John 15:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here He also shows that He will continually remain with them. They will bear fruit, and in order to bear fruit they must have His help. "That whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you." But granting requests belongs to the one who is asked. How, then, does the Son grant them when the Father is asked? This is so that you may know that the Son is not less than the Father.

Be ashamed, Arius, together with those who with you have become enslaved to impiety. Here is yet another sign of love: "That whatever you ask the Father, He may give you," that is, I will give you. Although the sequence would require Him to say, "whatever you ask the Father, He will give you," He said, "I will give you." He said this, without doubt, because of equality of power. For when the Father gives, He gives by His right hand, and His right hand is the Son. Observe also, I ask you, that when we have been planted and bear fruit, then He will also give us whatever we ask. But if we do not bear fruit, we shall not receive. For he who does not bear fruit also does not ask for what is useful and saving for the soul. He necessarily asks for what is worldly and useless, and therefore does not receive. For it is said: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss" (Jas 4:3).

They must benefit those who do not yet believe, and through pious words and deeds strive to catch those in error for the desire of communion with God through faith.

Therefore, presenting Himself as the pattern and example of the work, and setting before them what He had already done with them, He persuades them to imitate Him.

He says: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you,” and what follows.

Understand Him as saying something like this: Put on love for one another, My disciples.

You yourselves must think and act toward others in the same way as I have already acted toward you.

For “I chose you,” and, on the contrary, “you” did not choose “Me.”

I brought you to Myself. To you who did not know Me, by My supernatural mercy, I made Myself known.

I raised you to so firm a disposition that you can always ascend, or hasten, toward what is higher and bear fruit for God.

Through this you can attain such boldness that, whatever you finally ask “in My name,” you will receive it.

Therefore, since you walk according to My words and ordinances and have made your own the disposition befitting true disciples, you must not stop at merely waiting.

Do not wait until someone accepts the faith by his own impulse and takes up piety by his own inclination.

Rather, you must show yourselves as guides for those who do not yet know Me and remain in error.

You must bring to faith those who have not yet resolved to know the saving preaching, and exhort them to go willingly toward the reception of true knowledge of God.

Do this even if the mind of the hearers has already grown hardened in unbelief.

Then they too would become like you. That is, they will make progress and continually pass toward what is higher in bearing fruit for God.

Thus they will have fruit that always abides and remains, and prayer so pleasing to God that they will receive whatever they desire, if only they ask in My name.

Therefore, to repeat briefly the meaning of the saying under interpretation and present it clearly to the hearers, He persuades the disciples to have such love toward others.

He wants them to show such readiness in unfailingly catching the souls of those not yet believing into piety as He Himself had already shown toward us, or toward them, the Apostles.

For it is beyond doubt that He Himself chose His disciples, and I consider it unnecessary to say how and under what circumstances each one was called.

Yet that the Savior’s saying contains precisely the aim I have just stated is also confirmed for us by the words that follow it.

What, then, did He choose in those who were not righteous?

You cannot say: I was chosen because I believed.

If you believed in Him, then you had already chosen Him.

Nor can you say: before I believed, I did good works, and therefore I was chosen.

What good works can there be before faith, when the Apostle says: “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23)?

What remains for us to say, except that we were corrupt and were chosen so that, by the grace of the One who chose us, we might become righteous?

“You did not choose Me,” He said, “but I chose you.” This is that ineffable grace.

For what were we when we had not yet chosen Christ and had not, through this, obtained love?

For how can one who has not chosen Him love Him?

Was there already in us what is sung in the Psalm: “I have chosen to be at the threshold in the house of the Lord, rather than dwell in the tents of sinners” (cf. Ps 83:11)?

Certainly not.

What, then, were we, if not impious and lost men?

For we had not yet believed in Him, so that He might choose us.

If He chose us already believing, then He chose those already chosen.

Why, then, does He say, “You did not choose Me”?

Only because His mercy goes before us. Cf. Ps 58:11.

Here, of course, the empty notion of those collapses who so defend God’s providence that they oppose it to God’s grace.

They say that we were chosen before the creation of the world, cf. Eph 1:4, because God foreknew that we would become good, and not because He Himself would make us good.

He is not saying this when He declares: “You did not choose Me.”

For if He chose us because He foreknew that we would be good, He also foreknew that we would first choose Him.

Otherwise we could not be good, unless those who do not choose the good are to be called good.

What then? Did He choose His own from among those who were not good?

They were not chosen because they were good, since they would not have been good unless they had been chosen.

Otherwise grace would not be grace, if merits were said to come first.

This is the election of grace of which the Apostle said: “So too at the present time a remnant has been preserved according to the election of grace.”

To this he added: “But if by grace, then it is no longer by works; otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Rom 11:5-6).

Hear, ungrateful one, hear: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”

Therefore do not say: “I was chosen because I had already believed.”

For if you believed in Him, then you had already chosen Him.

