| Chapter 15 |
1 |
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. |
2 |
Every branch in me that doesn`t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. |
3 |
You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. |
4 |
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can`t bear fruit by 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. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. |
6 |
If a man doesn`t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. |
7 |
If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done to you. |
8 |
In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. |
9 |
Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. |
10 |
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father`s commandments, and remain in his love. |
11 |
I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. |
12 |
This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. |
13 |
Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. |
14 |
You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you. |
15 |
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn`t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. |
16 |
You didn`t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. |
17 |
I command these things to you, that you may love one another. |
18 |
If the world hates you, you 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, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. |
20 |
Remember the word that I said to you: `A servant is not greater than his lord.` If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. |
21 |
But all these things will they do to you for my name`s sake, because they don`t know him who sent me. |
22 |
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. |
23 |
He who hates me, hates my Father also. |
24 |
If I hadn`t done among them the works which none other did, they wouldn`t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father. |
25 |
But that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, `They hated me without a cause.` |
26 |
When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. |
27 |
You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. |