I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
The branch cast forth as unfruitful is removed from the vine and withers at once. So those who profess Christ but deny His Gospel truths or live unworthily are ejected from the church's communion. Their leaf of profession, which once seemed green, decays immediately; their seeming fruit shrinks to nothing.
AI summary
without me--apart, or vitally disconnected from Me. ye can do nothing--spiritually, acceptably.
Christ compares Himself to a vine, humble, outwardly unremarkable, yet spreading to the ends of the earth and bearing fruit that honors God. He is the true vine, not a deceiver like the wild vine; in Him dwells all the excellency that creature vines merely shadow forth.
AI summary
Commenting on John 15:1-8