How do abiding, friendship, hatred and testimony relate in the discourse?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The vine teaching leads into mutual love and friendship, then conditional persecution and testimony teaching.

Chapter breakdown

Jesus calls Himself the true vine and His Father the husbandman. The Father takes away every branch in Him that bears no fruit and purges fruitful branches to bring more fruit. They are clean by the word He has spoken. They should abide in Him and He in them: as a branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, neither can they unless they abide in Him. He is the vine, they the branches; mutual abiding bears much fruit and without Him they can do nothing. The one not abiding is cast out as a branch, withers, is gathered and cast into the fire and burns. If they abide in Him and His words in them, what they ask will be done. The Father is glorified by their much fruit and becoming His disciples.

As the Father has loved Him, He has loved them; they should abide in His love. Keeping His commandments means abiding in His love, as He keeps His Father’s commandments and abides in His love. He says these things so His joy may be in them and theirs filled. He commands them to love one another as He has loved them. No one has greater love than laying down life for friends. They are His friends if they do what He commands. He does not now call them servants, since a servant does not know what his lord does; He has called them friends because He has made known all He heard from His Father. They did not choose Him; He chose and appointed them to go and bring lasting fruit, so the Father may give what they ask in His name. He repeats the command to love one another.

If the world hates them, they should know it hated Him before them. If they were of the world, it would love its own; because He chose them out of it, it hates them. They should remember that a servant is not greater than his master: if others persecuted Him, they will persecute them; if they kept His word, they will keep theirs. These things are done for His name because those doing them do not know His sender. If He had not come and spoken, they would not have sin; now they have no excuse. Hating Him means hating His Father. If He had not done among them works no other man has done, they would not have sin; now they have seen and hated both Him and His Father, fulfilling the word written in their law about hatred without cause. The Paraclete whom He sends from the Father, the Spirit of truth proceeding from the Father, will testify of Him. The edition argues that being sent by the Son proves procession from the Son as well as the Father, explicitly addressing the modern Greeks; that is the annotation’s argument. The disciples will also testify because they are with Him from the beginning.

The story inside

Jesus teaches through vine and branch imagery and then addresses friends chosen to bring lasting fruit. He contrasts the world’s hatred with its love for its own and says both that persecutors will persecute and that keepers of His word will keep theirs. No journey destination or concrete persecution episode is narrated here.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Preserve the conditions of asking and abiding, rather than offering an unrestricted causal guarantee.
2
Do not turn world into a categorical claim about all secular people or omit those keeping the disciples’ word.
3
The procession argument is printed commentary and is identified as such.

Test your recall

What two responses to His word are mentioned alongside persecution?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 122824–122842
15:1. I am the true vine: and my Father is the husbandman. 15:2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 15:3. Now you are clean, by reason of the word which I have spoken to you. 15:4. Abide in me: and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. 15:5. I am the vine: you the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. 15:6. If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither: and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire: and he burneth.
Lines 122859–122874
15:12. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. 15:13. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 15:14. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. 15:15. I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things, whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. 15:16. You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Lines 122878–122898
15:18. If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you. 15:19. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 15:20. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. 15:21. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake: because they know not him that sent me. 15:22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. 15:23. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 15:24. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Lines 122907–122909
Whom I will send.... This proves, against the modern Greeks, that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son, as well as from the Father: otherwise he could not be sent by the Son.