John 15:11

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you.—The better reading is, . . that My joy may be in you. The joy thought of is that which Christ Himself possessed in the consciousness of His love towards the Father, and of the Father’s love towards Him. The brightness of that joy lit up the darkest hours of His own human life, and He wills that it should light up theirs. In the consciousness of their love to God, and of God’s love to them, there would be in them, as part of their true life, joy which no sorrow could ever overcome. They were as men with troubled hearts. He has told them of the true source of peace. His own peace He has given to them. He tells them now of the source of joy, and has spoken the word that they may possess the very joy which was the light of His own heart.

And that your joy might be full.—Comp. the words of the Intercessory Prayer in John 17:13, and the same phrase in John 3:29; John 16:24; 1John 1:4; 2John 1:12. The state of which He has spoken to them—the loving and being loved of God—is the ideal perfection of human life. It supplies satisfaction for all the deepest desires of our being. The capacities of the whole man are fulfilled in it, and the result is fulness of joy. They have learnt little of the true spirit of Christianity whose religion does not impart to them a joy which sheds its light over the whole of their lives.

MacLaren's Expositions

Proverbs - John

ABIDING IN LOVE

HOLLOW LAUGHTER, SOLID JOY

Proverbs 14:13. - John 15:11.

A poet, who used to be more fashionable than he is now, pronounces ‘happiness’ to be our being’s end and aim. That is not true, except under great limitations and with many explanations. It may be regarded as God’s end, but it is ruinous to make it man’s aim. It is by no means the highest conception of the Gospel to say that it makes men happy, however true it may be. The highest is that it makes them good. I put these two texts together, not only because they bring out the contrast between the laughter which is hollow and fleeting and the joy which is perfect and perpetual, but also because they suggest to us the difference in kind and object between earthly and heavenly joys; which difference underlies the other between the boisterous laughter in which is no mirth and no continuance and the joy which is deep and abiding.

In the comparison which I desire to make between these two texts we must begin with that which is deepest, and consider-

I. The respective objects of earthly and heavenly joy.

Our Lord’s wonderful words suggest that they who accept His sayings, that they who have His word abiding in them, have in a very deep sense His joy implanted in their hearts, to brighten and elevate their joys as the sunshine flashes into silver the ripples of the lake. What then were the sources of the calm joys of ‘the Man of Sorrows’? Surely His was the perfect instance of ‘rejoicing in the Lord always’-an unbroken communion with the Father. The consciousness that the divine pleasure ever rested on Him, and that all His thoughts, emotions, purposes, and acts were in perfect harmony with the perfect will of the perfect God, filled His humanity up to the very brim with gladness which the world could not take away, and which remains for us for ever as a type to which all our gladness must be conformed if it is to be worthy of Him and of us. As one of the Psalmists says, God is to be ‘the gladness of our joy.’ It is in Him, gazed upon by the faith and love of an obedient spirit, sought after by aspiration and possessed inwardly in peaceful communion, confirmed by union with Him in the acts of daily obedience, that the true joy of every human life is to be realised. They who have drunk of this deep fountain of gladness will not express their joy in boisterous laughter, which is the hollower the louder it is, and the less lasting the more noisy, but will manifest itself ‘in the depth and not the tumult of the soul.’

Nor must we forget that ‘My joy’ co-existed with a profound experience of sorrow to which no human sorrow was ever like. Let us not forget that, while His joy filled His soul to the brim, He was ‘acquainted with grief’; and let us not wonder if the strange surface contradiction is repeated in ourselves. It is more Christlike to have inexpressibly deep joy with surface sorrow, than to have a shallow laughter masking a hurtful sorrow.

We have to set the sources of earthly gladness side by side with those of Christ’s joy to be aware of a contrast. His sprang from within, the world’s is drawn from without. His came from union with the Father, the world’s largely depends on ignoring God. His needed no supplies from the gratifications ministered by sense, and so independent of the presence or absence of such; the world’s need the constant contributions of outward good, and when these are cut off they droop and die. He who depends on outward circumstances for his joy is the slave of externals and the sport of time and chance.

