John 18

John 18:1

The prince of this world is coming - To make his grand assault. But he hath nothing in me - No right, no claim, or power. There is no guilt in me, to give him power over me; no corruption to take part with his temptation.

John 18:2

But I suffer him thus to assault me, Because it is the Father’s commission to me, John 10:18. To convince the world of my love to the Father, in being obedient unto death, Philippians 2:8. Arise, let us go hence - Into the city, to the passover. All that has been related from John 12:31, was done and said on Thursday, without the city. But what follows in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters, was said in the city, on the very evening of the passover just before he went over the brook Kedron.

John 18:4

I am the true vine - So the true bread, John 6:32; that is, the most excellent.

John 18:5

Every one that beareth fruit, he purifieth - by obeying the truth, 1 Peter 1:22; and by inward or outward sufferings, Hebrews 12:10,11. So purity and fruitfulness help each other. That it may bear more fruit - For this is one of the noblest rewards God can bestow on former acts of obedience, to make us yet more holy, and fit for farther and more eminent service.

John 18:6

Ye are clean - All of you, to whom I now speak, are purged from the guilt and power of sin; by the word - Which, applied by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of purifying the soul.

John 18:7

Abide in me - Ye who are now pure by living faith, producing all holiness; by which alone ye can be in me.

John 18:8

I am the vine, ye are the branches - Our Lord in this whole passage speaks of no branches but such as are, or at least were once, united to him by living faith.

John 18:9

If any one abide not in me - By living faith; not by Church communion only. He may thus abide in Christ, and be withered all the time, and cast into the fire at last. He is cast out - Of the vineyard, the invisible Church. Therefore he was in it once.

John 18:10

If ye abide in me, ye shall ask - Prayers themselves are a fruit of faith, and they produce more fruit.

John 18:11

So shall ye be my disciples - Worthy of the name. To be a disciple of Christ is both the foundation and height of Christianity.

John 18:12

Abide ye in my love - Keep your place in my affection. See that ye do not forfeit that invaluable blessing. How needless a caution, if it were impossible for them not to abide therein?

John 18:13

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love - On these terms, and no other, ye shall remain the objects of my special affection.

John 18:14

That my joy might remain in you - The same joy which I feel in loving the Father, and keeping his commandments.

John 18:15

Your joy will be full, if ye so love one another.

John 18:16

Greater love - To his friends. He here speaks of them only.

John 18:17

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you - On this condition, not otherwise. A thunderbolt for Antinomianism! Who then dares assert that God’s love does not at all depend on man’s works?

John 18:18

All things - Which might be of service to you.

John 18:19

Ye - My apostles, have not chosen me, but I have chosen you - As clearly appears from the sacred history: and appointed you, that ye may go and bear fruit - I have chosen and appointed you for this end, that ye may go and convert sinners: and that your fruit may remain - That the fruit of your labours may remain to the end of the world; yea, to eternity; that whatsoever ye shall ask - The consequence of your going and bearing fruit will be, that all your prayers will he heard.

John 18:22

Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you - Because your maxims, tempers, actions, are quite opposite to theirs. For the very same reason must the world in all ages hate those who are not of the world.

John 18:23

John 13:16; Matthew 10:24; Lu 6:40.

John 18:24

All these things will they do to you, because they know not him that sent me - And in all ages and nations they who know not God will, for this cause, hate and persecute those that do.

John 18:25

They had not had sin - Not in this respect.

John 18:26

He that hateth me - As every unbeliever doth, For as the love of God is inseparable from faith, so is the hatred of God from unbelief.

John 18:28

Psalms 69:4.

John 18:29

When the Comforter is come, whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me - The Spirit’s coming, and being sent by our Lord from the Father, to testify of him, are personal characters, and plainly distinguish him from the Father and the Son; and his title as the Spirit of truth, together with his proceeding from the Father, can agree to none but a Divine person. And that he proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father, may be fairly argued from his being called the Spirit of Christ, 1 Peter 1:11; and from his being here said to be sent by Christ from the Father, as well as sent by the Father in his name.

John 18:33

The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service - But, blessed be God, the time is so far past, that those who bear the name of Christ do not now generally suppose they do him service by killing each other for a difference in opinion or mode of worship.

John 18:34

They have not known the Father nor me - This is the true root of persecution in all its forms.

John 18:35

I did not tell you these things at the beginning, because I was with you - To bear the chief shock in my own person, and to screen you from it.

John 18:36

None of you asketh me - Now when it is most seasonable. Peter did ask this before, John 13:36.

John 18:38

It is expedient for you - In respect of the Comforter, John 16:7, &c, and of me, John 16:16, &c, and of the Father, John 16:23, &c.

John 18:39

He - Observe his twofold office; toward the world, John 16:8, &c; toward believers, John 16:12, &c: will convince - All of the world - Who do not obstinately resist, by your preaching and miracles, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment - He who is convinced of sin either accepts the righteousness of Christ, or is judged with Satan. An abundant accomplishment of this we find in the Acts of the Apostles.

John 18:40

Of sin - Particularly of unbelief, which is the confluence of all sins, and binds them all down upon us.