John
Chapter 15
1 I am the real vine, and my Father takes care of it.
2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit, God removes. Every branch that does produce fruit, God cleans so it will make even more fruit.
3 You are clean now because of the words I have spoken to you.
4 Stay with me, and I with you. Just as a branch can’t produce fruit alone without being part of the vine, you can’t either unless you stay with me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Anyone who remains in me, and I in them, will produce a lot of fruit. Without me, you can do nothing.
6 If someone does not remain in me, he is thrown away like a dead branch; people pick it up, throw it into the fire, and it burns.
7 If you remain in me and my words stay in you, you can ask for anything you want, and it will be done for you.
8 In this, my Father is honored: when you produce a lot of fruit, then you are truly my followers.
9 Just as the Father loves me, I also love you. Stay in my love.
10 If you follow my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I follow my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 I have told you these things so that my joy stays in you and your joy is complete.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than to give up their life for their friends.
14 You are my friends if you do everything I tell you to do.
15 From now on, I don’t call you servants, because a servant doesn’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I have called you friends, because everything I learned from my Father, I have told you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit. So whatever you ask of God in my name, he will give to you.
17 I instruct you to love each other.
18 If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. But you do not belong to the world, because I have chosen you out of the world. That’s why the world hates you.
20 Remember what I told you: A servant isn’t above their master. If they have mistreated me, they will mistreat you too; if they have followed my teachings, they will follow yours as well.
21 They will do all these things to you because of me, since they do not know the one who sent me.
22 If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they wouldn’t be guilty of sin; but now they can’t hide their sin.
23 Whoever hates me also hates my Father.
24 If I had not done works among them that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 This happens so that what is written in their law comes true: They hated me for no reason.
26 But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from God, the Spirit of truth who goes out from God, he will tell about me.
27 You will also testify because you have been with me from the start.