II. The Christian’s joy is full, the world’s partial.

All human joys touch but part of our nature, the divine fills and satisfies all. In the former there is always some portion of us unsatisfied, like the deep pits on the moon’s surface into which no light shines, and which show black on the silver face. No human joys wait to still conscience, which sits at the banquet like the skeleton that Egyptian feasters set at their tables. The old story told of a magician’s palace blazing with lighted windows, but there was always one dark;-what shrouded figure sat behind it? Is there not always a surly ‘elder brother’ who will not come in however the musicians may pipe and the servants dance? Appetite may be satisfied, but what of conscience, and reason, and the higher aspirations of the soul? The laughter that echoes through the soul is the hollower the louder it is, and reverberates most through empty spaces.

But when Christ’s joy remains in us our joy will be full. Its flowing tide will rush into and placidly occupy all the else oozy shallows of our hearts, even into the narrowest crannies its penetrating waters will pass, and everywhere will bring a flashing surface that will reflect in our hearts the calm blue above. We need nothing else if we have Christ and His joy within us. If we have everything else, we need His joy within us, else ours will never be full.

III. The heavenly joys are perpetual, the earthly joys transient.

Many of our earthly joys die in the very act of being enjoyed. Those which depend on the gratification of some appetite expire in fruition, and at each recurrence are less and less complete. The influence of habit works in two ways to rob all such joys of their power to minister to us-it increases the appetite and decreases the power of the object to satisfy. Some are followed by swift revulsion and remorse; all soon become stale; some are followed by quick remorse; some are necessarily left behind as we go on in life. To the old man the pleasures of youth are but like children’s toys long since outgrown and left behind. All are at the mercy of externals. Those which we have not left we have to leave. The saddest lives are those of pleasure-seekers, and the saddest deaths are those of the men who sought for joy where it was not to be found, and sought for their gratification in a world which leaves them, and which they have to leave.

There is a realm where abide ‘fullness of joy and pleasures for ever more.’ Surely they order their lives most wisely who look for their joys to nothing that earth holds, and have taken for their own the ancient vow: ‘Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine. . .. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ If ‘My joy’ abides in us in its calm and changeless depth, our joy will be ‘full’ whatever our circumstances may be; and we shall hear at last the welcome: ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:9-17 Those whom God loves as a Father, may despise the hatred of all the world. As the Father loved Christ, who was most worthy, so he loved his disciples, who were unworthy. All that love the Saviour should continue in their love to him, and take all occasions to show it. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, but the joy of those who abide in Christ's love is a continual feast. They are to show their love to him by keeping his commandments. If the same power that first shed abroad the love of Christ's in our hearts, did not keep us in that love, we should not long abide in it. Christ's love to us should direct us to love each other. He speaks as about to give many things in charge, yet names this only; it includes many duties.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These things - The discourse in this and the previous chapter. This discourse was designed to comfort them by the promise of the Holy Spirit and of eternal life, and to direct them in the discharge of their duty.

My joy - This expression probably denotes the happiness which Jesus had, and would continue to have, by their obedience, love, and fidelity. Their obedience was to him a source of joy. It was that which he sought and for which he had labored. He now clearly taught them the path of duty, and encouraged them to persevere, notwithstanding he was about to leave them. If they obeyed him, it would continue to him to be a source of joy. Christ rejoices in the obedience of all his friends; and, though his happiness is not dependent on them, yet their fidelity is an object which he desires and in which he finds delight. The same sentiment is expressed in John 17:13.

Your joy might be full - That you might be delivered from your despondency and grief at my departure; that you might see the reason why I leave you, be comforted by the Holy Spirit, and be sustained in the arduous trials of your ministry. See 1 John 1:4; 2 John 1:12. This promise of the Saviour was abundantly fulfilled. The apostles with great frequency speak of the fulness of their joy - joy produced in just the manner promised by the Saviour - by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And it showed his great love, that he promised such joy; his infinite knowledge, that, in the midst of their many trials and persecutions, he knew that they would possess it; and the glorious power and loveliness of his gospel, that it could impart such joy amid so many tribulations. See instances of this joy in Acts 13:52; Romans 14:17; 2 Corinthians 2:3; Galatians 5:22; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20; 1 Thessalonians 3:9; 1 Peter 1:8; Romans 5:11; 2 Corinthians 7:4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love—the obedient spirit of true discipleship cherishing and attracting the continuance and increase of Christ's love; and this, He adds, was the secret even of His own abiding in His Father's love!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The end of my pressing so much the duty of holiness upon you, under the notions of abiding in me, abiding in my love in my words, bringing forth much fruit, &c. is, that I might have a continual cause to rejoice in you. Joy is nothing else but the satisfaction of the reasonable soul in its union with an object which it loved and desired. Christ, willing and desiring the perfection of his disciples, according to the rational workings of human nature, is properly said to rejoice in the satisfaction of his will; in which sense joy and rejoicing are often in Scripture attributed to God. Nor doth Christ press them to this, that he might rejoice in them, but also that their joy might be full; that joy and peace which attends and follows believing, Romans 15:13; called the peace of God, Colossians 3:15; a peace which passeth all understanding, Philippians 4:7. No man maketh Christ to rejoice over him, but he thereby also procures unspeakable joy and peace to himself; as no man grieves his Spirit, but also purchases grief and sadness to himself in the latter end.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

