John 15:16 (KJV)

Passage

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Nearby Context

John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

John 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "chosen", "ordained", "should", "bring", "forth", and "fruit". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "chosen" and "ordained", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "Henceforth I call you not servants for..." into verse 17's "These things I command you that ye...", so "chosen" and "ordained" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "chosen" and "ordained" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.