15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. |
15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every {branch} that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. |
15:3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. |
15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither {can} you unless you abide in Me. |
15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. |
15:6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. |
15:7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. |
15:8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and {so} prove to be My disciples. |
15:9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. |
15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. |
15:11 "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and {that} your joy may be made full. |
15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. |
15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. |
15:14 "You are My friends if you do what I command you. |
15:15 "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 all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. |
15:16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and {that} your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. |
15:17 "This I command you, that you love one another. |
15:18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before {it hated} you. |
15:19 "If 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, because of this the world hates you. |
15:20 "Remember 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. |
15:21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. |
15:22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. |
15:23 "He who hates Me hates My Father also. |
15:24 "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. |
15:25 "But {they have done this} to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, `THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.' |
15:26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, {that is} the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, |
15:27 and you {will} testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. |