John 15:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This, however, may also be understood of the afflictions that then threatened the disciples. The expression “prunes” means “cuts back,” by which the branch becomes more fruitful.

This shows that temptations would make the disciples especially strong. And so that they would not ask of whom this was said, and so that He would not again trouble them,

From this we learn that even a very virtuous man still needs God’s care. A barren branch cannot remain on the vine, while the fruitful branch the Father makes still more fruitful.

Understand these words also of the disciples’ afflictions. Since afflictions resemble what gardeners call pruning, the Lord shows the disciples that through afflictions they will become more fruitful, just as branches do through pruning.

For through temptations they proved themselves stronger and stronger.

Therefore, if anyone is shown to be and remains this kind of “branch,” hanging fruitlessly, so to speak, from the trunk of the vine, let him know that he will certainly undergo the knife of the vinedresser. Without doubt He will cut it off and, as useless dry wood, give it as food to the fire.

Such is the judgment on the fruitless. In the same way, concerning the fig tree taken as a parable, the master of the field says to the vinedresser: “Cut it down; why does it even use up the ground?” (Lk 13:7). So here also, I think, God and the Father of all cuts away the fruitless and dried mass of branches, hanging without any profit on the spiritual vine.

I think that the Caretaker of our souls, that is, God, wishes through this parable to show what kind and how great a harm the soul will suffer when it is cut off from communion with Him. It will come to nothing and be useless in every good work. Without doubt, it will also be handed over to punishment and become food for the all-devouring fire.

Again, through the prophet Ezekiel, wishing to express the same thing as clearly as possible, He said: “Son of man, what will the wood of the vine be among all the trees that are among the trees of the forest? Will they take from it a beam for making some work? Or will they take it to hang any vessel on it? Fire performs its yearly cleansing of it, and it is consumed to the end. Will it be fit for work?” (Ezek 15:2-4).

Understand from this that what has once been cut off and finally torn away proves utterly useless and cannot be used for anything necessary. It is fit only for fire. Is it not clear, then, that even if we have become a “branch” by turning away from polytheistic error and confessing faith in Christ, yet if we are found deprived of communion with Him through works, we shall undoubtedly undergo the lot of useless branches?

And what then? We are completely cut off, for we shall be handed over to the fire, deprived also of that life-giving moisture which we once received from the vine. What Christ said about the man who buried his talent may be seen fulfilled in those who undergo complete cutting off.

As the talent is taken from that man, so, I think, the Spirit is taken from the branch, as though He were a kind of moisture or quality. And why is He taken away? So that the Master’s Spirit may not seem to be condemned by the Judge together with those who are about to descend into the fire.

If earthly masters do not hastily sentence those who have once been granted honors and distinguished by royal favor, but if someone is convicted of something for which he must justly suffer punishment. He suffers it only after being deprived of his honors, then is it not necessary that the soul, sentenced by the judgment from on high to punishment, should first be deprived, as it were, of the grace of the Spirit before suffering evil?

This, He says, is what the fruitless branch will undergo. He beautifully and powerfully strengthens our souls in the desire to have love for Him, clearly through the practice of virtue and blameless faith. The fruitful branch too, He says, will by no means remain without the vinedresser’s care. It will be cleansed, that it may have strength to bear more fruit.

For those who have chosen the best and most perfect life possible, and have resolved to do good and to walk in every God-loving way of life, God Himself works together with them. He uses the power of the Spirit as a kind of knife.

On the one hand, He cuts away in them the pleasures that always provoke love of the flesh and bodily passions. On the other, He cuts away the vices that usually arise in human souls, defiling the mind with various forms of evil.

This, in our opinion, is the circumcision not made with hands and understood in the Spirit, of which Paul says in one place: “For he is not a Jew outwardly, nor is circumcision outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter. His praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom 2:28-29).

Or again in another place: “In Him you also, having believed, were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands” (Col 2:11). And after careful consideration, we must fully agree with those who say this about the matter.

If there must be a cleansing of the branches of the spiritual vine, and if, I think, it cannot occur without labor, since they must undergo what the tree usually undergoes, then we must think correspondingly about the saints as well.

