John 15:2

2. Every branch But who are the branches of this vine? From John 15:5, Ye are the branches, we might infer that they were the apostles alone, and that they became branches by the election of Christ. But from John 15:6, If a man abide not in me, we infer that any and every man is, primitively, a branch of Christ; and then the apostles are but one class of branches in the great whole. But in what respect are all men branches of Christ? And, to prepare our reply to this question, we must, first, repudiate two interpretations, or rather falsifications, of the text. The first falsification is that which makes the vine to be not Christ but the Church, which is not interpretation but substitution of words. And as the vine is not the Church but Christ, so the branches are living members of Christ, drawing their life from him. The second is that which supposes that, in the cases of all apparent apostates, the union between branch and vine is not real but only seeming. As it is real branches of Christ that are described, whose connection with him is vital, so it is a real separation of these branches which is described, and that separation is final, for the branches are burned. We may here note that Christ, as the second Adam, is the gracious basis of all physical life to humanity, and the source of all spiritual life to the race and to the individual, even before the individual birth. By nature, we are the branches of the fallen vine, the first Adam; by grace, we are born the spiritual branches of the heavenly vine, the second Adam. Hence we are birth-branches, not merely of the Church, but of Christ the true vine himself. Baptism creates not this union, but only recognizes and seals it. And hence, too, all growth in wickedness is apostacy. Every man who lives an unregenerate life has fallen from grace. Every branch of Christ has received the vital sap, the spiritual life, from him. If he bear not fruit, and incur a cutting off, he is an apostate; and if finally burned, a final apostate.

That beareth not fruit These branches are living, voluntary, free, responsible agents. They do not, like the vegetable branch, bear or fail to bear by an inward necessity of nature, but by a free responsible will, competent, in the self-same circumstances, either for the bearing or the barrenness.

He taketh away By a just judgment the union between Christ and the branch is severed. That disunion, however, goes not so far, while he has yet a remainder of vital sap within him and is not withered, but that he may be reingrafted. But when so separated, and so withered, that no possibility of life remains, his end is to be burned.

He purgeth it Purifies it; a term not so applicable to the branch as to the literal man figured by the branch. We have here, as in various parts of the apologue, an interchange of literal with figurative language. God, through his Spirit, ever and increasingly sanctifies the faithful followers of his Son.

More fruit And what is this fruit? And here, while we insist upon including under this term fruit all those heavenly tempers which are the inward fruits of the Spirit, we would avoid the approach to a spurious evangelicism, apparent in Olshausen’s comment upon the passage, which too much excludes holy, practical, external action. By their fruits, says our Saviour, that is, by their external conduct before the world, shall ye know them. There is a danger in making religious fruit too internal and subjective. There is some Antinomian error liable to arise when we say, too securely, right tempers will necessarily produce right action. Action, action, action, is quite as necessary in religion as in oratory, and is to be insisted upon distinctly and of itself. Integrity in the practical dealings of life; conduct squared by the principles of a true ethics; zeal, liberality, and energy in the benevolent organizations and operations of the Church and age, are fruits which every branch of Christ should bring forth abundantly and increasingly. For it is this increase, this more fruit, which it is the purpose of the purifying Spirit to produce.