15
“I AM the True Vine, and My Father Is the Vine-Dresser”
1 “I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser.+
2 Every branch in union with me that doesn’t produce fruit, he cuts it off. Every branch that does+ produce fruit, however, he cleans it by pruning, so that it will produce even+ more fruit.
3 By now ᵖyou have been trimmed clean+ because of the teaching I have given you.+
4 Live your lives in union with me,+ and I will live my life in union with ᵖyou.+ Just as a branch cannot produce fruit+ on its own, but must+ continually draw its life from its union+ with the vine, so neither can ᵖyou produce fruit+ unless you are drawing life from union with me.+
5 I AM the vine, and ᵖyou are the branches. If+ someone is living his life in union with me, and I in union with him, he will produce much fruit;+ for apart from me ᵖyou can accomplish nothing.+
6 If someone doesn’t remain united to me, he will surely+ be thrown out like a useless+ branch and dry up; such branches+ are gathered up and thrown into the fire+ and burned.
7 If ᵖyou are living in union with me, and my words are dwelling inside of ᵖyou,+ you may+ ask for whatever it is+ that is on ᵖyour hearts,+ and it will be done for ᵖyou.
8 This is how my Father’s glory will surely+ be displayed:+ By ᵖyou producing much fruit,+ showing+ yourselves to be my disciples.+
9 The same kind of love that the Father has shown me,+ I, likewise, have shown ᵖyou.+ ᵖYou must continue in my love.
10 ᵖYou will continue in my love if+ you obey the commandments you have received from me,+ just as I have obeyed the commandments of my Father,+ and so continue in his love.
11 These things I have spoken to ᵖyou so that the joy that I have may fill your own+ hearts,+ and you be filled with the greatest of joy.+
12 This is my commandment: Show one another the same kind of love that I have shown you.
13 Greater love has no one than this,+ than for someone to lay down, for the sake of his friends,+ his very life.+
14 ᵖYou are my friends+ if you do the things I command you.
15 No longer do I call you slaves, because a slave doesn’t share his master’s confidence.+ ᵖYou, however, I have called friends, because I have made known to ᵖyou everything+ that I have heard from my Father.
16 It was+ not ᵖyou who chose me, but I who chose you and I who+ appointed you, so that you could go and produce fruit,+ and your fruit endure;+ so that the Father may grant ᵖyou whatever+ you ask of him in my name.
17 These things I am commanding ᵖyou, that you love one another.
“A Slave Is Not Greater Than His Master”
18 “If the world hates+ ᵖyou, remember that I myself+ felt its hatred+ before+ you did.
19 If it were+ the world to which ᵖyou belonged, the world would love you as its very+ own. As it is,+ ᵖyou do not+ belong to the world, but I have chosen you for myself+ out of the world. That is the reason why the world is sure to hate you.
20 Remember what I told+ you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me,+ they will persecute, too,+ ᵖyou; if they obeyed my+ teaching,+ they will obey, too,+ ᵖyours.
21 The truth is, these things, all of them,+ they will do to ᵖyou on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them,+ they would not be guilty+ of sin.+ Now, however, they have for their sin no+ excuse.
23 If+ someone hates me,+ it is+ my Father, too, whom he hates.
24 If I had not performed before their eyes+ such+ mighty deeds, such as no one else ever did,+ they would not+ be guilty of sin.+ Now, however, they have seen, and yet they still+ hate both me and my Father.
25 Yet this happened to fulfill what is written in their Scriptures+: ‘They hated me undeservedly.+’+
26 “When the one who will come to your aid and strengthen you and make appeals on your behalf+ comes, whom I will send to you from the presence of the Father,+ the Spirit of truth, who from the presence+ of the Father will surely come,+ he will bear solemn witness on my behalf.
27 And ᵖyou disciples,+ too, will do the same yourselves,+ because ᵖyou have been with+ me+ from the very+ outset.+