CHAPTER FIFTEEN This chapter contains one of the many rhetorical masterpieces of Jesus found in the gospels. Speakers strive for a lifetime to attain the profoundity, simplicity, beauty and practicalness expressed in the allegory of the Vine and the branches (John 15:1-11), and find that simply to... [ Continue Reading ]
VITAL UNION OF VINE AND BRANCHES _Text 15:1-11_ 1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh _it_ away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already ye are clean because of the wor... [ Continue Reading ]
BUTLER'S COMMENTS Special Study THE CHRISTIAN SYNDROME (John 15:1-17) If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my life; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full ... [ Continue Reading ]
FRANK UNION OF FRIENDS _Text 15:12-17_ 12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. 15 No longer do I call yo... [ Continue Reading ]
PERSEVERING UNION OF THE PERSECUTED _Text 15:18-27_ 18 If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20... [ Continue Reading ]