I Am the True Vine
Jesus is the vine and we are all branches. Any branch that bears fruit will be pruned so it will be able to bear more fruit, but any branch that does not bear fruit will be cut off and burned in a pile. If you keep the commandments of Jesus, you will abide in him as he did in the father. The main thing Jesus wants is to love each other as he loved the disciples.
I'm not a huge fan of the metaphor, but I do like that the focus here is on loving each other.
The Hatred of the World
If the world hates you, know that they hated me first. I have plucked you from the world and now the world hates you. If you were still of the world it would love you.
This is an interesting idea, you were of the world and the world was cool with you, but now you are of Jesus and the world hates you. The thing that comes to mind, how does this change if the world is majority Christian? Or at least your local environment, if the country you live in for example, is majority Christian, it flips around a bit.
If I have come and talked to people and performed miracles and they still don't believe, then they are sinning and they have no excuse for their sin. However, if I had not come and done these works, they would not be guilty of sin.
Well now this is interesting. It reads to me like it is saying before Jesus came around, no one knew any better so they wouldn't get thrown into hell. Which seems good because it isn't really fair to get thrown into hell if you never had a chance. Although, if that is the case, what was Jesus saving us from? If my interpretation is correct, Jesus really set things in motion to allow us to burn in hell. Ok, I confused myself here.
After Jesus is gone the holy spirit will bear witness about him as will you (Jesus' followers)
I'm not really sure what it means that the holy spirit will bear witness. Perhaps this is the idea that you feel it in your heart or something.
The hour will come when people will want to kill you and think they are offering service to God, but this is because they do not know the father.
This kinda sounds like any other rivalry to me (escalated to killing)
Excuse me. I Am The True Vine is NOT a metaphor! The Bible is literal truth and I am literally a grape!
ReplyDeleteDid you eat the gum?
DeleteLoL! You guys are funny. @Grundy, if that's the case, we'd better watch out. God must be growing us to reap, and make into sweet, sweet wine to quench his thirst for blood.
ReplyDeleteI Am the True VineYou know, its ironic that a metaphor of plants was what planted the first “seeds” of my doubt. I think its great that he talks about growing and pruning for the good producing fruits. Jesus takes care of his flock. But then I was thinking about how he “burns” the other branches, or non believers.
He also seems to be saying here again that whatever you ask for in prayer, he will grant. He also seems to be saying that he's made everything God made known to him to the disciples, but the next chapter we will see that he says differently. Does this mean that God still has to reveal stuff to Jesus that he doesn't know about to tell his disciples?
The Hatred of the World”It reads to me like it is saying before Jesus came around, no one knew any better so they wouldn't get thrown into hell. Which seems good because it isn't really fair to get thrown into hell if you never had a chance. Although, if that is the case, what was Jesus saving us from? If my interpretation is correct, Jesus really set things in motion to allow us to burn in hell.” That's how I interpret it.
Did you know that Martin Luther used verse 23 as one of his many biblical justifications for antisemitism in his work “On the Jews and Their Lies”? It's long, but you'd have to go to part 12 for the verse.
I'm not really sure what it means that the holy spirit will bear witness. Perhaps this is the idea that you feel it in your heart or something.” This verse is often misinterpreted. It means that the holy spirit will come to bears and they will see it. jk
Good catch with him saying that anything you wish for you can get. It has come up before and it does seem to be what he means. But it is clearly not true. People pray for things all the time that they don't get.
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