For our God, who loves virtue, instructs us through labor and affliction. Thus the prophet Isaiah says to us: “Because the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning” (Is 4:4).

Besides this, divine Paul himself says: “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” (Heb 12:7). The wondrous choir of the saints also does not refuse the chastening proper to the saints. On the contrary, it very willingly accepts it, saying: “Chasten us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in wrath, lest Thou make us small” (Jer 10:24).

In wrath there will be the complete cutting off of the fruitless branches, for He sends them to punishment. In judgment, however, the cleansing of the fruitful branches occurs with examination and moderation, joined with very little labor to arouse them to fruit-bearing and to the fruitfulness that follows.

Therefore some, accepting this, cry out: “O Lord, in a small affliction Thy chastening is upon us” (Is 26:16). For the affliction of cleansing is very slight, but it gives us instruction from on high and makes us blessed.

Let blessed David also be accepted as a witness, crying out in this way: “Blessed is the man whom the Lord chastens, and whom Thou teachest from Thy law, to give him rest from the evil days” (Ps 93:12-13).

The days are truly terrible and evil for those who are finally cut off and must go away for punishment by fire. They are the days of incorruptible judgment. But then God gives rest to those who are instructed. Such a man will by no means undergo condemnation and punishment, since he has not been found a fruitless branch.

Therefore let ardor of works be joined to the confession of faith, and let deeds be added to words about God. Then we shall be with Christ and shall find a firm and strong power of communion with Him, escaping the danger of being cut off from Him.

We have now said this because it seemed necessary to us to give the saying under interpretation a spiritual meaning. But it appears that the Lord also wishes to indicate something else, clearly saying: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He cleanses, that it may bear more fruit.”

By the branch cut off by the Father’s cutting from communion with Christ, in my opinion, He indicates the Jewish people, incapable of bearing fruit. Beside them the axe is laid, as most blessed Matthew says, adding that the tree cut down will be handed over to the fire (Mt 3:10).

The branches that are not subject to final cutting off, but remain on the vine and must be cleansed by divine care, are both those who believed from among the Jews themselves and, after them, those who turn from the Gentiles.

For them there is one cleansing, since according to the Scriptures it is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Yet the manner of cleansing is of another kind and differs. Among the Israelites, the will to continue living and acting according to the law of Moses is cut away.

From the heart of idol-worshipers there is removed attraction to the ancient delusion and the unclean refuse of irrational manners. Thus they may bear the pleasing and truly beloved fruit of divine and evangelical instruction for God.

That the saying also appears true to us in this sense is not difficult to ascertain from the divine Scriptures themselves. Thus divine Paul writes in one of the Epistles to those who had believed from the Jews, when they despised the evangelical doctrines and turned back again, honoring the shadows of the law: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal 5:4).

And again: “I say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing” (Gal 5:2). If the desire to be justified by the law makes them strangers to Christ, is it not entirely beyond dispute that laying aside life according to the law must make communion with Christ possible?

Therefore Israel is circumcised in this way. But he who once served the creature rather than the Creator, on the contrary, is cleansed by casting off the ancient disease. Indeed, what does Paul say to them? “If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Rom 5:10).

He also accuses them and says elsewhere: “But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God, why do you turn again to the weak and beggarly principles of the world, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” (Gal 4:9).

Thus those who wish to be enslaved to the weak principles are alienated from Christ. Those, on the contrary, who do not wish to serve the creature rather than the Creator are joined to Him. Must it not be commonly acknowledged, then, that the manner of cleansing for those who believed from the Gentiles consists in the most profitable cutting away, through the Spirit, of the ancient delusion?

In exchange for this, it bears for us every kind of good in many ways. For when evils are removed and taken away, the beauty of virtue is planted in their place. Where the shameful is removed, there the honorable rises and appears.

It must be noted that although the circumcision that performs the work of cleansing in us takes place through the Spirit, the giver of the Spirit is the Son. For “of His fullness we have all received,” according to the word of John (Jn 1:16). He Himself also said to us: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22).

