I’ve often talked about how reading the New Testament in its original Greek language really communicates what is being said, and that English loses so much in translation…well one night, I was translating John 15:1-7 for background on verse 5, and I ended up translating the whole chapter! But what really blew me away was something I think I discovered in verse 19, then more later at the end.
OK, Background Information:
Jesus and the 11 were leaving the upper room (Lord’s Supper). Judas had just left the building to get the authorities to arrest Jesus. Jesus began assuring His disciples of things to come and His time to leave. So basically, Jesus was telling all this to his 11, close disciples as last-minute info–preparation info–just to make sure they got it, and also as final instructions and reminders of everything that they had gone over up to this point (John 14:7b = “From now on, you know Him and have seen Him!”)
Jesus’ target audience here was His close disciples – those who have come to know Him (John 15:15b = “Now you are my friends.”)
Jesus Has Been Talking About If We Remain In Him
So now in Chapter 15, Jesus has been talking about if we remain in Him, then we will produce lasting fruit, but if we do not remain in Him, then we will not be able to do anything. Also, if we remain in Him, then we may ask for anything in His name, and the Father will give it to us in order for our joy to be complete. Then we read about how people will hate us and persecute us because we chose to follow Him.
In verse 19, the English translations I looked at (NRSV and NIV) started out saying, “If you belonged to the world…” My thought on this comes from a rule: the word that means “if” in the Greek can also mean “since”, if the verb that it goes with is indicative (and it is). So instead of “if you belonged…,” change it to “since you belonged”. Also, the word that means “belonged” was translated in the NRSV and NIV as if it was aorist (past tense, basically). But in the Greek, its form is “imperfect”, changing the translation to: “you were belonging”. If you have a Bible, get it out and go with me here…this is what I have: “Since you were belonging to the world, the world was loving you as its own; but because you are not from the world, but I chose you from the world, the world hates you on account of this.”
I Realize That It’s a Bit Rough
I realize that it’s a bit rough, but here’s what I’m looking at: according to this verse, Jesus is saying that we were once belonging to (living / existing in) the world. But He chose us from the world so that we might be His disciples and bear lasting fruit (read John 15 up to this point). Jesus is talking about conversion from the world to Him, and why. We were once in the world, and during that time, the world loved us because we were as it is (“as one of its own”). But then Jesus called us out of the world, and suddenly, the world hates us. But Jesus chose us to come out of the world and into Him so that we might bear fruit. And if we remain in Him, (through the trials and all, even as the world hates us), then we will bear lasting fruit, and anything we ask in His name, the Father will give us! WOW!
Now read through the rest of chapter 15. Here’s what I think it says:
In the beginning of the chapter, Jesus talked about remaining in Him so that we will bear good and lasting fruit (also if we are not bearing fruit, then we will be gathered and burned in the fire).
Notice also, “bearing fruit”. In the English translations, it translates “bear fruit”. But the tense is present, and one of the uses of a present verb is that it is often ‘continuous’. So we should always be bearing fruit (it’s a continuous thing, for we are continuously remaining in Jesus). At the end of the chapter, we are told that in the same way that the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send us, will bear witness on Jesus’ behalf, in the same way, we too are to bear witness about Jesus. Why? “Because we have been remaining with Him from the beginning” (we were with Him from the beginning, and still are). And in all this, one bonus (other than receiving anything from the Father that we ask for in Jesus’ name) is that, even in our trials and such that we receive from people who refuse to listen and believe, we are united with Jesus, and Jesus is united with the Father.
That’s the Holy Trinity There
So since we are united with Jesus, and Jesus is united with the Father, and the Holy Spirit lives in us, then we are united also with the Father, Son, AND the Holy Spirit – that’s the Holy Trinity there – and Jesus is saying that we are united with the Trinity (which makes sense, for God is one. If we are united with one part, we are united with all parts). And in telling us of this, He is encouraging us, for we will need it as we are hated by the world that we used to be part of (as Jesus mentioned at the end of Matthew 28, that in all this, He will be with us until the end…and there is no real end for those of us who follow Jesus, for in the end, we will end up with Him for all eternity).
Wow, huh?!
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