These things have I spoken unto you,.... Concerning the vine and branches, his abiding in them, and they in him, their fruitfulness from him, and perseverance in him, his love to them, and theirs to him:

that my joy might remain in you; meaning either that joy with which he joyed in and over them, as united to him, and which is of the same nature as the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, and which will always remain and continue the same; or rather that joy which he is the author, object, ground, and matter of, for there is always reason to rejoice in him, even in the most afflictive circumstances of life:

and that your joy might be full; that grace of joy which is implanted in the soul, by the Spirit of God in regeneration, and arises from, and is increased by discoveries of the person, grace, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; and is "full of glory", 1 Peter 1:8; upon a clear sight of him in this life, and will be entirely full, completely perfected in the other world, when he will be seen as he is,

Geneva Study Bible

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 15:11. Conclusion of the section John 15:1-10 (ταῦτα).

ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ, κ.τ.λ.] Note the juxtaposition of ἡ ἐμή and ἐν ὑμῖν; that my joy may be in you, i.e. that the same joy which I have may be yours. The holy joyous tone of soul is intended, the conscious moral courage of joy, which also rises victorious over all suffering, as Christ, in virtue of His fellowship with the Father and of His obedience towards Him, must and did possess it (comp. John 17:13), and as it is so often audible in Paul’s writings also in the sense of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:30; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Php 2:17-18; Php 4:4; Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22). Yet ἡ ἐμή is not: the joy produced by me (Calvin, De Wette), or of which I have opened to you the spring (Tholuck), which is forcing a meaning on the simple possessive expression (comp. John 3:29, John 17:13; 2 Corinthians 2:3), and does not satisfy the significant juxtaposition of ἡ ἐμή and ἐν ὑμῖν (comp. 2 Corinthians 2:3 : ὅτι ἡ ἐμὴ χαρὰ πάντων ὑμῶν ἐστιν). The explanations: mea de vobis laetitia (corresponding to χαίρειν ἐν; so Augustine, Schoettgen, Lampe, Kuinoel, Ebrard, Hengstenberg, and several others), or even: gaudium vestrum de me (Euth. Zigabenus, Grotius, Nösselt, Klee, and several others), are to be rejected because the correct reading is ᾖ (see critical notes). Luthardt: that my joy may have its cause and object in you (not in anything else). This is grammatically correct (ἐν of causal foundation): the πληρωθῇ, however, which is subsequently said of the joy of the disciples, presupposes that in the first clause the joy of the disciples themselves, the consummation of which is intended, is already indicated; πληρωθῇ otherwise would remain without corresponding correlation. Had the object been merely to express the reciprocity of the joy, we would necessarily have expected in the second half simply: καὶ ἡ χαρὰ ὑμῶν ἐν ἐμοί. See, in answer to Luthardt, also Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 325 f.