But listen: “You did not choose Me.”

So do not say: “Before I believed, I was already doing good works, and therefore I was chosen.”

For what good work can there be before faith, if the Apostle says: “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23)?

Therefore, when we hear, “You did not choose Me,” what should we say except that we were evil and were chosen to become good by the grace of Him who chose us?

There is no grace if merits go before. But grace exists, and it does not seek merits; it creates them.

See then, beloved, how He does not choose the good, but makes good those whom He has chosen.

“I,” He said, “chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide.”

Is this not the fruit of which He had already said: “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5)?

Thus He chose and appointed us so that we should go and bear fruit.

We had no fruit on account of which He might choose us.

“That you should go,” He said, “and bear fruit.”

We go in order to bear fruit, and He Himself is the way by which we go and on which He appointed us to go.

Therefore His mercy has anticipated us in everything.

“And that your fruit should abide,” He said, “so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”

Therefore let love abide, for He Himself is our fruit.

This love is now in us as desire, though not yet as enjoyment.

And whatever we ask in this desire, in the name of the Only-begotten Son, the Father gives us.

But let us not think that we ask in the name of the Savior for something whose reception does not further our salvation.

We ask in the name of the Savior only for what belongs to the meaning of salvation.

Or it means: having invoked My name, as was said above in explaining the words of Jesus Christ: "Whatever you ask the Father in My name, I will do" (Jn 14:13). Likewise: "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (Jn 14:14). In these words the equality of the power of God the Father and the Son is declared.

But what is done for eternal life is preserved even after death. It begins to appear precisely when the fruit of bodily labors begins to disappear.

Thus that recompense begins where this life ends. Therefore, whoever has already known eternal things must let temporal fruits lose their value in his soul.

Let us bring forth fruits that will “remain.” Let us bring forth fruits that receive their beginning from death, when death must destroy all things.

For the prophet testifies that the fruit of God must begin from death when he says: “He gives sleep to His beloved” (Ps 126:2-3).

Everyone who falls asleep in the sleep of death loses his inheritance. But when the Lord gives sleep to His chosen, then this is the Lord’s inheritance.

For after they reach death, God’s chosen will find their inheritance.

Then follows: “That whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”

Again, elsewhere: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (Jn 16:23-24).

If the Father gives us everything we ask in the name of the Son, what does it mean that Paul once asked the Lord and was not granted a hearing?

For it was said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

Did this most glorious preacher not ask in the name of the Son? Why, then, did he not receive what he asked?

How is it true that whatever we ask the Father in the name of the Son, the Father gives us?

For the Apostle asked in the name of the Son that the angel of Satan be removed from him, and yet he did not receive what he asked.

But since the name of the Son is “Jesus,” and Jesus is called Savior, or even Saving One, the one who asks in the name of the Savior asks for something belonging to true salvation.

But if people ask for what does not belong to salvation, they do not ask the Father in the name of Jesus.

Therefore the Lord says to the same Apostles, who were still weak: “Until now you have asked nothing in My name” (Jn 16:24).

It is as though He plainly said: “You have not asked in the name of the Savior, because you do not yet know how to seek eternal salvation.”

For this reason Paul also was not heard. If he had been freed from temptation, this would not have been useful for his salvation (2 Cor 12:9).

See, most beloved brethren, how many of you have gathered for the feast of the martyr. You bend your knees, strike your breast, utter sighs of prayer and confession, and wash your faces with tears.

But examine your petitions, I ask you. See whether you are praying in the name of Jesus, that is, whether you are seekers of the joys of eternal life.

For in the house of Jesus, you are not seeking Jesus if in the temple of eternity you pray out of season for temporal things.

One person asks in prayer for a wife. Another desires a village. A third asks for clothing. A fourth prays that food be granted him.

Although one must ask Almighty God for these things too, if they are lacking, we must constantly remember what the same Redeemer commanded us.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt 6:33).

Therefore it is not a sin to ask Jesus even for these things, provided they are not asked for in excess.

But there is something still more serious. Someone asks for the death of an enemy, and persecutes by prayer the one he cannot pursue with the sword.

Although the one against whom evil is wished is still alive, the one who wishes evil already becomes guilty of his death.

God commands that we love the enemy (Mt 5:44), and yet people ask God to kill the enemy.

Thus, whoever prays in this way fights against the Creator by his very prayers.

Therefore it is said of Judas: “Let his prayer become sin” (Ps 108:7).

For prayer is turned into sin when one prays for what He Himself forbids, to Whom the prayer is made.

Therefore the Truth says: “When you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mk 11:25).

We shall show this virtue of forgiveness more clearly if we bring forward one testimony from the Old Testament.

It is known that when Judea offended the justice of her Creator by her grave crimes, the Lord restrained His prophet from prayer.

He said: “Do not pray for this people, nor lift up prayer and supplication for them. Do not intercede before Me, for I will not hear you” (Jer 7:16).

