John 15:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus, so that they should not say, “You have made us hated by all, and now You leave us and depart,” He shows that He does not leave them. On the contrary, if only they wish, He will be joined to them as closely as the vine to the branches.

And lest, on the other hand, they should surrender to hope and become careless, He says that their well-being will not remain unchanged if they are negligent. And lest they say, “We have lost our fatherly inheritance, we have been abandoned by all, and have become naked and possessing nothing,” Christ says: Look at Me. The Father loves Me, and yet I undergo the sufferings now at hand.

So also I do not leave you now because I do not love you. If I undergo death and yet do not consider this a sign that the Father does not love Me, then you also must not be troubled. If you abide in My love, then all these afflictions will not harm you at all in that love.

Therefore, if love is strong and invincible, and does not consist in words alone, let us show it in deed. Christ reconciled us to Himself when we were enemies. But we, having become friends, should strive to remain so. He began, and we should at least continue. He loves not for His own benefit, because He needs nothing. But let us love at least for the sake of our own advantage. He loved enemies. Let us at least love a friend.

But we do the opposite. Every day we blaspheme God by robbery and greed. Perhaps one of you will say, “You speak about greed every day.” If only it were possible to speak of it every night too! If only the one who accompanies you in the marketplace, and sits with you at table, could pour out this speech! If only wives, friends, children, servants, farmers, neighbors, even floor and walls could do the same, so that through this we might restrain ourselves at least a little.

This disease has seized the whole world. It possesses the souls of all. Truly, great is the power of mammon. We have been redeemed by Christ, yet we serve gold. We proclaim the lordship of One, yet obey another. Whatever it commands, we fulfill with zeal. For its sake we forget kinship, friendship, nature, laws, and everything.

No one turns his eyes to heaven. No one thinks of the future. But a time will come when there will be no benefit even from these words. “In the grave,” it is said, “who will give Thee praise?” (Ps 6:6).

Gold is desirable. It gives us many pleasures and brings honor. But it does not give as much as heaven. Many even turn away from and hate the rich man, while they respect and honor the virtuous man.

“But,” you say, “they laugh at the poor man, even if he is virtuous.” They laugh, but not men. Rather, irrational beings do so, and therefore there is no need to pay attention to it. If donkeys brayed and crows croaked, while all wise men praised, we would certainly not despise the judgment of the latter and pay attention to the cries of irrational beings.

Those who value highly the things of the present are like crows and worse than donkeys. If an earthly king praised you, you would surely care nothing for the opinion of the crowd, even if all laughed at you. When the Master of all praises you, will you still seek praise from beetles and gnats? Such indeed are these people in comparison with God, and not even such, but worse.

How long shall we crawl in the mud? How long shall we set careless idlers and gluttons as judges for ourselves? They can evaluate dice players, drunkards, and those who live for the belly. But they cannot even imagine virtue and vice in a dream.

If someone laughed at you because you did not know how to channel drains, you would certainly not be offended. On the contrary, you would even laugh at the one who reproached you for such ignorance. Why then, wishing to struggle in virtue, do you set as judges for yourself people who know nothing about it at all?

This is why we never succeed in this art. We entrust our matter not to experienced men, but to the ignorant. They judge not as the art requires, but according to their own ignorance.

Therefore, I beseech you, let us despise the opinion of the crowd. Above all, let us not desire praise, possessions, or wealth, and let us not regard poverty as any evil. Poverty teaches us wisdom, patience, and every philosophy.

Lazarus lived in poverty and yet was crowned. Jacob desired only to have bread. Joseph was in extreme poverty, and was not only a slave but also a prisoner. Yet for this reason we admire him even more. We do not praise him so much when he distributed grain as when he was in prison. We do not praise him so much when he was in chains, nor when he sat on the throne, as when he suffered plots and was sold.

Therefore, setting all this before ourselves and thinking on the crowns woven by these struggles, let us admire not wealth and honors, nor pleasures and dominion, but poverty, chains, bonds, and patience for the sake of virtue.

The end of the former is full of confusion and anxiety, and their possession is joined only to the present life. But the fruit of the latter is heaven and the heavenly good things “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard” (1 Cor 2:9). May we all be counted worthy of them, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

He says this in order to console them more fully. He had said to them, “I love you.” Meanwhile, afterward they would have to struggle with sorrows. So that they would not then be scandalized, as though His love served them in no way, He says: Do not be troubled. Behold, the Father loves Me, and yet He gives Me over to sufferings for the world. Just as the Father’s love is not diminished because I suffer, so My love for you will not be diminished, even though you undergo afflictions.

He also commands us to strive toward this fulfillment, and so to abide “in His love.” In what has been said, we have briefly explained, as far as necessary, the general meaning of the passage.

But since, I think, there is something in these words that may greatly trouble the minds of the inexperienced and simple, I find it necessary to speak further. We must explain how, and in what manner, we should understand their meaning.

Our Lord Jesus Christ presented Himself to us as a kind of type and example. For this reason He also came under the Law, and did not disdain to accept the measure of our poverty.

