My Least Favorite Bible Verse

I can’t remember the exact source, and it was probably a combination of a lot of sources over the years, but reading the Bible in its entirety has often been recommended for the following reason:

God speaks through his word. If you’re in his word, he will speak to you. The more of his word you’ve made it a point to get inside your soul, the more you’ll be aware of God speaking to you when a random verse comes to mind.

Check out this post for a balanced perspective on reading too much or too little each day.

Even though I’m purposefully avoiding reading the whole Bible this year, I still highly recommend the practice, if only to make more of the Bible potentially recognizable as God’s voice.

So when I said on January 1, 2025 that God brought a verse back to mind–this is what I mean. I was stressed; I was confused; I was worried. God said,

Pray!

And the verse reference that he brought me was John 15:7.

If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

HCSB

In my post, I used the words, “my brain reminds me,” but I highly doubt it was my brain. I specified that John 15:7 is “my least favorite Bible verse.” My brain would do whatever it could to avoid this verse, because the first part of my testimony hinges on this verse.¹ Therefore, it is highly likely I heard the voice of God telling me to pray.

As such, I’d like to break this post into two parts: why is it my least favorite verse AND what does it really mean?

Why John 15:7 Was My Least Favorite Verse

John 15:7 became my least favorite verse long before God used John 15:6 to recommit me to Jesus. And for whatever reason, it remained my least favorite verse for a long time after recommitting to Jesus (like until I wrote the draft of this post you’re currently reading). I loved John 15:1-6 and 8-15, but I would usually just gloss over verse 7, chalking it up to a promise exclusive to the disciples.

Growing up in Christianity, prayer was normal. We would pray before meals; we would pray before bed; we would pray at church. So when my left hand was left less than normal after the stroke I suffered at age 2, the solution I was given (in addition to years of physical and occupational therapy) was “pray for healing.”

I knew the Bible stories. Jesus healed people born blind. Jesus healed people who were deaf. Jesus healed people from all sorts of varied sicknesses. In fact, Jesus even healed a man with a withered hand in Mark 3. One commentator specifically notes that the state of his hand might have been the result of a stroke.²

So why didn’t he heal me? What was so bad about me that I didn’t deserve to be healed? I was praying. I was certain he could heal me. Everyone told me I should be praying. But nothing.

By the time I was twelve, I’d given up on praying.

And by the time I turned eighteen, I’d learned the famous question: “If God is all-good and all-powerful, then why do bad things happen?”

It broke me.

But rather than go full atheist, I simply decided that God had started the world–maybe even come to earth as Jesus–but that besides all that, he clearly no longer cared. The Bible–I decided–was a book of lies, because even if the stories were true at one point, they couldn’t be counted on any longer, because Jesus never healed me.

John 15:6 broke me again, several months later, as I realized I was in eternal peril since I’d fallen away from the faith. But John 15:7 remained my least favorite verse.

I’d grown up familiar with the “God speaks” theology, which also contributed to my declaring it all a lie (since I’d never personally heard him speak). Books like The Shack, The Prayer of Jabez, and Experiencing God were books that left me angry. So naturally, finding a church that chalked these types of books up to “false teaching” greatly aided my continued distrust of John 15:7.

So you can understand my shock when John 15:7 came to me while preparing my New Year’s post.

What John 15:7 Really Means

Based on the prior section, it is clear that John 15:7 did not mean, “Pray for a restored left hand and I will heal it.” This means that John 15:7 is not an automatic guarantee that he will answer every prayer we pray the way we want him to answer it. So what does it mean?

In order to answer this, we have to investigate the context. John 15:7 occurs within the thought of 15:1-8.³ Here it is (John 15:7 is bold).

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.”

John 15:1-7, HCSB

The Protasis

The most important phrase in understanding verse 7 is the opening “if” clause (the protasis of the sentence). What is in doubt?

The “if” clause reads,

If you remain in me and my words remain in you…

HCSB

Remaining is critical to our prayers being answered. There is no guarantee that this is true of us at any given time. What else does Jesus say about remaining in this context?

