The Servant of the Lord

The True Vine

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ^2 (A)Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He ^[a]takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear ^(B)more fruit. ^3 (C)You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ^4 (D)Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much ^(E)fruit; for without Me you can do ^(F)nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, ^(G)he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words ^(H)abide in you, ^(I)you^[b] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ^8 (J)By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; ^(K)so you will be My disciples.

Love and Joy Perfected

⁹ “As the Father ^(L)loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ^10 (M)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, that My joy may remain in you, and ^(N)that your joy may be full. ^12 (O)This is My ^(P)commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ^13 (Q)Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ^14 (R)You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, ^(S)for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. ^16 (T)You did not choose Me, but I chose you and ^(U)appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father ^(V)in My name He may give you.

¹⁷ These things I command you, that you love one another.

The World’s Hatred

^18 (A)“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. ^19 (B)If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet ^(C)because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ^(D)‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. ^(E)If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But ^(F)all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. ^22 (G)If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, ^(H)but now they have no excuse for their sin. ^23 (I)He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them ^(J)the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have ^(K)seen and also hated both Me and My Father. ²⁵ But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ^(L)‘They hated Me without a cause.’

The Coming Rejection

^26 (M)“But when the ^[a]Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, ^(N)He will testify of Me. ²⁷ And ^(O)you also will bear witness, because ^(P)you have been with Me from the beginning.