Thus, by adapting Himself economically to our ways, He might appear as the guide of His own. He became the model by which we might receive a manner of conduct and life unfamiliar to us, and wholly inaccessible in itself.

Therefore we must inquire where, or what, commandment of the Father He kept, and how He is loved by Him, as He says of Himself.

Let the all-wise Paul come forward and initiate us into the words concerning Him. He says that He was in the form of God, “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.”

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name” (Phil 2:7-9).

Do you not hear how, though He is true God and conformed to the Father Who begot Him, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death?

Since God willed to save the earthly race of mankind, and no created being could accomplish this, the Only-begotten God Himself undertook this divine economy. For the work surpassed every power belonging to creation.

He knew the will of God the Father. Of His own will He descended to such obedience that He even underwent death, and the most dishonorable death.

Can hanging upon a cross be honorable? Is it not, rather, beyond every disgrace? And since He underwent this, Scripture says, God highly exalted Him.

Thus, in Christ, you have the fulfillment of the Father’s wishes with voluntary obedience. The Son says that these wishes stood before Him as the Father’s commandments.

As the Word, He knows the Father’s purposes and comprehends the depths of Him Who begot Him. Rather, being Himself the Wisdom and Power of the Father, He brings the Father’s will into effect.

He places it in the position of a commandment and names it so, adapting Himself to human speech. In this also behold the measure of love, for Scripture says that God highly exalted Him.

He exalts and glorifies Him Who was already exalted and glorified. For He is God by nature and in truth, not one of the creatures, since He is identical in essence with Him.

Therefore He is understood to be, and truly is, above every spiritual height. He is even the Lord of Glory, according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures (1 Cor 2:8).

Yes, one may say, He is exalted and glorified. But how, when, and in what manner?

Clearly, when He was in the form of a servant and in a humbled condition, that is, as a man like us. For with the flesh also He ascends to co-exaltation and co-glorification with the Father.

He was loved by Him, and not only for the first time when He fulfilled voluntary obedience. Understand, rather, that He was loved before the Incarnation.

He is always exalted and glorified by His nature. Yet He is called glorified and exalted when He became man, since in relation to His humanity He lacked divine glory.

So also, though from the beginning He is always and eternally beloved, He is called beloved also with the flesh. For this reason He appeared like us, and was called and became man.

He did this in order to make beloved by God that which had once been hated because of the ancient transgression and the sin that entered through it.

Therefore Christ has appeared for us as the door (Jn 10:7, 9), the beginning (Jn 8:25), and the way (Jn 14:6) of all good things, according to His word.

Is He not therefore right to say of Himself that He is loved because He kept “the commandments of the Father”? Is this mystical saying not difficult for you?

Does not the depth of the divine economy accomplished for our sake prove inaccessible to your mind? Yet these things are “plain to those who understand, and right to those who find knowledge,” as it is written (Prov 8:9).

“Abide,” He says, “in My love.” That is, walk in every path of diligence and zeal. Labor and strive to be counted worthy of such love from Me as I have from God the Father.

I was the obedient accomplisher of the Father’s wishes, and therefore I abide continually beloved. So, when you also become keepers of My commandments, you will likewise abide in My love.

Your neglect in this, He says, will be without excuse, for you will not bear this labor without reward. I will show you the same love that I Myself have from the Father.

I will crown the keeper of My words with honors almost equal to My own. For the Father highly exalted Me and gave Me “the name above every name,” since I was revealed as God of all.

Yet I shall not be envious or begrudge you such good things. You are men, and therefore have received a servant’s nature. Yet I have shown you to be gods and sons of God.

Through grace I have illumined you with dignities surpassing your nature. I have received you as sharers of My kingdom, made you conformed to “the body of My glory” (Phil 3:21), and honored you with incorruption and life.

But these things are in hope and are kept for the age to come. What, then, is there for the present? Have I not made you glorious and glorified?

Have I not made you honorable among all who love God? See, you have received authority to rebuke impious demons. I permitted you to heal “every disease and every infirmity” (Mt 4:23).

I declared, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he also will do, and greater than these he will do” (Jn 14:12).

In examining the meaning of these words, we must think that He says this to the holy disciples. As for us, let us always subject our mind to the doctrines of truth.

Let us direct the thoughts that arise, through the art of piety, as rightly as possible for the benefit of the hearers. Let us avoid falling recklessly into offense.

For it is written in the book of Psalms: “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps 118:165).

Let no one deceive himself by saying that he loves Him if he does not keep His commandments. For we love Him insofar as we keep His commandments. The less we keep them, the less we love Him.

And although His words, “Abide in My love,” do not reveal to us which love He means, whether the love by which we love Him or the love by which He loves us, this is easily understood from the preceding words. For He said, “And I have loved you,” and immediately added to these words, “Abide in My love.” That is, He speaks of the love by which He loves us.

What, then, does “Abide in My love” mean, if not, “Abide in My grace”? And what does this mean, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love,” if not, “By this you will know that you abide in My love, by which I love you, if you keep My commandments”?

