The Servant of the Lord

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am^(A) the true vine,^(B) and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,^(C) while every branch that does bear fruit^(D) he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.^{(E) 4} Remain in me, as I also remain in you.^(F) No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;^(G) apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.^{(H) 7} If you remain in me^(I) and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.^{(J) 8} This is to my Father’s glory,^(K) that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.^(L)

⁹ “As the Father has loved me,^(M) so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands,^(N) you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.^{(O) 12} My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{(P) 13} Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{(Q) 14} You are my friends^(R) if you do what I command.^{(S) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{(T) 16} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^(U) so that you might go and bear fruit^(V)—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.^(W)

¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.^(A)

The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸ “If the world hates you,^(B) keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you^(C) out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^{(D) 20} Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^[a](E) If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.^(F) If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name,^(G) for they do not know the one who sent me.^{(H) 22} If I had not come and spoken to them,^(I) they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{(J) 23} Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did,^(K) they would not be guilty of sin.^(L) As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law:^(M) ‘They hated me without reason.’^[b](N)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶ “When the Advocate^(O) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father^(P)—the Spirit of truth^(Q) who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.^{(R) 27} And you also must testify,^(S) for you have been with me from the beginning.^(T)