Gospel of John 15:1–27 Catholic Bible study Lesson 18

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 18 I Am the True Vine
the Gospel According to John 15:1–27

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: When the Spirit of Truth Comes

This material coordinates with Lesson 18 on pages 97–100 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 14:1–31
In Lesson 17 I Am the Way, the Truth & the Life , Jesus focuses his teaching on preparing his disciples for what’s about to happen. Jesus begins by saying that he’s going to his Father’s house where he plans to arrange for the disciples to join him. It’s in this context that Jesus announces that he’s the way, the truth and the life. Philip asks to see the Father, and Jesus responds by saying that anyone who’s seen Jesus has seen the Father. Then Jesus explains that he expects the disciples to keep his commandments, and toward that end he intends to send the Holy Spirit to be with them. Jesus also promises that the Holy Spirit will teach the disciples all things, a surprising idea because it suggests that at that point there’s still much that Jesus hasn’t taught his followers.

map notes—a world of hate
In the Gospel According to John 15:18, Jesus talks frankly to his disciples about the hatred that they can expect to experience as a result of following Jesus’ new commandment to love one another. When Jesus began his ministry, faith or trust in God was the focus of his teaching. Now that Jesus is preparing for his death, his farewell discourses focus on love and the necessity of his disciples bearing witness to him after he’s gone. What’s always been easy for Jesus’ followers to miss is that Jesus is raising the bar on the kind of love that he expects of his followers, whom he also considers to be his friends. To learn more about what Jesus has in mind, read “Greater Love” on page 99 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which appears on page 99 in the study book.

Jesus chooses his friends (52:50)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses the Gospel According to John 15:16, in which Jesus tells his disciples: “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” It’s easy to misinterpret this verse in a way that leads to the Protestant doctrine of predestination, which holds that everything that happens in our lives is predetermined by God. Such thinking gives rise to the idea that we have no say in our own salvation, which flies in the face of free will. Because of free will, all men and women always have the option to turn our backs on Jesus. That would be stupid, but the world is full of stupid people. To read our response to a question regarding whether Jesus might have been talking about predestination in the Gospel According to John 6:44 (or elsewhere in the Gospels), you can read “Q&A—A verse that’s easy to misinterpret” on the online study page for Lesson 8 I Am the Living Bread.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 18, “I Am the True Vine,” on pages 97–100 in the study book.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be a friend?
Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps points out that it’s impossible to be friends with someone unless they’re in some way like us, and he explains that in English, the word “friend” isn’t a verb. The electronic age has brought about a fairly recent language change, however, and it’s now grammatically possible through social networking sites to use “friend” as a verb to “friend” someone.

? Do you have any friends with whom you have nothing in common?
? How many of your closest friends have you met on the Internet?

ex libris—are you interested in love?
If you are, we recommend Faith Hope Love by Joseph Pieper. (If you aren’t interested in love, you might want to ask why not.) In his book, Pieper also looks at the other two theological virtues—faith and hope. All three are essential to the Christian faith. Pieper’s academic discipline is philosophy rather than theology, and he does an exceptional job focusing on language to narrow the definition of the concept of love to bring it into sharper focus for Catholics. Read excerpts and learn more about Faith Hope Love and other works related to Bible study at ex libris—main bookshelf.

WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN THAT we can ask for anything?
In the Gospel According to John 15:7, Jesus tells his disciples that they can ask for whatever they like and it will be done for them. Some Christians run into difficulty with this verse because they have a limited understanding of the conditional phrase that Jesus includes with this promise. That conditional phrase is: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you …”.

? What does Jesus have in mind when he talks about his followers abiding in him?
? How is it possible for men and women to abide in Jesus today?
? What does it mean for Jesus’ words to abide in us?
? What evidence is there that Jess’ words are abiding in you?

how Jesus functions as a dwelling place
The fifteenth chapter in the Gospel According to John presents Jesus as a dwelling place. You can learn more about what it means to abide in Jesus by reading the vocabulary sidebar “Abide” on page 98 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

what’s with all the farming advice?
Christians are well aware that Jesus taught in parables, short stories that present a moral example. What’s less well known is that Jesus’ parables are almost impossible to understand unless the audience already knows what they mean. Without our cultural background as Christians, most of Jesus’ parables would come across as suitable for inclusion in an almanac, not spiritual teaching. The most difficult fact about Jesus’ teaching regarding the true vine (a section in the Fourth Gospel that rarely is classified by scholars as a parable) is that for the branches—humanity—there’s practically no difference between being cut away by the act of pruning or simply being cut away, the punishment for failing to bear fruit. To the branch, the cut is going to feel pretty much the same. What does this suggest about what God expects of us? What does thinking about these things disclose about our expectations of God?

parables—you could look this up in our archives
Elsewhere in the Scriptures, Jesus implies that he’s being intentionally vague. Although the meaning of Jesus’ words can appear obvious, many things that he says are more complex than they seem. To learn how to approach Jesus’ “parables” and stories, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

Q&A—signs & parables
A participant in one of our groups asked about parables in the Gospel According to John. See the online study page for Lesson 13 I Am the Good Shepherd in this Bible study to read our response to that question and to see a participant’s comment about why the content of the Fourth Gospel differs so much from the content of the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Eucharistic images of bread & wine
The fifteenth chapter in the Gospel According to John points to the fruit of the vine—wine—and pairs well with the sixth chapter, which includes Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse.

pray with the Psalms—it’s not a new thing for God’s followers to be hated
In the fifteenth chapter in the Gospel According to John, Jesus warns his followers that they can expect to be hated because both he and his Father are. Psalm 35 and Psalm 69 contain Old Testament evidence that being hated is not a new experience for those who wish to be faithful to God. Psalm 69 is prayed as part of Friday Vigils (Week I) and Psalm 35 is prayed as part of Friday Vigils (Week II). They’ll be included in Lesson 11 Song of the Suffering Servant and Lesson 25 Let Them Thank the LORD for His Mercy in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, which is scheduled for publication in 2025.

for additional reflection
In the Gospel According to John 15:7, Jesus tells his disciples that they can ask for whatever they wish and they’ll receive whatever they’ve requested. The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 15:1–27. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to Lesson 18 on page 97 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? To whom is it likely that Jesus intends his disciples to direct their requests? If necessary, refer to the Gospel According to John 15:16.
? Whenever something sounds too good to be true, there’s some kind of catch—some negating factor or condition that needs to be met in order to gain the desired result. What’s the catch in Jesus’ promise in the Gospel According to John 15:7?
? What might Jesus mean when he asks his disciples to “remain in” him?
? How is it that Jesus’ followers today can remain in him?
? What can be seen as evidence that you’re remaining in Jesus?

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 15:1–27 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father, you’ve sent the Holy Spirit
to serve as our Counselor and Advocate.
Help us to listen to the promptings of the Spirit
in order that we might love one another
as your Son has loved us.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Lesson 19 When the Spirit of Truth Comes—the Gospel According to John 16:1–33
Lesson 17 I Am the Way, the Truth & the Life—the Gospel According to John 14:1–31

you also may like our study of the book of Genesis
The first seven lessons of In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provide an in-depth look at the very earliest biblical history—including the two accounts of Creation, events surrounding the Fall of Adam and Eve, the relationship between Cain and Abel, and the baptismal foreshadowing present in the account of Noah and the Flood. Remaining lessons look at lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.