• Verse 4 — Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
• Verse 5 — The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
• Verse 6 — If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.

There are five references to remaining in these three verses. But remain is a very abstract concept, isn’t it? What does it mean to remain in Jesus?

The clearest answer to this question occurs a few verses after the section cited above.

As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.

John 15:9-10, HCSB, emphasis added

And what are his commands?

This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:12, HCSB

Considering that this verse is only one verse removed from the definition of remaining (15:10), it makes sense to understand this as the primary command that Jesus expects his followers to obey.

But this is only one command. Doesn’t Jesus speaks of commands in the plural?

He does. And this is where John 12:49-50 comes into play:

For I have not spoken on My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a command as to what I should say and what I should speak. I know that His command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.

HCSB, emphasis added

The commands of Christ cannot be too distantly removed from the words of Christ. What Christ spoke is what he commanded; his words carry power. Raymond Brown explains, “Jesus and his revelation are virtually interchangeable, for he is incarnate revelation (the Word).”⁴

So we remain in Christ by obeying his commands and following his word. His most explicit command is “love one another,” but all his words can be included within the realm of his commands. Therefore, remaining in him is itself a command.

This brings us back to John 15:7a, understood (legitimately I believe) as follows:

If you remain in Me, that is: [if] My commands remain in you…

If this truly describes you, then the second half of the verse is true; if it doesn’t describe you, then the second half of the verse is false.⁵

The Apodosis

But then we come to the second half of the verse (the apodosis of the sentence):

…ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

HCSB

However, what should be immediately noted is that this clause is actually a bit more complex in the Greek.⁶ A literal translation would read (words added to smooth the translation are placed in [brackets]):

…you must ask for whatever–if you want [something]–and it will be done for you.

The conditional reality of the desire is framed exactly the same way as the conditional nature of remaining in 15:7a. Not only is it “If you remain in me and my words remain in you,” but also, “if you [even] want something [in the first place].”

Remaining in Christ and having his words remain in us will change our wanter.

And perhaps that’s why this verse has long been my least favorite verse. I never took the time to look at it this closely. And certainly no one else ever explained it like this. I scoured existing commentaries to see if anyone else has pointed out this grammatical feature, and no modern scholar has. However, Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin all draw attention to this reality (Calvin the most clearly):

Remaining in him, then, when his words remain in us, we may ask whatever we want, and it will be done for us. Because if we ask and it isn’t done, we aren’t asking for what comes from our dwelling in him, which isn’t in him and in which his words don’t remain. For, indeed, that prayer which he taught pertains to his words, where we say, Our Father, who art in heaven (Mt 6:9). In our petitions let us not draw back from the words and sentiments of this prayer, and whatever we ask for will be done for us. For his words must be said to remain in us when we do what he has commanded and love what he has promised; but when his words remain in our memory but aren’t discoverable in our life, then the branch isn’t considered to be on the vine, because it doesn’t draw life from the root.⁷

For this reason Christ taught us to pray with his own words (Mt 6:9; Lk 11:2). And so the words of God, when believed and meditated upon, teach us to ask for the things necessary for our salvation; and these words of God when loved and accomplished help us to merit it. So he adds, ask, with sound judgment and perseverance, whatever you will, and it shall be done for you: “If you ask anything of the Father in my name he will give it to you” (16:23).⁸

Here he limits the wishes of his people to the rule of praying in a right manner, and that rule subjects, to the good pleasure of God, all our affections. This is confirmed by the connection in which the words stand; for he means that his people will or desire not riches, or honours, or any thing of that nature, which the flesh foolishly desires, but the vital sap of the Holy Spirit, which enables them to bear fruit.⁹

Calvin’s grammatical explanation explains why the modern commentators can summarize the clause the way they do (though one is admittedly left desiring more discussion on the grammatical construction):

In the original “whatsoever ye will” stands first, to mark the freedom of the believer’s choice, or (in other words) the coincidence of his will with the will of Christ.¹⁰

