Abiding in the Vine

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He trims so that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and is dried up. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.

⁷ “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.”

⁹ “Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love! 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. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.

¹² “This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. ^{[a] 13} No one has greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁵ “I am no longer calling you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. Now I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

¹⁶ “You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I selected you so that you would go and produce fruit, and your fruit would remain. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.

¹⁷ “These things I command you, so that you may love one another.”

The World Hates God’s Own

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But you are not of the world, since I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you.

²⁰ “Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^[b] If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

²¹ “But all these things they will do to you for the sake of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.

²³ “He who hates Me also hates My Father. ²⁴ If I had not done works among them that no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and have hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵ So is fulfilled the word written in their Scripture,^[c] ‘They hated Me for no reason.’^[d]

²⁶ “When the Helper comes—whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—He will testify about Me. ²⁷ And you also testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”