Thus the Father performs cleansing in us through the Son, as though in the form of circumcision through the Spirit. Therefore the harsh and impious boldness of our opponents proves empty. They did not fear to say that if the Son called Himself the vine, and God the Father the vinedresser, then He must not be of one nature with Him.

For, they say, no reason will ever allow the vinedresser and the vine to be considered one in nature. But when the Son is shown to be the vinedresser through circumcision by the Spirit, let them finally acknowledge this.

If vinedressers are of the same form as one another, since they are men by nature, then it is clear that the Son is not foreign to consubstantiality with the Father and God.

The nature of the vine and the branches is one. Therefore, since when He was God we did not belong to His nature, He became man, so that in Him human nature might become, as it were, the vine, and we, being men, might become its branches.

What then does “I am the true vine” mean? Perhaps, by adding “true,” He was pointing to that vine whose comparison He used. For He is called a vine by likeness, not by essence, just as He is called a sheep, a lamb, a lion, a rock, a cornerstone, and so forth.

These things are true in themselves, but their names are used for likeness, not to express essence. Yet it is evident that when He said, “I am the true vine,” He was distinguishing Himself from that vine to which it was said: “How then have you turned into the wild shoot of a strange vine?” (cf. Jer 2:21).

For how could that vine be true when, though it was expected to bring forth grapes, it brought forth thornberries (cf. Is 5:2)? “I am,” He said, “the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He cleanses, that it may bear more fruit.”

Are the vine and the vinedresser one? In respect to Christ being the vine, He said: “The Father is greater than I” (Jn 14:28). In respect to His being the vinedresser, He said: “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30).

Yet He is not like those vinedressers who perform service by caring for things externally. He is such that He also gives growth within. For “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7).

But Christ is surely God, for “the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). Therefore He and the Father are one. And even though the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14), which He was not before, He still preserved in Himself what He was.

Finally, after speaking of the Father as the vinedresser who cuts off the fruitless branches and cleanses the fruitful ones so they may bear more fruit, He directly points to Himself as the One who cleanses the branches: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (Jn 15:3).

Not only is the Church a field, but God is the farmer. Listen to the Lord Himself: “I am the vine, and you are the branches” (Jn 15:5), and “My Father is the vinedresser.”

Laboring in this field and hoping for the reward of eternity, the apostle himself asks nothing for himself except what is due to one who labors. “I planted,” he says, “Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Therefore neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:6-7).

We glorify God, and He cultivates us. Yet we do not honor God in such a way that He becomes better through our honor. We glorify Him by admiring Him, not by changing Him.

When God cultivates us, He makes us better. His cultivation consists in continually removing the seeds of evil from our heart by His word. As with the plow of His word, He opens our heart, sows it with the seeds of His commandments, and awaits the fruits of piety (cf. Mt 13:3-23; Mk 4:3-20; Lk 8:5-15).

Yet it surpassed all kings and covered the whole great earth with its shade. In the Passion its power increased. Blessed is He who made it greater than the vine from Egypt.

Who will not hold fast to the Branch of Truth? It bore the true and cast off the false. It did not cast them off because of their weight.

For our sake it tested them by a breath, casting off what was dry and making what was sound become ripe.

Or: the Spirit. Cf. Ps 89:9.

But so that the disciples would not think that some of them were barren, and would not again be troubled about themselves, Jesus Christ anticipates their disturbance, saying, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”

From it were taken those who were able to bear fruit, and they were scattered throughout the whole world. [...]

When the fruit had been scattered over all the earth, Jerusalem was justly abandoned. It had once borne good fruit, but it was set aside, since from it, like fruit, Christ according to the flesh and the apostles came forth.

Now it is no longer fit for bearing fruit.

In spring many shoots, or branches, grow from this vine. Yet not all of them are fruitful. Therefore, so that unfruitful branches may not exhaust the root, the vinedresser cuts them off.

He cleanses the fruitful branches of excess side shoots, so that all the sap may be directed into the forming clusters. Thus their size and weight increase, and more fruit is obtained.

If such pruning and cleansing is not done, either no berries are produced at all, or they are small and unripe.

Comparing the life of the grapevine with the life of the Apostles and of all members of the Kingdom of God, Jesus said that a vine branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is nourished by the vine.