They are requests involving the growth of Christian life, namely, bearing fruit and becoming disciples.¹¹

The good life remains bound to Jesus, and prayers emanating from it will be heard because the ego does not dominate.¹²

To cast it in terms of prayer, such a truly obedient believer proves effective in prayer, since all he or she asks for conforms to the will of God.¹³

When believers abide in Christ and Christ’s words abide in them, they live as close to Christ as well may be. Then their prayers will be prayers that are in accord with God’s will and they will be fully answered.¹⁴

Praying in Jesus’ name does not involve magical incantations but rather expresses alignment of one’s desires and purposes with God.¹⁵

In light of our union with Christ, “whatever you wish” is not a blank-check prayer but participation in the life and mission of God. It is we who are “doing” the work of Christ (see 14:31), with the mutual indwelling creating a mutually performed work.¹⁶

The fact that I felt God leading me to this text tells me four things:

• First, the stress I’m feeling is probably directly related to my lack of pursuing fruit-bearing in my Christian life over the past few years.
• Second, my desire to better my family’s situation is somehow directly related to fruit-bearing.
• Third, God will answer these prayers.
• Fourth, this is no longer my least favorite verse.

If I want something, and if I’m walking with God, then I can trust that God will answer my prayers. Because of union with Christ, my words are Christ’s words, and Christ’s prayers will be answered.¹⁷ If my prayers aren’t answered how I hope, then I can trust they will be answered in an even better way.

Klink says it best:

When a Christian prays then, they are agreeing to trust not only in God’s sovereign and authoritative resources but also in God’s perfect and providential results. What makes the prayer Christian and not pagan is that God is not used to fulfil the desires of the person who prays, but rather the person who prays submits his or her will to both the power and purpose of God.¹⁸

In this with you!

Thanks for reading!

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Notes and References

1. Joshua Wingerd, Stranded: Awakening, book 1 (Victorville, CA: Wingerd Writings, 2017), 274. ↩︎
2. R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 149. ↩︎
3. It technically occurs within 15:1-17, but for the sake of this discussion, we will limit the context to 15:1-8. ↩︎
4. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB (New York: Doubleday, 1970), 662 ↩︎
5. See Heinrich von Siebenthal, Ancient Greek Grammar for the Study of the New Testament (New York : Peter Lang, 2019), 529 ↩︎
6. This reality is proven by the fact that the NA28 apparatus highlights the following variants on the word αἰτήσασθε (“you must ask”):
   “αιτησεσθε (αιτησεσθαι Δ Θ 579) א K Δ Θ Ψ 33. 579. 700. 892s. 1241. 1424. l 844 𝔪 vg
   ¦ txt 𝔓75 B L ƒ13 1. 565 it (αιτησασθαι A D Γ a c f).”
   Both verb tenses (aorist [the accepted text] and future [the alternative]) include infinitive variants, which would then read: “If you want to ask.” This makes good sense of the conditional format of the clause–a sense that is completely glossed over in the English translation. However, the fact that it makes a lot of sense also heightens the likelihood that the infinitive reading is not original. ↩︎
7. Saint Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John 41–124, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald and Boniface Ramsey, trans. Edmund Hill, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2020), 81.4, pp. 291–292. Emphasis added. ↩︎
8. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John: Chapters 1–21, trans. Fabian Larcher and James A. Weisheipl (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 15.1.1995, p. 103. Emphasis added. ↩︎
9. John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, 2 vols. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 2:111. Emphasis added. ↩︎
10. B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1881), 218. ↩︎
11. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, 680. ↩︎
12. Ernst Haenchen, A Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapters 7-21, trans. Robert W. Funk, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 132. ↩︎
13. D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 518. ↩︎
14. Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 596. ↩︎
15. Andreas Köstenberger, John, BECNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 433-434. ↩︎
16. Edward W. Klink III, John, ZECNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 654. ↩︎
17. This leads directly to a discussion of John 17:21-23, but I’ll discuss this text at a later time. ↩︎
18. Klink, John, 624. ↩︎