Mysteries of John, by Charles Fillmore, [1946], at sacred-texts.com
METAPHYSICALLY stated, the Father is the God-Mind; Jesus is the individual incarnation of that Mind, here called the true vine. "Every branch in me" means the faculties of mind, and the "fruit" is the thought.
The law is that an unused faculty atrophies and withers away. This is true of everything in existence. Inertia and nonuse soon bring stagnation, corruption, death, and disintegration. We have accepted this so universally as a fact of nature that its original character as an intelligent force has been overlooked. All the teaching of the Scriptures is that a failure to use a talent or faculty meets with a reprimand from the Father-Mind. The over-careful servant who buried his talent had it taken away from him and given to the one who had increased his the most. This also has been observed in its negative aspect--a faculty overused draws its vitality from the others and eventually depletes them seriously, unless they are developed by balanced exercise. This is a law of our being, and we should regard it as an intelligent principle instead of a blind force, as we usually do.
The soul in conscious touch with the Father-Mind and striving to fulfill the divine law brings the power of true words to bear in the purifying and cleansing of its faculties. "Ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you." The necessity of abiding in the I AM in order to bear much fruit is affirmed. When our faith attaches itself to outer things, instead of the spiritual I AM, it ceases to draw vitality from the one and only source of all life, divine Principle. The only door to this life is the I AM. This abiding is a conscious centering of the mind in the depths within us by means of repeated affirmations of our faith and trust in it. This day-by-day repeating of affirmations finally opens a channel of intelligent communication
with the silent forces at the depths of Being, thoughts and words flow forth from there, and an entirely new source of power is developed in the man.
When the thought or "word" of Truth from the supreme I AM of consciousness, becomes an abiding fact in our mind, we need no longer strive in external ways; we have but to express a deep desire in the soul and it is fulfilled. "Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
This constant affirming, with faith in the I AM within us, more and more establishes us in command of the real forces of Being. The abiding in the Spirit opens up the various spiritual powers one after the other. Love is a great force that dissolves all the opposers of true thought and thus smooths all the obstacles of life. This leads to joy, another positive force that has not been bearing fruit because of the obstructions heaped upon it by our failure to fulfill the law of All-Good. This wonderful kingdom within the soul is developed through the keeping of the "commandments"; that is, the commanding, controlling, and directing of every thought according to the harmonious law of love toward others. There is no occult mystery connected with this development of the soul forces; it is simply thinking and acting in terms of the law of love in our intercourse with our fellow men.
In this Scripture we see Jesus realizing that His apostles had made wonderful progress and were functioning on the spiritual plane. Therefore, He no longer considered them of the world but knew definitely that henceforth they were to do the works of Him that sent them. As co-workers with Him, He called them "friends." In all His ministry Jesus taught freedom of the individual. We are not "servants" but agents free to do as we will.
The Comforter or Holy Spirit is the law of God in action, and when thought of in this way it appears to have personality. From this truth the Hebrews got their conception of the personal, tribal God.
The functions ascribed to the Holy Comforter or Holy Spirit or Spirit of truth imply distinct personal subsistence: He is said to speak, search, select, reveal, reprove, testify, lead, comfort, distribute to every man, know the deep things of God, and He can be known by man only through his spiritual nature.
(See John 14:25-31 for further interpretation.)