“And I will cast you out from My face, as I cast out all your brethren, all the seed of Ephraim” (Jer 7:15).

What does it mean that, passing over and leaving aside so many Fathers, only Moses and Samuel are placed in the middle?

Their wondrous power of obtaining what they ask is known, yet it is said that even they cannot mediate.

The Lord plainly speaks as though saying: “I do not hear even those whose prayers, because of their great merit, I do not despise.”

What, then, does it mean that Moses and Samuel are preferred to the other Fathers in prayer?

It means that in the whole sequence of the Old Testament, only these two are recorded as having prayed even for their enemies.

The first was in danger of being stoned by the people (Ex 17:4), and yet he prayed for those who would stone him.

The other was removed from leadership, and yet, when asked for prayer, he answered: “Far be it from me to sin before the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.”

“And I will instruct you in the good and right way” (1 Kgdms 12:23).

“And the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before My face, My soul would not turn toward this people. Send them away from My face, and let them depart” (Jer 15:1).

He clearly speaks as though saying: “I do not hear prayers for friends even from those whom I know, by great virtue, to have prayed even for enemies.”

Therefore the power of true prayer consists in the height of love.

Each person receives what he rightly asks when, in prayer, his spirit is not darkened by hatred for an enemy.

But very often we overcome the struggling spirit if we still pray for enemies. The mouth pours forth prayer for an enemy. Yet would that the heart also contained love.

Often we offer prayer for our enemies, but we pour it forth more from commandment than from love.

We pray also for the life of our enemies, yet we fear lest God hear us.

But since the inward Judge judges the disposition more than the words, He requires nothing for an enemy from one who does not pray for him out of love.

But see, an enemy has sinned gravely against us. He has caused harm, offended those who help us, and persecuted those who love us.

This ought to be hidden away, if sins against us were not required to be forgiven.

For our Advocate composed a prayer for our case, and this same Advocate is the Judge of that very case.

In the prayer He composed, He included a condition, saying: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:12).

Since He Who was Advocate is coming as Judge, He Himself hears the prayer He composed.

Therefore either we say without doing, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” and by saying this we bind ourselves all the more.

Or perhaps we omit this condition in the prayer, and our Advocate does not recognize the prayer He composed.

At once He says of Himself: “I know what I exhorted you to. This is not the prayer that I composed.”

Therefore, brethren, what must we do, if not possess the character of true love for the brethren?

No malice must be in the heart. Let Almighty God examine our love for our neighbor, so as to show His mercy toward our iniquities.

Remember what He exhorts us to do: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Lk 6:37).

Behold, others owe us, and we owe. Therefore let us forgive what is owed to us, so that what we owe may be forgiven.

But reason resists this. It wants to fulfill what it hears, and yet it argues.

We stand around the shrine of the martyr, and we know by what death he attained the Kingdom of Heaven.

If we do not lay down our bodies for Christ, let us at least overcome the soul.

By this sacrifice God is appeased. At the judgment, He approves the victory of our peace through His love.

For He looks upon the struggle of our heart. He Who afterward rewards the victors now helps those who fight, through our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son.

He lives and reigns with Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God through all ages of ages. Amen.

They were to bring the world to faith in Him and thus bear fruit in His vineyard, in His spiritual Kingdom or Church (cf. Lk 10:3; Mt 28:19). "And that your fruit should remain" (cf. Jn 4:36) means that the results of such activity should not be destroyed. They must remain constantly and continue in Christ's Church without interruption and permanently (cf. Jn 5:38). The means for such fruitful activity in the world is prayer to the Father in Christ's name. With such prayer, according to which everything will be given to you, your success in your activity will be undoubted, and you will bear much fruit (cf. v. 8). "Whatever you ask," and so forth: see the note on Jn 13:13-14.

Holy Chrysostom replaces the word "appointed" with the word "planted" and adds: "He still continues the metaphor of the vine." The explanation is correct, for immediately afterward the Lord speaks of bearing fruit. The Lord chose the Apostles and planted them as branches in His spiritual garden. He planted them so that they would not remain inactive, but would go forward as living shoots and bring forth fruits worthy of His care for them. These fruits are the fruits of the abundant grace that worked in them. These fruits are their holy life and the Church increased by their labors. What is this immortal and eternal fruit of the Apostles? The Church. The relation of God's grace to every believing soul is the same. We do not choose the Lord, for we love the good so little and understand it so poorly. Rather, the Lord chooses us so that we may bear fruits worthy of God's election. "What do you have," says the Apostle, "that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?" (1 Cor 4:7). The heavenly Father "chose us in Him, in Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love" (Eph 1:4). One ancient writer says in explanation of the Savior's words: "We were not chosen because we pleased God, but so that we might please God. Therefore He added that He chose us for the bearing of fruits, so that when we were not pleasing, through the former action of God, we might become pleasing through the later works of the Good One."