John 15:3 KJV
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
This verse struck me because it seems almost out of place with the Lord's theme of the branch and its pruning.
Gill and Barnes both suggest (and it seems like they are right to me) that the passage traces back to John 13:10 "Ye are clean but not all" referring to Judas Iscariot. By John 15 Judas had left the company and was about the business of betraying Jesus. He had been pruned from the branch and thus the disciples had been purged.
None of us like losing companions in the Lord. Some of them are not as we would like them to be, but still, we do not wish for any to be lost from either the work of Christ as a whole or our own company. Still, often once they are finally gone we enjoy freedom in the work of Christ that is not there while they are. Their spirit hampers the spirit of the work of the Lord.
I am going to re-think John 15 and the vine and branches - not applying it so much to myself as an individual, but to a local church setting, as it is obvious that the Lord is addressing not just one believer at a time in the text, but the apostles as a whole.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
This verse struck me because it seems almost out of place with the Lord's theme of the branch and its pruning.
Gill and Barnes both suggest (and it seems like they are right to me) that the passage traces back to John 13:10 "Ye are clean but not all" referring to Judas Iscariot. By John 15 Judas had left the company and was about the business of betraying Jesus. He had been pruned from the branch and thus the disciples had been purged.
None of us like losing companions in the Lord. Some of them are not as we would like them to be, but still, we do not wish for any to be lost from either the work of Christ as a whole or our own company. Still, often once they are finally gone we enjoy freedom in the work of Christ that is not there while they are. Their spirit hampers the spirit of the work of the Lord.
I am going to re-think John 15 and the vine and branches - not applying it so much to myself as an individual, but to a local church setting, as it is obvious that the Lord is addressing not just one believer at a time in the text, but the apostles as a whole.
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