John 15:6

6. Abide not in me The assumption is that his union with Christ is not merely apparent, but real. For surely Christ would not require in any part of this passage a false and hypocritical abiding in or adherence to him. Such a requirement would be an injunction to hypocrisy; and an apostacy therefrom would be an apostacy not from holiness, but an apostacy from hypocrisy, that is, from the worst of sin, which would be no apostacy at all. The Calvinistic comment, therefore, which implies that this disunion is but a seeming one is preposterous.

He is cast forth as a branch Separated from Christ; no longer justified through his blood.

Withered The last spark of spiritual life extinct; the last susceptibility to renewal destroyed. The apostacy is, therefore, total.

Men gather them We have now the apostates as a class, them, collected like withered branches into the bundle. It cannot, therefore, plausibly be said that no apostates have ever existed. Their collective existence is here described as an actual reality, and their destiny depicted under the most terrible imagery. For they are next cast into the fire, and, finally, there burned. Surely, from such apostacy there is no recovery. This description of the dark side of possible destiny is brief and terrible. It stands opposed to the fuller picture, drawn for the encouragement of the apostles, of their possible advancement in Christian grace and happiness.