You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
16. You have not chosen me. He declares still more clearly that it must not be ascribed to their own merit, but to his grace, that they have arrived at so great an honor; for when he says that he was not chosen by them, it is as if he had said, that whatever they have they did not obtain by their own skill or industry.
Christ, who is love itself, is here discoursing concerning love, a fourfold love. I. Concerning the Father's love to him; and concerning this he here tells us, 1. That the Father did love him (Joh 15:9): As the Father hath loved me. He loved him as Mediator: This is my beloved Son. He was the Son of his love.
Commenting on John 15:9-17
These things I command you,.... The doctrines which Christ spake, as one having authority, concerning the vine and branches; his love to his disciples, in laying down his life for them, and in accounting and using them as friends, and not servants; in choosing, ordaining, and sending them forth, for the ends above mentioned; these were delivered by him with this view, to promote brotherly...