John 13:31–17:26

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

13:37,38pp—Mt 26:33–35; Mk 14:29–31; Lk 22:33,34

³¹When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man^g is glorified^h and God is glorified in him.^{i 32}If God is glorified in him,^c God will glorify the Son in himself,^j and will glorify him at once.

³³“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.^k

³⁴“A new command^l I give you: Love one another.^m As I have loved you, so you must love one another.^{n 35}By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”^o

³⁶Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”^p

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now,^q but you will follow later.”^r

³⁷Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!^s

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

14“Do not let your hearts be troubled.^t You believe^u in God^a;^v believe also in me. ²My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there^w to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back^x and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.^{y 4}You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

⁵Thomas^z said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶Jesus answered, “I am^a the way^b and the truth^c and the life.^d No one comes to the Father except through me.^{e 7}If you really know me, you will know^b my Father as well.^f From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸Philip^g said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.^h How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?ⁱ The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.^j Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.^{k 12}Very truly I tell you, whoever believes^l in me will do the works I have been doing,^m and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you askⁿ in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

¹⁵“If you love me, keep my commands.^{o 16}And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate^p to help you and be with you forever—¹⁷the Spirit of truth.^q The world cannot accept him,^r because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^c in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans;^s I will come to you.^{t 19}Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.^u Because I live, you also will live.^{v 20}On that day^w you will realize that I am in my Father,^x and you are in me, and I am in you.^{y 21}Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.^z The one who loves me will be loved by my Father,^a and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

²²Then Judas^b (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”^c

²³Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.^d My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.^{e 24}Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.^f

²⁵“All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate,^g the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,^h will teach you all thingsⁱ and will remind you of everything I have said to you.^{j 27}Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.^k I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled^l and do not be afraid.

²⁸“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’^m If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father,ⁿ for the Father is greater than I.^{o 29}I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.^{p 30}I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world^q is coming. He has no hold over me, ³¹but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.^r

“Come now; let us leave.

The Vine and the Branches

15“I am^s the true vine,^t and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,^u while every branch that does bear fruit^v he prunes^a so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.^{w 4}Remain in me, as I also remain in you.^x No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;^y apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.^{z 7}If you remain in me^a and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.^{b 8}This is to my Father’s glory,^c that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.^d

⁹“As the Father has loved me,^e so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commands,^f you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.^{g 12}My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{h 13}Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{i 14}You are my friends^j if you do what I command.^{k 15}I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{l 16}You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^m so that you might go and bear fruitⁿ—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.^{o 17}This is my command: Love each other.^p

The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸“If the world hates you,^q keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you^r out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^{s 20}Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^bt If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.^u If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹They will treat you this way because of my name,^v for they do not know the one who sent me.^{w 22}If I had not come and spoken to them,^x they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{y 23}Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works no one else did,^z they would not be guilty of sin.^a As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law:^b ‘They hated me without reason.’^cc

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶“When the Advocate^d comes, whom I will send to you from the Father^e—the Spirit of truth^f who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.^{g 27}And you also must testify,^h for you have been with me from the beginning.ⁱ

16“All this^j I have told you so that you will not fall away.^{k 2}They will put you out of the synagogue;^l in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.^{m 3}They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.^{n 4}I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember^o that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,^{p 5}but now I am going to him who sent me.^q None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’^{r 6}Rather, you are filled with grief^s because I have said these things. ⁷But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate^t will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.^{u 8}When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin,^v because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰about righteousness,^w because I am going to the Father,^x where you can see me no longer; ¹¹and about judgment, because the prince of this world^y now stands condemned.

¹²“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.^{z 13}But when he, the Spirit of truth,^a comes, he will guide you into all the truth.^b He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine.^c That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

¹⁶Jesus went on to say, “In a little while^d you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”^e

¹⁷At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’^f and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”^{g 18}They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more,…