"If a man abide not in me,.... Christ does not say, "if ye abide not in me"; he would not suppose this of his true disciples; Judas now being removed, to whom he may have some respect in this verse; though it may be applied to anyone who has made a profession of Christ, and denies the truths of the Gospel, neglects the ordinances of it, or walks unworthy of his profession: of whom the following things may be truly said,
he is cast forth as a branch; that is unfruitful, and is therefore taken away from the vine, and cast forth out of the vineyard. This signifies the ejection of worthless and fruitless professors out of the churches; for such who are either unsound in their principles, or are remiss and negligent in their attendance on the worship of God, with the church, or are loose and vain in their lives and conversations, are to be removed from communion with the people of God.
And is withered. Some versions, as the Arabic, Syriac, and Persic, read this as an epithet of the word "branch", thus; "the branch that is withered"; expressing the condition the branch is in before it is cast forth out of the vineyard, and the reason of its being cast forth: but others read it as a new and distinct predicate of the branch, showing the case it is in, immediately upon its being cast forth: it may be cut off, and cast out with its leaves upon it, though without fruit; but as soon as ever it is ejected, it withers away. So mere external professors of religion, when they are cast out, of the communion of the church, presently the leaf of profession, which once seemed green, decays, loses its verdure, and that seeming fruit which grew upon them shrinks to nothing, and they become "trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit", Jude 1:12: their show of life, zeal, religion, and holiness, disappears, and all their external gifts, light, knowledge, and understanding, even in a speculative way, vanish:
and men gather them; or, as some copies have it, αυτο, "it", which best agrees with the word "branch". This was a common thing, when branches were thrown out of a vineyard, for men to come and gather them up for an use hereafter mentioned. So when unworthy members are put out of a church of Christ, the men of the world gather them into their society: or they are taken into the congregations of false teachers, who being sensual, and without the Spirit, separate themselves; or it may be read impersonally, "they are gathered", or "it is gathered": so wicked men, and Christless professors, will be gathered by the angels at the last day, and severed by them from the righteous, whom they will place at Christ's left hand to receive their awful doom:
and cast them, or "it",
into the fire, and they are burned, or "it is burned"; for nothing else is such a branch good for; see Eze 15:2. This may respect either the gnawings of conscience, that distress of mind, if not despair, that fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which attend apostates in this life; or their being cast into the everlasting burnings of hell fire by angels at the last day, as will be the case of every unfruitful tree, of the chaff and tares." - John Gill
"I detain the Reader to remark to him, that the second verse should be read, as the original will truly allow; Every branch that beareth not fruit in me. For there can be no Branch, really, and truly in Christ, but what must bear fruit. But there may be many, that appear as branches in the Lord's garden the Church; and yet have no union with him. So that what fruit soever they bear, it is not in Christ, neither from Christ; and therefore their root is in themselves, and shall be, as rottenness, and their blossom go up as the dust. Isa 5:24; Deu 32:32. Whereas the true branches, in the true Vine, derive all from the Vine. Every portion of life, and fruitfulness, come from Christ. From me (the Lord saith,) is thy fruit found. Hos 14:8. Reader! be very jealous over your own heart, on these grand points. See to it, that not only in the first grafting upon Christ, when taken from the old olive tree, which is wild by nature, thou art grafted contrary to nature, (being wholly an act of free sovereign grace in God, and nothing of man concurring with it,) into this true Olive Tree, Christ Jesus; but in all the after actings of life, see to it that it is all upon Christ, and all from Christ. Grace is no self acting principle. All our fresh springs are in Him. Of his fulness do we all receive, and grace for grace; meaning, that we need daily, yea momently, grace from Jesus, to act upon and keep alive, the grace we have before had from Jesus. Christ is all. Rom 11:24; Psa 87:7; Joh 1:16." - The Poor Man's Commentary
"If any one abide not in me, he is cast forth as the branch perhaps away from the vineyard, as well as from proximity to the vineand is withered. The two aorists, eblhyh and exhranyh , are simply cases of a common daily experience. These are the inevitable consequences of not abiding in the Vine. We may imagine two ways in which this non-abiding in Christ, this severance from him, may be effected:
(1) the pruning-knife may have lopped them off because of their lack of fruitfulness; or,
(2) they may have withered on the stem, and, by their deficiency of strength and life, have suffered from some external assault which they have not had energy to resist. Lucke, Winer, Tholuck, and Hengstenberg regard the aorists as indicative of what will happen should branches in Christ cease to derive limb from him. Calvin is satisfied that the expression cannot refer to the elect, but to the hypocrite, while Alford is as confident of its repudiation of unconditional election. In my opinion it keeps clear of both suggestions. And they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. The vine is one of the noblest of all trees, and produces the most abundant fruit; but it is one of its peculiarities that all its strength is spent on the fruit, and that its branches are utterly valueless for all other purposes. Heaps of burning vine-prunings may have suggested the awful image which the embodied Love of God here adopts. Some have supposed (Meyer and Alford) that the fire is here the last judgment, which our Lord looks upon as come. But the present tense, following the two aorists, suggests the immediate consequence of such severance from Christ the fiery trials, the fierce temptations, the terrible judgments, always overtaking the unfruitful and unfaithful servants, and preluding the awful consummation of Divine judgment, of which our Lord had often spoken, (Mat 13:42, 50 25:41 Luk 16:24) and which the apostle of love described in Rev 20:15 Rev 21:8." The Pulpit Commentary