Therefore it is not that we must first keep His commandments so that He may love us. Rather, if He did not love us, we could not keep His commandments. This is that very grace which is evident to the humble, but hidden from the proud.

But what does the following mean: “As I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”? He certainly wanted the Father’s love, by which the Father loves Him, to be understood here. For He said: “As I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” And immediately after these words He added, “Abide in My love,” undoubtedly in that love with which I have loved you.

Thus, when He said in relation to the Father, “I abide in His love,” this should certainly be understood of that love with which the Father loved Him. But then should grace also be understood here, through which the Father loves the Son, as the same grace through which the Son loves us? We are His sons by grace, not by nature, while the Only-begotten is Son by nature, not by grace.

Or should this also be referred to the man in the Son? Precisely so. For when He said, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you” (Jn 15:9), He indicated the grace of the Mediator. And the Mediator between God and men is Jesus Christ not as God, but as man. Certainly, according to the fact that He is man, it may be read of Him: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in grace before God and men” (cf. Lk 2:52).

In accordance with this, we can fully say that, although human nature does not belong to the nature of God, nevertheless by grace the human nature belongs to the human form of the Only-begotten Son of God. This is by so great a grace that there is none greater, nor even equal to it.

For no merits of the man preceded this reception of grace. Rather, all His merits began from its reception. Therefore the Son abides in the love with which the Father loved Him, and for this reason He kept His commandments.

For what does it mean that He is man, except that God assumed him? “The Word was God,” the Only-begotten, coeternal with Him who begot Him. Yet, so that a Mediator might be given to us, by ineffable grace “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).

The motive for this, for the Apostles, should be that fulfilling Christ’s commandments out of love for Him, and the consciousness that one abides in His love, constitute blessedness and true joy for the believer. This is the joy that fills the spirit of Jesus Christ, His “My joy,” because of His consciousness of unity with God the Father in essence and life.

This very joy, unshaken by any outward circumstances of life, He communicates to those who believe in Him and fulfill His commandments. The more His disciples are filled with love for Him, the more He will communicate to them the joy which He Himself enjoys. The more perfect their joy will be.

When you sense these qualities in yourself through the action of divine grace, and from this sensation acquire experiential knowledge of them, you will be sweetened by incorruptible sweetness. This sweetness does not belong to this world or this age. It is quiet, yet powerful, and it destroys the heart’s disposition toward all earthly pleasures.

Having been sweetened by the qualities of Jesus, you will love Him and desire that He dwell in you completely. Without Him you will consider yourself perishing and already lost. Then you will cry out unceasingly, from the fullness of conviction and with your whole soul: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The Apostle says of Him, “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). If the Son of God considered it a holy duty to keep the commandments of God the Father, and if He preserved the Father’s love by keeping His commandments, how can we hope for the continuation of God’s love toward us? Why do we imagine that we love God when we count it as nothing to violate the commandments of the heavenly Father every day?

Here the unity of being of God the Father and God the Son is revealed. The love of God for the God-man and the love of the God-man for those who believe in Him are one love of God for man. God fully assumed man’s nature, with body and soul. He was revealed to mortals in the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, yet He is undivided from the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The Son of God, who reveals God, assumed the human spirit and flesh. He is also the mediating Intercessor between God and man. He is Love, for it is said: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).

God loved through the Son, and man cannot love God except through the Son of God. The Son of God reveals the love of God.

In the form of man, the Son of God fulfills the commandments of the heavenly Father on earth. In keeping them, the love that unites the God-man with the invisible God is expressed, for the thought of God is one. According to this majestic image, man too must strive, by uniting his thought with the commandments of Christ the Savior, to abide in the love of Him, the Redeemer and Lord. He must remember that He speaks eternally: “I have loved you; abide in My love.”

Man did not first love God. Rather, without any merit of man, who was sunk in sin, He first loved man, redeemed him, and left us a commandment that is not burdensome: “Abide in My love.”

Let us not answer this love as the Jews did, or as Judas did. In this love the Lord also grants the highest joy. What constituted the joys of the ancient world, both Jewish and pagan? Earthly pleasures, vanity, and material enjoyments.

Could man by his own powers rise to the contemplation of spiritual joys, or even understand their greatness and sweetness? No, we answer, and so did the whole pagan world. It became exhausted and came to despair beneath the weight of pleasures. Then it cast itself into the embrace of Christianity when Christianity opened to it the mysteries of rest and pure love.

God alone could open to man the treasury of imperishable and eternal joys, founded on love for God and on the fulfillment of the commandments given by our Savior and God. “My joy will be in you,” says the Lord.

The joy given by the Lord to the disciples is eternal joy, but it must be “fulfilled” in them. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” Joy must be fulfilled, that is, receive fullness. It must grow as love strengthens, as one draws near to God, and as one approaches the reward prepared by God for those who love Him (1 Cor 2:9; Isa 64:4; cf. Jas 1:12).