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Joh_15:2. As on the natural vine there are fruitful and unfruitful branches (i.e. tendrils, Plat. Rep. p. 353 A; Pollux, vii. 145), so there are in the fellowship of Christ such as evince their faith by deed as by faith’s fruit, and those amongst whom this is not the case.
The latter, who are not, with Hengstenberg, to be taken for the unbelieving Jews (as is already clear from ἐν ἐμοί and from Joh_15:5), but for the lip-Christians and those who say Lord! Lord! (comp. those who believe without love, 1 Corinthians 13), God separates from the fellowship of Christ, which act is conceived from the point of view of divine retribution (comp. the thing, according to another figure, Joh_8:35); the former He causes to experience His purging influence, in order that their life of faith may increase in moral practical manifestation and efficiency. This purification is effected by means of temptations and sufferings, not solely, but by other things along with these.
πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοί ] Nominat. absol. as in Joh_1:12, Joh_6:39, Joh_17:2, with weighty emphasis.
αἴρει ] takes it away with the pruning-knife. It forms with καθαίρει a “suavis rhythmus,” Bengel.
τὸ καρπ . φέρ .] which bears fruit; but previously μή φέρ .: if it does not bear.
καθαίρ .] He cleanses, prunes. Figure of the moral καθαρισμός ,—continually necessary even for the approved Christian,—through the working of divine grace, Joh_13:10.
For a political view of the community under the figure of the vine, see in Aesch. adv. Ctesiph. 166; Beck.: ἀμπελουργοῦσί τινες τὴν πόλιν , ἀνατετμήκασί τινες τὰ κλήματα τὰ τοῦ δήμου .