15:1,2
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of Me that does not bear fruit He cuts off; and every one that bears fruit, he cleanses it, so that it may bear more fruit. The branch on the vine (disciples of Christ on Christ’s foundation), which bears fruit (beneficial to the fulfillment of God’s intention), is needed by the Owner—the Vinedresser. Even if something extra, dried out or withered (dead) is found on a fruit-bearing branch, the Owner will definitely take care in due time to cleanse all its defects so that the branch can revive and bear even greater fruit in His work. Fruit is both internal Christian qualities, and the growth of congregations of those who believe from the gospel, and standing in the trials of faith.
The owner does not need a branch that does not bear fruit, even if it looks very juicy and beautiful (it is called a Christian and succeeds in its own well-being), he will cut it off so that it does not interfere with the fruit-bearing branches feeding from the root.
15
:
3 You have already been cleansed through the word that I preached to you. The Word of God is the “instrument” with which God cleanses the “branches of the vine” - those bearing fruit to Him - from all the “withered and withered” dead things (helps to free oneself from the power of sin over a Christian)
15:4
Abide in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. Disciples of Christ should not separate from Christ or look for another root for spiritual nourishment: a branch cannot bear fruit outside the root of the vine, and fruits from another nourishment (not Christ’s) can be fatal. Disciples of Christ must anchor their lives in the word of God and draw their spiritual resources only from the root of God's "vine": Jesus Christ. This means that they must always be with Christ in unity of thinking, views on a righteous lifestyle and the path to the Father.
15:5 I am the vine, and you are the branches; He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you cannot do anything. Those Christians who care about whether they will “bear fruit” in the spiritual field, in God’s work and the inner qualities of a Christian strive to remain in unity with Christ or not. They understand that fruitfulness in the spiritual is not from A Christian’s own strength depends not on his convincing speeches, but on the help of God and the action of the Holy Spirit. God will begin to provide help only to those who have accepted salvation for themselves through Christ, who without him do not try to justify themselves before God by their own merits, and who draw their life and spiritual resources in imitation of Christ.
15:
6 Whoever does not abide in Me will be cast out like a branch and wither;
and such [branches] are collected and thrown into the fire, and they burn . But even the branches
that are on the vine are in danger of being torn away from the vine, drying up and becoming useless for the Owner, as a result of being cut off and destroyed .
Whoever begins to invent his own path to God, independent of Christ, will inevitably cease to be supplied with the “juices” of the root of the “vine” of Christ, will lose God’s blessings and ultimately.
15:7
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you
. If a Christian does not deviate from the instructions of Christ, does not get carried away by the freedom of his own speech and goes to God exactly in the footsteps of Christ, such a Christian will be provided with help from above and blessings in the work of the Lord by Christ.
15:8 By this will My Father be glorified, if you bear much fruit and become My disciples
.
The task of a Christian is to work to become righteous, to succeed in the work of the Lord, in the gospel of the word of God, multiplying the disciples of Christ and winning them to God through their acceptance of the atonement of Christ. Jesus Christ came to glorify his Father. And Christians should care about the glory of their heavenly Father. To glorify the Father with good deeds or to disgrace Him with our bad deeds is the choice of every Christian. 15:9 As the Father has loved me, and I have loved you;
abide in My love. Jesus Christ in fact showed the qualitative side of the love of the Father and himself for Christians: the willingness to make enormous personal sacrifices for the sake of love and for the good of those whom they love - this is what it means to abide in the love of Christ and God. The entire wicked world always seeks its own (personal gain and self-interest) in everything and always. A Christian must learn to do what pleases Christ and God, even if fulfilling the will of God in this century will not bring him any personal benefit. And even if fulfilling God’s will will bring him great trouble in some way.
15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
What exactly the will of God is - Jesus conveyed in detail through the commandments of his Father. Keeping the Father’s commandments and the desire to fulfill His will, and not one’s own, is what a Christian’s love for God consists of.
One can do many good deeds and donate large sums of money to God’s cause, but if at the same time one fulfills God’s commandments only selectively or only when it is not very difficult, then one cannot say that one who does so abides in the love of Christ.
The point of view that violation of some of God's commandments can be overcome by the number of good deeds and donations, common among many Christians, does not correspond to God's.
15:11,12
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you .