So also His followers cannot do anything good unless they are in constant union with Him. And as a vine branch is cleansed of everything hindering its fruitfulness, so His disciples, members of the Kingdom of God, are sent various trials.

These trials compel them to cast away everything that prevents them from bearing the fruits that Christ has the right to expect from them, and that He requires of them.

Only the soul that bears fruit in Christ is cleansed by the Heavenly Father. The soul that does not bear fruit in Christ remains in its fallen nature. It brings forth the fruitless fruit of natural good and is satisfied with it.

Such a soul does not draw divine care to itself. In its time it is cut off by death. By death it is cast out of the vineyard, out of the bosom of the Church and out of earthly life, which was given for salvation within the Church.

It is placed in the eternal fire of Hades, where it burns, burning and yet not being consumed forever.

The disciples probably knew it as an image for portraying spiritual relations. The point of comparison between the grapevine and Christ is the organic unity in which the trunk of the vine stands with its branches. By this unity the branches can live only by the life of the trunk and bear fruit, as in every plant.

As branches are alive and bear fruit only insofar as they are nourished by the sap of the trunk, so the disciples and all followers of Christ can be spiritually alive only insofar as they draw this power of spiritual life from the Lord.

The image used by the holy Apostle Paul, of the head and the members of the body, is entirely the same in idea (Eph 5:30; Col 2:19).

“The true vine” means: I am, in the spiritual sense, the truth of what the vine represents in nature.

“My Father is the vinedresser” (cf. Mt 21:33 and parallels), as the owner of the vineyard, cultivating it both Himself and through others. He sent His Son, the Messiah, into the world. He draws believers into communion with Him (Jn 6:44 and parallels). He cultivates His vineyard, His Kingdom on earth, through His Son and the Holy Spirit, and through Their instruments, chosen men.

As on a grapevine there are both fruitful and barren branches, so in the outward society of Christ, His Church on earth, there are and can be those who bear fruit. They prove their faith by works as fruits of faith, and in general by a life consistent with faith (cf. Theophylact).

There are also those who, in this same sense, are barren. The latter are cut off by the vinedresser, while the former are cleansed so that they may bear more fruit.

The cutting off of the barren takes place either by their expulsion from the society of believers even in this present life, as happened to Judas in the small society of Christ, or by death, or after death. It will be completed finally on the day of judgment (cf. Jn 15:6).

Cleansing is accomplished in believers by the power and action of the Holy Spirit, sometimes through temptations, sufferings, and the like. Its purpose is to perfect their moral life more and more (cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact).

Such, in the small society of Christ at that time, were all except Judas.

The barren soul is the soul that does not bring forth the spiritual fruits named by the Apostle: love, peace, longsuffering, meekness, self-control, and other virtues (Gal 5:19-22).

The grace-filled sap of the spiritual Vine is received and turned into the life of the soul by free will. Therefore it depends on free will whether or not to bear spiritual fruits. Responsibility for neglecting heavenly gifts also falls upon it.

The Savior explains further the judgment of the Heavenly Father that strikes barren souls (Jn 15:6).

“And every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” The Savior speaks of the Heavenly Father’s relation to the fruitful soul as though He were speaking of branches.

The vinedresser cuts away certain branches on a fruitful shoot so that there may be more fruit on the shoot. Without this there would be many leaves on the shoot but little fruit, or there would not be as much strength for forming fruit as there can be after some branches are removed.

In exactly the same way the Heavenly Father prunes and cleanses spiritual branches, the souls that believe in Christ. He cleanses them by His living and active word, which penetrates to the deepest places of the heart (Heb 4:12).

He subjects them to sorrowful trials, “that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer serve sin” (Rom 6:6).

Without inward or outward disturbances, they might take the peace offered by circumstances for the peace of a soul made peaceful by grace. Remaining without spiritual sobriety, they might admit whole crowds of sins into the heart.

The Heavenly Father tests them now by warfare with the passions, now by outward deprivations. He does this so that they may not only remain firm in good, but also advance in spiritual perfection (1 Cor 15:58).

The Prophet portrays this action of God in the hearts of believers under the image of silver purified in a fiery furnace (Mal 3:5).