John 15

The Vine and the Branches

15“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ²Every branch that does not bear fruit in me, he removes it, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it in order that it may bear more fruit. ³You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him—this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you are not able to do anything. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and dries up, and they gather them and throw them^* into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this: that you bear much fruit, and prove to be my disciples.

⁹“Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹I have spoken these things to you in order that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be made complete. ¹²This is my commandment: that you love one another just as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you slaves, because the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I have heard from my Father I have revealed to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. ¹⁷These things I command you: that you love one another.

The World’s Hatred for the Disciples

¹⁸If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated^* you. ¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. ²¹But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. But now they do not have a valid excuse for their sin. ²³The one who hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵But this happened^* so that the word that is written in their law would be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without a reason.’

²⁶“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father—that one will testify about me. ²⁷And you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.