John 15:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then, having moved them from both sides, from the side of benefit and from the side of harm, He requires what constitutes our first duty.

“He who abides in Me, and I in him.” Do you see that the Son also shares in the care of the disciples no less than the Father?

If the Father cleanses, the Son holds them in Himself. The fruit-bearing of the branches depends on their abiding on the root.

Even if a branch is not cleansed, still, while remaining on the root, it bears fruit, though not in the quantity it ought. But if it does not remain, it bears no fruit at all.

It has already been shown, however, that cleansing also belongs to the Son, just as being the root belongs to the Father, who begot the root.

Do you see how all things are common to Them: both to cleanse and to possess the power of the root?

By the example of the branch He clearly shows us that power and life are given from Him to those who are well-pleasing to Him. For as that branch bears fruit which abides on the vine and receives from it support for life, so you also, if you abide in Me through keeping the commandments, will bear more fruit.

Our Lord Jesus Christ clearly says that He called Himself the grapevine for this precise and sole reason. He wanted us to understand clearly, and almost to see with bodily eyes, as in a material, sensible, and very clear example, that those who strive to be united with Him and desire to be in inseparable communion with Him will have the power and capacity to bring forth virtue and spiritual fruit.

They clearly receive from the grapevine, as from a mother, the power and capacity for this. By contrast, those who are torn away and, as it were, cut off from communion with Him by turning to an improper life displeasing to God will have no capacity for doing virtue.

They say: “If the Savior is the Vine, we are the branches, and the Father is the husbandman, and if the branches are naturally joined to the vine while the vine is not consubstantial with the husbandman, then the Son is consubstantial with us and we are part of Him. But He is not consubstantial with the Father. On the contrary, He is wholly different from Him.”

We shall say to them that the Savior called us branches not of His Godhead, but of His flesh. This accords with the apostle, who said, “We are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor 12:27). Again, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Cor 6:15).

The demon of pride has a twofold malice. Either he persuades the monk to attribute his right deeds to himself and not to God, the Giver of good things and Helper in what is right.

Or, when the monk does not consent to this, the demon incites him to despise the less perfect brethren.

But he does not know that even by acting in this way against him, the demon prompts him to reject God’s help. For by despising them as unable to show the same correctness as himself, he presents himself as having shown special correctness by his own power.

This is impossible, as the Lord said: “Without Me you can do nothing.” For our weakness is such that, even when it desires the good, it cannot bring it to completion without the Giver of good things.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.” Jesus Christ now explains the parable.

Notice what He says: “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.” Often someone abides in Christ by being united with Him through faith, yet Christ does not abide in him, but turns away from him, because he lives an unworthy life.

Such a man bears fruits, but very small ones, having done one or two good deeds. In vineyards too we see branches that do not especially gladden the vinedresser, producing only some poor little clusters.

There is a place, we believe, in the center of the earth. The Jews call it Golgotha in their own tongue. There a tree was planted, cut from a barren stump. This tree, as I remember hearing, brought forth a beneficent fruit. Yet this fruit was not for those who dwelt there. The comely fruit was received by strangers.

The tree was like this: it rose with its trunk, then stretched out its arms like two branches, like heavy yards on which sails are raised, or like a yoke by which two oxen are harnessed to a plow.

A shoot from the first ripe seed sprang up in the earth, and then wondrously, on the third day, produced another branch, terrifying all on earth and above it, yet rich in life-giving fruit.

It is good, of course, to keep the chief virtue and not to be concerned about particulars, nor to pray about particulars, but only to seek the Kingdom of God according to the Lord’s word (Mt 6:33).

But if we still concern ourselves with every need, then we must also pray about each one. For whoever does anything or cares about anything without prayer does not bring his work to a successful good conclusion.

This is what is meant by the Lord’s saying: “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

It is good to hold fast to the principal commandment, not to be concerned about anything in particular, and not to pray about anything in particular. Rather, by prayer and by all activity, one should seek only the Kingdom and the Word of God.

It has likewise been decreed: if anyone says that the grace of justification was given to us so that what is possible to fulfill by free will might be fulfilled more easily through grace. As though even without receiving the grace of God we could, though with difficulty, still fulfill the divine commandments without it, let such a one be anathema. For concerning the fruits of the commandments the Lord did not say, "Without Me you can do with difficulty," but said, "Without Me you can do nothing."

Question. A certain Christ-loving man asked the same Elder: God created man free, yet He Himself says, “Without Me you can do nothing.” I ask, how is freedom to be reconciled with the fact that nothing can be done without God?

Answer. God created man free so that he might incline toward the good. Yet when he inclines toward it by his own will, he is unable to accomplish the good without God’s help.

For it is written: “It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy” (Rom 9:16). Therefore, when a man inclines his heart toward the good and calls upon God for help, God takes heed of his good zeal and gives him strength for the work.

Thus there is room for both: the freedom of man and the help granted him by God. For the good proceeds from God, but is accomplished through His saints. Therefore God is glorified in all and glorifies them.

Comparing the life of the vine with the life of the Apostles and of all members of the Kingdom of God, Jesus said that a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is nourished from the vine. So also His followers can do nothing good unless they remain in constant union with Him. As a vine branch is cleansed of everything that hinders its fruitfulness, so His disciples, the members of the Kingdom of God, are sent various trials. These compel them to cast away everything that prevents them from bearing the fruits which Christ has the right to expect and requires from them. Continuing these comparisons, Jesus told the Apostles that they personally had already been cleansed by His teaching, to which they had always listened. Like vine branches, they needed only to remain on the vine, to abide in Him. “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit... for without Me you can do nothing.”

On the way to the garden of Gethsemane, probably taking His word from the things along the road, He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (Jn 15:5).

By these words He explains the mysterious bond of believers with Him and with one another. He shows how the grace of the Holy Spirit gives life to believers and moves them to perform actions pleasing to God.

The likeness between the relation of branches to the grapevine and that of believers to Jesus Christ, or to God in general, extends this far. As branches cut off from the vine can no longer bear fruit or grow, so believers who remain outside communion with Jesus Christ can neither bear fruit nor live the spiritual life.

“I am the vine,” said the Savior, “you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

From these words we rightly conclude that without the grace of Christ (Gal 1:6) we cannot bear spiritual fruits or do good works.

But did not the Savior Himself also say: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself” (Mt 16:24)? “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:17)?

“If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me” (Mt 19:21)?

"Without Me," that is, separated from Me and having no spiritual communion with Me, "you can do nothing." This means nothing that would promise the fruits of the Spirit, that is, true Christian moral perfection.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.” This explains what was said: a believer cannot produce good fruits without Christ Jesus.

What the vine means for the branches in the kingdom of nature, Christ Jesus means for believers in the spiritual Kingdom. The Lord presents the action of God’s power upon man in the same form as the action of the vine upon the branches.

Sap passes from the vine into the branches. In exactly the same way, grace does not mean outward instruction in piety, but the invisible power that acts within man and produces a saving transformation in his spirit (Gal 2:20).

A branch does not lose its separate existence by being united with the vine. In exactly the same way, the believer’s union with Christ Jesus destroys neither his personal being nor his free will.