Notes from an old manuscript.
The Lord Jesus leaves the house where He has been with His disciples, to go through the public streets of the City, crossing over by the Brook Cedron. For the maintenance of communion with Him, in the revealed scene of our home (John 14), His service in chapter 13 is to provide for the restoration of that communion. To realise what "part with Me" involves, we must understand what is brought out of the Father's House in chapter 14. Now in chapter 15, having provided for the enjoyment of that communion, the blessed Lord brings before us the active scene, where fruit bearing and testimony have their place. But as in other parts, we find HIM superseding what is Jewish; viz., in John 4 Jewish worship; in John 5 angelic ministry; John 7 the feast of Tabernacles, to bring all the joy into our hearts, of which that feast was only typical.
Israel, as a vine, is spoken of in Psalm 80:8, "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt … why hast thou broken down her hedges?" Jeremiah 2:21 answers this question: "I had planted thee a noble vine … how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" See also verse 13, "My people … have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Hence Israel had been set aside, and was no longer the responsible vine in testimony for God. So that the Lord Jesus, displacing Israel in testimony for God, says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." This is an earthly relationship in which He associates the disciples with Him as the branches; pruning, etc., is for the earth. The Lord Jesus, with all the fruit bearing ones, supersedes Israel, to bring forth fruit for the pleasure of God. Only the fruit bearing ones are recognised in verse 4; all the attention of the Father, the husbandman, is directed to them, that they may bring forth more fruit. Speaking of the little company of true ones, (Judas having already gone out) He can say, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you;" all clean by the mighty cleansing instrument of the Word.
They might say, "What more do we need?" He says, "Abide in me, and I in you." "I in you" is the essential condition, for we could not abide in Him unless He abides in us, He Who is our life. Again He says, "Without Me ye can do nothing." All here is responsibility, not sovereign grace as in chapter 14; and in the responsible sphere we can do absolutely nothing without Christ. How wonderfully He has ordered all, that each one should be entirely dependent upon Him; we have been so divinely constituted that we cannot be independent of Him in the things of God. In verse 6 He looks outside the little company, and so it is, "If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch." No doubt Judas was in the Lord's mind; he was indeed "a man … cast forth" for everlasting judgment. Returning to the real ones, He alters the form of the expression in verse 7, "If … my words abide in you;" His words are given to form and direct the life in us; the thoughts, the will, the desires of the heart are to be formed according to His desires, His will, and His thoughts. But it is a beautiful thought, showing how far we are from being mere automatons, for the Lord would have us intelligent in His work and service, going to Him, to ask what we will. Like Psalm 37 "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart." The desires being formed according to His words is in direct contrast to "My people have forsaken Me." Now it is our delight to consult Him regarding all the difficulties and the hindrances we meet with; and in bearing fruit for the Father's pleasure, He is glorified, and we manifest that we are disciples of Him Who glorified the Father in every step of His pathway.
The Lord at this point states the absoluteness of His love for us, and gives the measure of it, His Father's love to Him. His love to each one of us is the same, there are no degrees in His love. Now His thought for us is "Abide in My love;" He would ever have us rest in the deep sense of His love to us. And here we return to the responsible side, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love." Still His path is kept before us, the path in which He had ever the sense of the Father's love for Him. In John 3:16, it is the expression of God's nature, His love to the world; here, as in other parts, it is the love of relationship. These things He spoke that His own joy might remain in them; the joy He had in consequence of His place in the love of the Father; and that our joy might be full. We cannot expect to enjoy Christ's love if we are careless and pleasing ourselves at every turn of the road; this joy can only be known in the path of obedience.
Now we have the command, "Love one another, as I have loved you," the only measure of our love to one another, is His to us. No wonder Paul said, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." We have to be very watchful of our hearts regarding His commandment, lest we choose our own circle of friendships, and not that which divine love has chosen for us. The more we are resting in His love, the more our hearts will go out to all who are His. He has not loved us from qualities in us suited to Him; but He has produced in us by His grace the features of His Son, which He can find pleasure in. In his first Epistle John tells us, "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren;" and we are to lay down our lives for the brethren. The Epistle presents the truth absolutely, that we might have a true standard by which to judge ourselves. Alas, alas, how very far short we come of the standard. He does not ask us to do anything different from what He has shown us, for He laid down His fife for them, His friends. Nothing less than friendship will do for Him, though doubtless we should have been satisfied with the place of servants. The servant is not in the place of intimacy, but He has acquainted us with all the precious thoughts of the Father's heart; and He desires us to walk down here in communion with Him, so that He might communicate to us all relating to the Father's mind and will. And how he keeps His place as Man, although His divine glory shines out in this Gospel; for He does not speak of what lies in His own divine knowledge, but "what I have heard of my Father."
They had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them, that they might be fruitful in the path of service. In this path, if we are bringing forth fruit, prayer brings to us the desires of the heart; but we cannot expect an answer to our prayers if we are not bringing forth fruit for God. But all He had commanded them was for the expression of their love to one another; love which would bring upon them the hatred of the world, even as He had been hated. If our path were more real, we should come in for more of this hatred. He would be a strange servant who would expect to be treated better than his Master. Moreover, is it not wonderful that He should put our word in connection with His own; "If they have kept my saying, they will also keep yours."
Turning to His rejection, the Lord speaks of the refusal of the testimony of His word and works, in which the words of the Psalm were fulfilled, "They hated Me without a cause." Previously, in chapter 14 the Lord had spoken of the Comforter, the power for communion; now He is the power for testimony, "Ye also shall bear witness;" and "He shall testify of Me." In the Acts, they enter into this double testimony, "And we are His witnesses. … and so also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him."