Chapter 15

Jesus Is the Vine—Followers Are Branches

1 “aI am the true vine, and My Father is the bvinedresser.

2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He 1prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

3 “aYou are already 1clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

4 “aAbide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit 1of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he abears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is athrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, aask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 “My aFather is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so 1bprove to be My disciples.

9 “Just as athe Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10 “aIf you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as bI have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

11 “aThese things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your bjoy may be made full.

Disciples’ Relation to Each Other

12 “This is aMy commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

13 “aGreater love has no one than this, that one blay down his life for his friends.

14 “You are My afriends if byou do what I command you.

15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for aall things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

16 “aYou did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bbear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that cwhatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

17 “This aI command you, that you love one another.

Disciples’ Relation to the World

18 “aIf the world hates you, 1you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but aI chose you out of the world, bbecause of this the world hates you.

20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘aA slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, bthey will also persecute you; if they ckept My word, they will keep yours also.

21 “But all these things they will do to you afor My name’s sake, bbecause they do not know the One who sent Me.

22 “aIf I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have 1sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.

24 “aIf I had not done among them bthe works which no one else did, they would not have 1sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their aLaw, ‘bThey hated Me without a cause.’

26 “When the 1aHelper comes, bwhom I will send to you from the Father, that is cthe Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, dHe will testify about Me,

27 1and ayou will testify also, because you have been with Me bfrom the beginning.