John 15 Study Notes

15:13-14 In the OT, only Abraham (2Ch 20:7; Is 41:8) and, by implication, Moses (Ex 33:11) are called “friends of God.” Jesus extended this privilege to all obedient believers.

15:16 In first-century Palestine, disciples typically took the initiative in attaching themselves to a particular rabbi, not vice versa. As a well-known dictum declared, “Provide yourself with a teacher.” Jesus broke with this custom and called his own disciples. Appointed recalls the OT description of God’s appointment of Abraham (Gn 17:5; cp. Rm 4:17), the ordination of Levites (Nm 8:10), and Moses’s commissioning of Joshua (Nm 27:18).

15:18-16:33 This final major unit in Jesus’s farewell discourse deals with the world’s hostility toward him and his followers and with the future ministry of the Holy Spirit.

15:18 Jesus’s followers are to be known by their love (see 13:34-35 and note there).

15:19-23 Jesus’s disciples have no control over how their message is received. People’s responses will be determined by their attitude toward Jesus. The words in v. 23 belie those who claim to love God but will not accept Jesus. They would not be guilty of sin does not mean the world would be perfect. Rather it stresses the world’s guilt since Jesus has come.

15:24 On Jesus’s works as a witness to him, see note at 5:31-47.

15:25 Jesus declared that the Jews’ hatred of him fulfilled OT Scripture, specifically Ps 69:4 (cp. Ps 35:19). This Davidic psalm depicts a righteous sufferer who is zealous for God but is persecuted by God’s enemies for no reason. Thus Jesus saw David’s experiences as a prefiguration of the hatred and rejection he suffered.

15:26 On Jesus’s promise of the Holy Spirit, see notes at 14:16-17,25-26.

15:27 The call for Jesus’s followers to serve as his witnesses recalls OT prophetic literature, where God’s end-time people are called his “witnesses” to the nation (Is 43:10-12; 44:8). In the NT, believers are promised the Spirit’s help in times of persecution (Mt 10:20; Mk 13:11; Lk 12:12), and the Spirit played a vital part in the church’s mission (Ac 1:8; cp. Lk 24:48; Ac 5:32; 6:10).