Jesus emphasizes that being on the “vine” (in Christ) for them means being in the word of God, in loving God and one another, and keeping His commandments without trying to make up your own. your joy will be complete;
the joy that Christ himself experiences from fulfilling the will of his Father - the disciples will be able to feel in its entirety only under one condition: if, in fulfilling the will of God, they imitate Christ in everything.
15:13,14
Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. Christ has a special attitude towards friendship: he cannot be a friend to those who do not fulfill the commandments of his Father, transmitted to him on earth.
And those who do not want to fulfill the commandments of God will not be able to become his friends. As we see, a Christian cannot afford to be friends with everyone and indiscriminately, if he imitates Christ in choosing friends. However, if someone has become a friend of Christ, fulfilling the commandments of God, Jesus will not regret giving his life for his friend if it is needed for his salvation. This is the highest manifestation of love: to sacrifice oneself for the salvation and well-being of a friend: there is no greater love than if someone lays down his life for his friends.
(this text does not say that since Jesus did not regret giving up his whole life for his friends (shed all his blood), then Christians, if necessary, should sacrifice 200-400 ml of their blood to support the lives of their neighbors. For more details, see . Here
This text also shows that self-sacrifice is the highest expression of love. A little about self-sacrifice: Some Christians propagate the idea that this verse justifies Christians participating in wars to save lives from invaders. However, as we noted, here we are talking about salvation at the cost of one’s own life. Not at the cost of killing others.
SAVING others - at the cost of OWN life - is right. Like Jesus, for example, SAVED EVERYONE at the cost of his own life. For example, someone saved a drowning man (carried him out of a fire, from under the wheels of a car, etc.), but he himself died. This is an option of self-sacrifice. And if this someone kills someone else during the rescue, this option is not SELF-sacrifice, it is murder. Here he, although a hero in the eyes of other people and in the eyes of the one he saved, but for the sake of salvation he sacrificed not his own, but ANOTHER’S life. This option is not according to Christ.
What does self-sacrifice mean for a Christian today for the salvation of people? God wants all people to be saved through the knowledge of His truth about salvation through the atonement of Christ - 1 Timothy 4. (and not due to military actions). Christians are advised to present themselves (their lives) as a sacrifice for REASONABLE service to God (Rom. 12:1): that is, to spend their strength, their time and their health in the interests of God - for the spread of the life-saving truth of God, and not for themselves personally . And if a Christian suffers for the gospel (like a Christian - 1 Peter 4:15,16), then in this he will become like Christ, the apostles and everyone who was ready to risk their lives for the sake of observing God’s interests in saving people.
An example of self-sacrifice according to Christ is Stephen, who sacrificed HIS life in order to convey to people the hope of salvation.
15:15
longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father. It is a great honor to be a servant of Christ, exactly and unquestioningly fulfilling the will of his Father without question. However, to be a friend of Christ is a higher honor: the master does not tell the slave about his intentions. Friends are initiated into many secrets of Divine Providence. Jesus, having revealed the intentions of his Father to his disciples, showed that now there is a very close and trusting relationship between them, based on friendly love, and not on slavish submission. We can say that a friend is an intermediate spiritual level of closeness to God between the state of a slave and a son.
15:16
, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you
. How sad this is for some , but election occurs from above, and no one can prevent this, as well as seek this - for themselves or for others.
A very important point is that YOU did NOT choose me, but I chose YOU
. The principle “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” It does not happen that they paid for a song of praise to God, and the musicians played “ode to man” and the buyer was satisfied. Jesus redeems the disciples, and he “orders” them exactly the “song” that the redeemed are obliged to “sing.” And his song of praise to God is that the redeemed should follow in his footsteps and bear the fruit of Christian activity on earth.
15:17
This
I command you, that you love one another.
Love and respect for each other are the basis for the stability of the Christian congregation and the strength of relationships between Christians, which cannot be expected in a society where there is hatred, envy, rivalry, etc.
15:18,19
If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; and since you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you . Christ stood out very clearly against the background of any society in which he appeared. Society never likes those who do not want to keep up with everyone else. Therefore they hated Christ. And there is no hope that the world will love Christians for their Godly way of life. And if the world loves one of the Christians, it is a sure sign that this “Christian” has become one of the world’s people and acts in exactly the same way as the whole world, alienated from the life of God, acts. And whoever is at home with the world is a stranger to God and His Christ.
