Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Abide in me, and I in you. The latter clause may be taken as a promise: 'Abide in Me, and I will abide in you.' (So Calvin, Beza, Meyer, Lucke, Luthardt understand it.) But we rather take it as part of one injunction: 'See to it that ye abide in Me, and that I abide in you;' the twofold condition of spiritual fruitfulness (So Grotius, Bengel, Tholuck, Alford, Webster and Wilkinson view it.) What follows seems to confirm this.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Should anything interrupt the free communication of a branch with the tree of which it is a part, so that the sap should not reach it, it could bear no fruit. In order to this it is absolutely necessary that the one abide in the other, in this vital sense of reception on the one hand, and communication on the other. So with Christ and His people.