John 15:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then, so as not to ascribe the whole work to Himself and give them occasion for a greater fall, He says, “By this My Father is glorified.” Thus everywhere He shows His love for them together with the love of the Father. Therefore the glory was not in what the Jews possessed, but in what the disciples were to receive.

“My Father will be glorified by this, when you bear much fruit and become My disciples.” Do you see that the one who bears fruit is a true disciple? And the Father is thereby “glorified,” that is, He rejoices and counts this as His own glory.

The salvation of us all, entrusted by the Father, the Only-begotten fulfilled most perfectly. He was not admitted to this as a servant, but as the very Wisdom and Power of the Begetter. Without Him nothing whatever could exist, for “all things were made through Him” (Jn 1:3), according to the holy Evangelist. This is especially true of the things concerning us.

So also blessed David prays, as it were, that the divine economy concerning us and the gift of life to all be entrusted by the Father to the Son as His Power and Wisdom. At one time he says: “Command, O God, Thy Power; strengthen, O God, what Thou hast wrought for us” (Ps 67:29). Again he says: “O God, give Thy judgment to the King” (Ps 71:1).

The correction of the whole earth that had fallen into corruption, and its restoration to the form that was in the beginning, was the work of the One who reigns together with God the Father.

Therefore, “My Father is glorified” by giving His Son as a ransom for the life of the world, and by being well pleased to see among us Him who is above every creature. This was certainly not in order to arrange some good for His own nature. For He is all-perfect, needs nothing, and has authority over all. Rather, it was so “that you” might “bear more fruit and be My disciples.”

For if He had not become man, then we, though counted worthy of kinship with Him, joined to Him like branches, and endowed by Him with the capacity for fruit-bearing through participation in the Spirit, would by no means have produced the fruit of life pleasing to God. He calls this fruit “much,” placing the fruit from service under the law below it and declaring it lesser.

“For the law made nothing perfect,” according to the word of Paul (Heb 7:19). Therefore He said to the holy disciples, and through them to all of us who are united to Him by faith and complete love: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5:20).

And again: “Every scribe instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a rich man who brings out of his treasure things new and old” (Mt 13:52). That is, as from the treasury of the heart, he brings forth the communications of Moses and the remembrance of the ancient writings.

By contrast, the one who is obedient, eager to learn, and filled with evangelical light possesses a great and twofold wealth. I mean wealth in the Spirit. For he brings forth things new and old. He transforms the shadow of the law and the service under the law into the form of evangelical life. What the law disclosed through types, Christ revealed openly in truth.

Therefore He also said: “I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill.” And again: “Truly, truly I say to you, not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt 5:17-18).

Thus the “much fruit” is evangelical service in spirit and truth, when the Only-begotten became man to the glory of God the Father. And through this the inhabitants of the earth became His “disciples.”

Thus, of old, He spoke to the ancients through the prophets as God (Heb 1:1). But to us and about us He said: “And they shall all be taught by God” (Jn 6:45). To us who believe in Him, He transmitted the Word from the Father without any other mediator. Nor was there a transmitter of His will to us, as Moses was to the Israelites on Mount Sinai, or as the prophets after Moses were to their contemporaries. Rather, Christ Himself taught us.

Through this we are all disciples of God. We would never have become His “disciples,” nor would we have produced the fruit of love for God, and that “much” fruit, if the Father had not been “glorified” through mercy. He was well pleased that the Logos, who proceeded from His essence, should become man.

So must we understand when we hear the words of divine Scripture, that the Father gave His Son. For He was well pleased together with Him who willed to suffer for us. Therefore it is said, and quite rightly, that the Father gave the Son.

And if God the Father is glorified by our bearing much fruit and becoming disciples of Christ, let us not credit this to our own glory, as though we had it from ourselves. For such grace is from Him. Therefore the glory is not ours, but His.

So in another place, after saying, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,” He immediately added, to keep them from thinking that these works were from themselves, “and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt 5:16). Therefore the Father is glorified by our bearing much fruit and becoming disciples of Christ.

And by whom do we become them, if not by Him whose mercy has gone before us? For “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10).

The Savior, speaking to the disciples and entrusting to them more and more the grace through which we are saved, said: “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and become My disciples.” Whether one says glorificatur, “is glorified,” or clarificatus, “is made radiant,” both translations are made from one Greek word, doxazein. For the Greek word doxa means gloria, “glory,” in Latin.

I considered that this should be recalled because the Apostle says: “If Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not with God” (cf. Rom 4:2). This is the glory with God by which not man but God is glorified, if a man is justified not by works but by faith. Thus to act righteously is given to him by God. For the branch, as I have already said above, cannot bear fruit by itself.

Therefore, if God the Father is glorified by our bearing much fruit and becoming disciples of Christ, let us not ascribe this to our glory, as though we had attained it by ourselves. Indeed, this belongs to His grace, and therefore in this the glory is not ours, but His.

For this reason He said elsewhere: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.” And so that they should not think their good works were from themselves, He immediately added: “and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (cf. Mt 5:16).

For the Father is glorified in this, that we bear much fruit and become disciples of Christ. And through whom shall we become them, if not through Him whose mercy goes before us? For “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10).

“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples.” What more should man desire than the glory of the heavenly Father? For what should he live on earth, if not to live for the glory of the heavenly Father?

Thus the Son of God, expecting from His disciples that the heavenly Father should be glorified by their works, sets before their activity the highest and most spiritual motive. “By this He is glorified,” that is, He will be glorified. “That you bear fruit” means “if you bear fruit.” Similar turns of speech are not rare in Scripture.

In what do the fruits consist which the Lord expects from His disciples? First of all, in the effects that must occur in their souls through their faithfulness to the life-bearing vine. Then, in the effects that will accompany their powerful preaching, the conversion of unbelieving souls to God.

Then the Father will be glorified. Then the power, goodness, mercy, and love of the heavenly Father will be revealed before the eyes of men. Then, seeing their good works, they will glorify the heavenly Father (Mt 5:16). Even more, seeing thousands serving the true God, they will glorify Him who is wondrous in His power and in His love.

Thus the glory of Jehovah will not be revealed to men according to the fantasies of the Jews, nor will it appear in their imagined earthly kingdom. It will appear in the works of the disciples of Jesus, in the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ.

We are evil and covetous, storm-tossed by passions, hard-hearted, and disobedient to the commandments of love of Christ the Savior. Therefore our society resembles a pagan society more than a Christian one. This cannot be denied. Yet the eternal ideal traced by the Savior stands eternally before man. It reveals what the heavenly Father requires of him, and what humanity will come to when the times appointed by God arrive.

“Behold, I am coming soon, says the Lord... Let the righteous still do righteousness, and let the holy still be holy” (Rev 22:11-12). “Glorify God in your bodies and in your souls, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6:20). “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control... Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:22-24).

These are the fruits of communion with the Lord and of the branch’s abiding on the eternal Vine. The Lord requires them from those who wish truly to be called His disciples. Only those who abide on the Vine will bring forth the fruits of good. They fulfill their purpose: to glorify God and become children of God.