The branches have been chosen to bear remaining fruit through praying in the Son’s name. When we pray for fruit-bearing, we must pray in the Son’s name. To ask in the Lord’s name requires us to abide in the Lord and to let Him and His words abide in us that we may actually be one with Him. Then our asking will be His asking. This kind of asking is related to the fruit-bearing and surely will be answered by the Father. As we pray in this way, we must claim that we are one with the Son. We should not beg but rather claim that we are one with Him. Whatever the Son is and has is ours, and we are in His name. Pray in this way.
We should not only pray in the Son’s name but also be one with the Son, live by Him, and let Him live in us. This matter is very crucial. Our prayer depends upon our living. We must be one with the Lord in our living. Then we can be one with Him in our prayer and pray in His name. It is by this kind of living and prayer that we can bear fruit that can remain.
The branches need to love one another in the life of the Son, in the love of the Son, and in the commission of the Son which is to bear fruit for the glorification of the Father. We need to love one another in the Lord’s life, the divine life, in the Lord’s love, and in His commission of fruit-bearing. Life is the source, love is the condition, and fruit-bearing is the goal. If we all live by the Lord’s life as the source, in the Lord’s love as the condition, and for fruit-bearing as the goal, we surely will love one another. Having different sources of life, different conditions, or different goals will separate us and prevent us from loving one another.
Christians are fond of talking about loving one another. If we love one another in our human life, that will bring in death. If we love one another in an emotional way or for our own purpose, that also will result in death. We must love one another in the life of Christ, in the love of Christ, and in the commission of Christ. We must not love one another in our natural life, with our emotions, or for our own purpose. We must love one another in the divine life, with the divine love, and for the purpose of bearing much fruit that the Father may be glorified (v. 8).
John 15 has three sections. The first section, verses 1 through 11, is about the relationship between the vine tree and the branches; the second, verses 12 through 17, is about the relationship between the branches; and the third, verses 18 through 27, is about the separation between the branches and the world. As branches, we have been separated from the world. We have nothing to do with the world, for we have been fully attached to the vine tree.
In this portion of the Gospel of John, the term world refers mainly to the religious world (15:18; 16:2). In other words, the world in chapter fifteen is just religion, especially the Jewish religion. To the disciples of the Lord Jesus at that time, the world was the Jewish religion. They had been separated from that Jewish religion unto Christ, the vine tree.