Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Every branch in me - I stand in the same relation to my followers, and they to me, as the vine to the branches, and the branches to the vine.
He taketh away - As the vine-dresser will remove every unfruitful branch from the vine, so will my Father remove every unfruitful member from my mystical body - such as Judas, the unbelieving Jews, the apostatizing disciples, and all false and merely nominal Christians, who are attached to the vine by faith in the word and Divine mission of Christ, while they live not in his life and Spirit, and bring forth no fruit to the glory of God; and also every branch which has been in him by true faith - such as have given way to iniquity, and made shipwreck of their faith and of their good conscience: all these he taketh away.
He purgeth it - He pruneth. The branch which bears not fruit, the husbandman , taketh It away; but the branch that beareth fruit, , he taketh away From it, i.e. he prunes away excrescences, and removes every thing that might hinder its increasing fruitfulness. The verb ; from , intens. and , I take away, signifies ordinarily to cleanse, purge, purify, but is certainly to be taken in the sense of pruning, or cutting off, in this text, as the verb purgare is used by Horace, Epist. lib. i. ep. vii. v. 51.
\ri720 Cultello proprios purgantem leniter ungues .
\ri720 \cf1 "Composedly Paring his own nails with a penknife."
He who brings forth fruit to God' s glory, according to his light and power, will have the hinderances taken away from his heart; for his very thoughts shall be cleansed by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
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