If Christ’s joy is in His own, their joy will be thereby completed (comp. John 3:29), developed to its full measure in contents, purity, strength, victoriousness, etc. Comp. John 16:24; 1 John 1:4; 2 John 1:12. Hence: κ. ἡ χαρὰ ὑμ. πληρωθῇ.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 15:11. The great joy of His life had been found in the consciousness of the Father’s love and in the keeping of His commandments: this joy He desires that they may inherit, ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμὴ ἐν ὑμῖν μείνῃ, “my joy,” i.e., the joy I have enjoyed, the joy which I habitually feel in accomplishing the Father’s will. This joy is not an incommunicable monopoly.—καὶ ἡ χαρὰ ὑμῶν πληρωθῇ, “and your joy be full,” which it could not be until they, like Him, had the spring of full joy in the consciousness of His love, and perfect obedience to Him; standing in the same relation to Him as He to the Father.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. These things have I spoken] The verse forms a conclusion to the allegory of the Vine. Comp. John 15:17, John 16:25; John 16:33.

might remain] Better, may abide: but the reading is doubtful, and perhaps ought to be simply ‘may be;’ that My joy (see on John 14:27) may be in you. This does not mean ‘that I may have pleasure in you;’ but that the joy which Christ experienced through consciousness of His fellowship with the Father, and which supported Him in His sufferings, might be in His disciples and support them in theirs. Here first, on the eve of His sufferings, does Christ speak of His joy.

might be full] Or, may be fulfilled. This expression of joy being fulfilled is peculiar to S. John (comp. John 3:29, John 16:24, John 17:13; 1 John 1:4; 2 John 1:12). The active occurs Php 2:2; ‘make my joy full;’ but nowhere else. Human happiness can reach no higher than to share that joy which Christ ever felt in being loved by His Father and doing His will.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 15:11. Ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμὴ, My joy) the joy which I feel at My departure to the Father, a joy which flows from love.—ᾖ, may be[360]) ch. John 17:26, “I have declared unto them Thy name, etc., that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them.”—ὑμῶν, your) your joy being kindled by Mine.—πληρωθῇ, may be fulfilled [“might be full”]) This is said of the joy of the disciples. For the joy of Jesus needs not at any particular time, or by any particular to be made full [It always is full].

[360] This reading indeed had been set down, in the margin of the larger Ed., among those not to be approved of; but the decision as to it being changed in the 2d Edition, it was received into the Germ. Version.—E. B. ABDabc Vulg. read ᾖ: Rec. Text, μείνῃ, without old authority.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11 - John 16:6. -

(8) The results of the union between Christ and his disciples. Verses 11-16. - (a) To themselves. The Lord moves into another and wider development of the union between himself and his disciples. He drops the metaphor of the vine and the branches, and comes to the essence of the relation between them; that is, he does much to explain the meaning and nature of his abiding in them, and the character of the fruit which they were expected by the great Husbandman and Father to bring forth and ripen. A connection between the second section and the first is revealed in the new beginning. Verse 11. - These things I have spoken, and am still speaking, to you (perfect, not aorist) with this purpose, that the joy that is mine may be in you. This is variously explained. Augustine, "My joyfulness concerning you," which is scarcely the burden of the previous verses; Grotius, "Your delight in me," which would be somewhat tautologous; Calvin and De Wette, "The joyfulness capable of being produced in you by me, might be in you." But the words are more simply explained by Lange, Meyer, Lucke, Westcott, Alford, and Moulton, as the communication to his disciples of his own absolute and personal joy. "The joy that is mine," like "the peace which is mine," is graciously bestowed. A joy was set before him, the joy of perfect self-sacrifice, which gave to his present acts an intensity and fullness of bliss. It was this, in its motives and character and supernatural sweetness, which would be in them. If they receive his life into them, it will convey not only his peace, but that peace uprising and bursting into joy; and he adds, in order that your joy may be fulfilled, i.e. perfected, reach its highest expression, its fullness of contents and entire sufficiency for all needs. 1 John 1:1-4 is the best commentary on this last clause. The Old Testament prophets had often spoken of Jehovah's joy in his people, comparing it to the bridegroom's joy, and the bride's (Isaiah 62:5; Zephaniah 3:17). This entire idea is linked with Ver. 10; where the keeping of his commandments, from motives of love, will enable the disciples to "abide in his love." He now passes the whole law of the second table into the light of his joy and the power of his example. John 15:11

Vincent's Word Studies

My joy

The joy that is mine; characteristic of me. See on John 15:9.

Might remain (μείνῇ)

The best texts read ᾖ, may be.

Might be full (πληρωθῇ)

Rev., more correctly, may be fulfilled. The A.V. loses the distinction between the absolute joy which is Christ's, and the progressive, but finally consummated joy which is the disciple's.