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Joh_15:4. To this purity, however, must be added the continuous faithful persistence in my living fellowship.
ἐν ἐμοί ] here: on (not in) me, συμπεφυῶτες ἐμοί (Nonnus), as is required by what follows, hanging on me as the branches hang on the vine, Joh_15:2. Euth. Zigabenus aptly remarks: συγκολλώμενοί μοι βεβαιώτερον διὰ πίστεως ἀδιστάκτου καὶ σχέσεως ἀῤῥήκτου .
κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν ] to the fulfilment of the requirement[161] is attached the promise: and I will abide on you
συνὼν τῇ δυνάμει , Euth. Zigabenus—with the whole power of spiritual life, which I impart to my faithful ones; I will not separate myself from you, like the vine, which does not loosen itself from its branches. On ΜΕΝῶ as a supplement, see Bornemann in the Sächs. Stud. 1846, p. 56. The harsher mode of completing the sense: and cause that I abide on you (Grotius, Bengel), is not demanded by Joh_15:5, where ὁ μένων … αὐτῷ is the fulfilled μείνατε … ὑμῖν .
ἘᾺΝ ΜῊ ΜΕΊΝῌ , Κ . Τ . Λ .] If he shall not have abided, etc., refers merely to οὐ δύναται καρπὸν φέρειν (as in Joh_5:19), and is so far a more exact definition of the ἈΦʼ ἙΑΥΤΟῦ , “vi aliqua propria, quam habeat extra vitem,” Grotius.
οὕτως οὐδὲ ὑμεῖς ] so neither you, namely δύνασθε καρπ . φέρειν ἀφʼ ἑαυτῶν , i.e. ποιεῖν τι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ , Joh_15:5. Bengel well remarks: “Hic locus egregie declarat discrimen naturae et gratiae,” but also the possibility of losing the latter.
[161] Comp. Weiss, Lehrbegr. p. 74.