Bible Studies

---

We continue this verse-by-verse study of John chapters 13-17 here in Part 5, starting with John 15:1.


CHAPTER 15.

" 'I am the true vine [God's true vine with its branches represents true Israel (which embraces the Lord Jesus Christ, all the believers from Old Testament days, and all true Christians, including those who will become Christians at the end of this age, with the spotlight being on the end-time remnant of the nation Israel).], and My Father is the vinedresser. (2) Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [[Bearing fruit goes with having saving faith and continuing in that faith, a faith that cooperates with God's saving grace and manifests itself in good fruit like faithfulness, love, obedience, and works of righteousness (the fruit of the Holy Spirit [cf. Gal. 5:22, 23]). In this context (with the words that follow in verse 2 and the words of verse 3), these words at the beginning of verse 2 could be limited to "branches" that never do manifest a solid faith commitment to Christ and His word in their hearts; they are "believers" who do not continue in His word, or become disciples, or bear fruit. See John 8:31. I'll quote part of John 8:31-36. (John 8:31-36 are also quite relevant to the second half of John 15:2 and to what it means to be "disciples" of Christ in verse 8. These verses are discussed in my paper on John chapters 5-8 on my internet site; that paper should be on this Christian article site in the near future.)

"So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him [They had become "believers" in one sense, but as the following words show, they needed to continue in His word to learn the truth and become His "disciples" and be set free from sin (cf. Matt. 28:19, 20; John 2:23-25).], 'If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; (32) and you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.' ... (34) ...everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin ... (36) So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

John 6:60-69 provide an example of "disciples" withdrawing from Jesus and not continuing with Him and His word. John 6:64 indicates that these "disciples" never did truly "believe" in Christ (they never became true "believers") and that Jesus knew this from the beginning. John 6:70, 71 speak of Judas, who was a "devil" and was going to betray Him (cf., e.g., John 12:4; 13:2, 10, 11, 18, 21-30; and 18:2, 3). The parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:3-9, 18-23; Mark 4:3-9, 13-20; and Luke 8:9-15) speaks of those who, for various reasons, fail to continue with Christ and His word by faith (the seed that was sown by the Sower was the word of God).

If John 15:2a is limited to "believers" who never had saving faith to begin with, which is possible in this context, these words don't demonstrate that true believers can lose their salvation, even though this verse speaks of these branches being in the vine (Christ) in some sense before God takes them away. John 15:6, however (with the strong exhortation regarding the need for the apostles and all Christians to continue to abide/remain in Christ in John 15:4-6), seems to clearly warn that true believers (will become unbelievers and) will be lost if they don't abide/remain in Christ (by faith).

There are many passages in the New Testament that clearly demonstrate that born-again Christians can fall away from Christ. We must take such warnings seriously and make it top priority to stay faithful to God by His sufficient grace. God doesn't give us saving faith to begin with, and He doesn't compel believers to continue in faith. (See my papers "A Paper on Faith" and "Once Saved, Always Saved?" The second paper and extensive excerpts from the first paper are on this Christian article site.]]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes [[The Greek verb used here ("kathairo") means "to make clean

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE AS A MEMBER OR VISITOR