15:20
Remember the word that I said to you
: a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you too; If they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. A Christian should not self-confidently think that the whole world will accept the sound Biblical teaching about God, which he will spread throughout the earth with joy. Just as they received it from Christ, in the same way they will receive it from the lips of his disciples: the generation that persecuted Christ will also persecute his followers. And the race that has accepted the word of God will also accept it from the lips of Christ’s disciples.
15:21
But they will do all these things to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me
. The race of those who persecute Christ will certainly persecute the faithful followers of Christ because of ignorance of the Father of Christ and His intentions.
15:22,23
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin;
but now they have no excuse for their sin . Christ speaks about his persecutors, about the race of religious leaders of God’s people who do not agree with Christ’s revelations of hypocrisy and lack of love for God and His people.
23 He who hates Me also hates my Father.
Anyone who persecutes the faithful followers of Christ will show that they hate God, whose commandments have become the cause of hatred towards Christians. (unless, of course, a Christian is hated for spreading the word of God and a righteous lifestyle, and not for his own bad character, for example, or unrighteous deeds)
15:24,25
If I had not done among them works that no one else had done, they would not have had sin;
but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. A very significant clarification: for good deeds, for the deeds of the Father, and not for bad deeds, the world hated Jesus Christ and will hate his faithful followers at all times.
But let the word that is written in their law be fulfilled: They have hated Me without cause.
Ps.34:19 indirectly predicts the fate of the Messiah, which was fulfilled on him. And although the words of God are recorded in the Psalm, speaking about “their law,” that is, the religious leaders, Jesus says that the very law with which they hide behind exposes their wrongfulness, the leaders simply do not want to hear about it.
15:26
When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me
; Jesus predicts the appearance of Pentecost and the help of the holy spirit to Christians in comprehending the meaning of the word of God, His truth. It is the holy spirit that helps Christ’s to correctly understand God’s intentions and explain many prophecies -2 Peter 1:20,21
15:27
And you also will testify, because you were with Me from the beginning
. The Holy Spirit will help Christ's disciples testify to God's truth about the nature of Jesus Christ's messiahship and his life many years after Jesus ascended into heaven. It was the help of the holy spirit sent by Jesus Christ from the Father that played a significant role in the appearance of the books of the New Testament.
What are the gospels
The Church advises treating drunkenness with the help of prayers, which can be accompanied by reading the Gospels. These are certain rituals that complement prayer and also make it more effective and healing. Almost every saint has such sacred lines, for example, John of Kronstadt. The Gospel of John, especially its fifteenth chapter, helps to quickly overcome addiction to strong drinks, as well as improve a person’s condition.
It is allowed to read the Gospel several times a day, but this must be done after saying the main prayer, which involves addressing the saints.
Currently, asking for help from the saints through prayers and the gospels is recommended in the church, where you can repent of your sins, because this is the only way to efficiently and effectively treat alcohol addiction. The Gospels (especially chapter 15) are read by both the alcoholic and his loved ones.
Like the psalms, it is permissible to say the gospels several times a day, and also to constantly keep them “on the tongue.”
This ritual consists of 27 points, which include a request for help, an apology for one’s own sins and atrocities. If possible, the Gospel (chapter 15) is memorized, thereby strengthening the ritual being performed.
The gospel should be said daily - before this it is important to read the main prayer, and after this ritual repeat it.
Links[edit]
- Holman Bible Handbook Illustrated. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012
- ↑
Eberhard Nestlé, Erwin Nestlé, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds.),
Novum Testamentum Graece
, 26th edition, (Stuttgart:
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
, 1991), p. 689. - Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 838.
- Kirkpatrick 1901, p. 839.
- ↑
Jerusalem Bible, John 14:31 - ↑
Plummer, A. (1902), Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on John 14, accessed 5 July 2016. - BibleGateway.com, English translation of John 15:1
- Strong's Greek concordance, 2814: kléma, accessed June 2, 2022.
- Psalm 69:4
- Psalm 35:19
- ↑
John 15:16: New King James Version - ↑
Quoted in Bengel, JA, Gnomon of the New Testament on John 15, accessed November 27, 2022. - John 15:26
