workers of iniquity; and, being abandoned to his own heart and Satan, he is,
4. Cast into the fire - separated from God's people, from God himself, and from the glory of his power. And,
5. He is burned - is eternally tormented with the devil and his angels, and with all those who have lived and died in their iniquity. Reader! pray God that this may never be thy portion.
Verse 7
If ye abide in me, etc. - "Those," says Creeshna, "whose understandings are in him, (God), whose souls are in him, whose confidence is in him, whose asylum is in him, are by the inspired wisdom purified from all their offenses, and go from whence they shall never return." Geeta, p. 59.
Observe, in order to have influence with God, we must -
1. Be united to Christ - if ye abide in me.
2. That in order to be preserved in this union, we must have our lives regulated by the doctrine of Christ - and my words abide in you.
3. That to profit by this union and doctrine, we must pray - ye shall ask.
4. That every heavenly blessing shall be given to those who continue in this union, with a loving, obedient, praying spirit: - ye shall ask what ye will, etc.
Verse 8
Herein is my Father glorified - Or, honored. It is the honor of the husbandman to have good, strong, vigorous vines, plentifully laden with fruit: so it is the honor of God to have strong, vigorous, holy children, entirely freed from sin, and perfectly filled with his love.
Verse 10
If ye keep my commandments, etc. - Hence we learn that it is impossible to retain a sense of God's pardoning love, without continuing in the obedience of faith.
Verse 11
That my joy may remain in you - That the joy which I now feel, on account of your steady, affectionate attachment to me, may be lasting, I give you both warnings and directions, that ye may abide in the faith.
That your joy might be full - Or, complete - πληρωθη, filled up: a metaphor taken from a vessel, into which water or any other thing is poured, till it is full to the brim. The religion of Christ expels all misery from the hearts of those who receive it in its fullness. It was to drive wretchedness out of the world that Jesus came into it.
Bishop Pearce, by joining εν εμοι to χαρα, and not to μεινῃ, translates the verse thus: These things have I spoken, that my joy in you may remain - which is according to the meaning given to the first clause.
Verse 12
That ye love one another - See on [Joh 13:34] (note). So deeply was thus commandment engraved on the heart of this evangelist that St. Jerome says, lib. iii. c. 6, Com. ad Galat., that in his extreme old age, when he used to be carried to the public assemblies of the believers, his constant saying was, Little children, love one another. His disciples, wearied at last with the constant repetition of the same words, asked him, Why he constantly said the same thing? "Because (said he) it is the commandment of the Lord, and the observation of it alone is sufficient." Quia praeceptum Domini est, et, si solum fiat, sufficit.
Verse 13
That a man lay down his life for his friends - No man can carry his love for his friend farther than this: for, when he gives up his life, he gives up all that he has. This proof of my love for you I shall give in a few hours; and the doctrine which I recommend to you I am just going to exemplify myself. There are several remarkable cases, in heathen antiquity, where one friend offered his life for another. The two following will not stand dishonorably even in the book of God; became every thing loving and pure, in heathen, Jew, or Christian, must come from the God of love and purity.
When Cyrus had made war on the king of Armenia, and had taken him, his wife, and children, with Tigranes his son, and his wife, prisoners; treating with the old king concerning his ransom, he said, How much money wilt thou give me to have thy wife again? All that I have, replied the king. And how much wilt thou advance to enjoy thy children again? All that I can produce, answered the king. By reckoning thus, said Cyrus, you prize these at twice as much as you possess. Then, turning to Tigranes, he said, How much wilt thou give as a ransom, that thou mayest have thy wife? (Now Tigranes had been but lately married, και ὑπερφιλων την γυναικα, and loved his wife exceedingly.) He answered, I will indeed, O Cyrus, και της ψυχης πριαιμην, ransom her even with My Life, that she may be no longer in thraldom. See Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. iii. c.
The second example, which is too long to be inserted, is that affecting account of the friendship of Nisus and Euryalus, given by Virgil, in the ninth book of the Aeneis. These two friends, leagued together, had slain many of the Rutulians in a night attack: at last Euryalus was taken prisoner. Nisus, concealed in a thicket, slew several of the enemy's chiefs with his javelins: Volscens, their general, not seeing the hand by which his officers were slain, determines to wreak his vengeance upon his prisoner. Nisus, seeing his friend about to be transfixed with the sword, rushing out of the wood where he lay hidden, suddenly cries: -
Me! Me! adsum qui Feci! in Me convertite ferrum,
O Rutuli! MeA fraus omnis: - nihil Iste - nec ausus,
Nec potuit - Caelum hoc, et conscia sidera testor!
Tantum infelicem Nimium Dilexit Amicum.
Aen. lib. ix. l. 427, etc. "Me! Me! he cried, turn all your swords alone
On Me! - the fact confess'd, the fault my own.
He neither could, nor durst, the guiltless youth;
Ye moon and stars, bear witness to the truth!
His only crime (if friendship can offend)
Is too much love to his unhappy friend."
Dryden.
Those who understand the beautiful original will at once perceive that the earnestness, confusion, disorder, impatience, and burning love of the Friend, are poorly imitated in the above tame translation.
The friendship of David and Jonathan is well known: the latter cheerfully gave up his crown to his friend, though himself was every way worthy to wear it. But when all these instances of rare friendship and affection are seen, read, and admired, let the affected reader turn his astonished eyes to Jesus, pouring out his blood, not for his friends, but for his Enemies; and, in the agonies of death, making supplication for his murderers, with, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do! - and then let him help exclaiming, if he can, "O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
Was ever Love like Thine!"
Verse 15
Henceforth I call you not servants - Which he at least indirectly had done, [Joh 13:16]; [Mat 10:24], [Mat 10:25]; [Luk 17:10].