What Does John 15:16 Mean?

(16) **Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.**—Comp. Luke 6:12 *et seq.,* and in this Gospel John 6:70; John 13:18. The thought of His love for them, which had exalted them from the position of slaves to friends, from fishermen to Apostles, is made to remind them again (John 15:17) of the duty of love to each other. In John 15:20 he reminds them of the words which accompanied His own act of humility in washing their feet (John 13:15-16). The chiefest Apostle owed all to His gift and election, and should be ready to sacrifice all for his brethren, as He Himself was. **And ordained you.**—The word “ordained” has acquired a special sense in modern English which is here misleading, and it will be better, therefore, to read *appointed.* **That ye should go and bring forth fruit.**—Comp. Matthew 13:44; Matthew 18:15; Matthew 19:21, for the idea of going away and doing something. It implies here the activity of the Apostles as distinct from that of Christ. Each one as a branch ever joined to Christ was to grow away from Him in the development of his own work, and was to bring forth his own fruit. The margin compares Matthew 28:19, probably, with the thought of their fulfilling the Apostle’s missionary work. This view has been commonly adopted, but it gives to the word “go’” a fulness of meaning which is scarcely warranted. **And that your fruit should remain.**—Comp. Note on John 4:36; and see 2John 1:8, and Revelation 14:13. **That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father.**—Comp. Notes on John 15:7-8.