John 14-17

Christian Standard Bible

The Way to the Father

14 “Don’t let your heart be troubled.^(A) Believe^[a] in God; ^(B) believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going ^(C) to prepare a place for you? ³ If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again^(D) and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.^{(E) 4} You know the way to where I am going.”^[b](F)

⁵ “Lord,” Thomas^(G) said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus told him, “I am^(H) the way,^(I) the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you know me, you will also know^[c] my Father.^(J) From now on you do know him^(K) and have seen him.”

Jesus Reveals the Father

⁸ “Lord,” said Philip,^(L) “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father.^(M) How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?^(N) The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own.^(O) The Father who lives in me does his works.^{(P) 11} Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe^[d] because of the works themselves.^(Q)

Praying in Jesus’s Name

¹² “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me^(R) will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these,^(S) because I am going to the Father.^{(T) 13} Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified^(U) in the Son.^{(V) 14} If you ask me^[e] anything in my name,^(W) I will do it.^[f](X)

Another Counselor Promised

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep^[g] my commands.^{(Y) 16} And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor^[h](Z) to be with you forever. ¹⁷ He is the Spirit^(AA) of truth.^(AB) The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be^[i] in you.^(AC)

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me,^(AD) but you will see me.^(AE) Because I live, you will live^(AF) too. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father,^(AG) you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.^(AH) And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father.^(AI) I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

²² Judas^(AJ) (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” ^(AK)

²³ Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.^{(AL) 24} The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.^(AM)

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit,^(AN) whom the Father will send^(AO) in my name, will teach you all things^(AP) and remind you of everything I have told you.^(AQ)

Jesus’s Gift of Peace

²⁷ “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.^{(AR) 28} You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away^(AS) and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father,^(AT) because the Father is greater than I.^{(AU) 29} I have told you now before it happens^(AV) so that when it does happen you may believe. ³⁰ I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world^(AW) is coming. He has no power over me.^{[j](AX) 31} On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

“Get up; let’s leave this place.

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am^(AY) the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes,^(AZ) and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. ³ You are already clean^(BA) because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.^{(BB) 5} I am the vine; ^(BC) you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit,^(BD) because you can do nothing without me. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside^(BE) like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire,^(BF) and they are burned.^{(BG) 7} If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.^{(BH) 8} My Father is glorified^(BI) by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be^[k] my disciples.

Christlike Love

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.^{(BJ) 10} If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.^(BK)

¹¹ “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.^(BL)

¹² “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved^(BM) you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life^(BN) for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master^[l](BO) is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you.^(BP) I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask^(BQ) the Father in my name,^(BR) he will give you.^(BS)

¹⁷ “This is what I command you: Love one another.

Persecutions Predicted

¹⁸ “If the world hates^(BT) you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen^(BU) you out of it, the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^(BV) If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word,^(BW) they will also keep yours. ²¹ But they will do all these things to you on account of my name,^(BX) because they don’t know^(BY) the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.^(BZ) Now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ The one who hates me also hates my Father.^{(CA) 24} If I had not done the works^(CB) among them that no one else has done,^(CC) they would not be guilty of sin.^(CD) Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled:^(CE) They hated me for no reason.^[m](CF)

The Counselor’s Ministry

²⁶ “When the Counselor^(CG) comes, the one I will send to you from the Father^(CH) —the Spirit of truth^(CI) who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. ²⁷ You also will testify,^(CJ) because you have been with me from the beginning.

16 “I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling. ² They will ban you from the synagogues.^(CK) In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service^(CL) to God. ³ They will do these things because they haven’t known^(CM) the Father or me. ⁴ But I have told you these things so that when their time^[n] comes you will remember^(CN) I told them to you. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵ But now I am going away^(CO) to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’^{(CP) 6} Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth.^(CQ) It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.^{(CR) 8} When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: ⁹ About sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father^(CS) and you will no longer see me; ¹¹ and about judgment,^(CT) because the ruler of this world^(CU) has been judged.^(CV)

¹² “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.^{(CW) 13} When the Spirit of truth^(CX) comes, he will guide you into all the truth.^(CY) For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ Everything the Father^(CZ) has is mine.^(DA) This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.^(DB)

Sorrow Turned to Joy

¹⁶ “In a little while,^(DC) you will no longer see me; ^(DD) again in a little while, you will see me.”^[o]

¹⁷ Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this he’s telling us: ‘In a little while, you will not see me; again in a little while, you will see me,’ and, ‘Because I am going to the Father’^(DE)?” ¹⁸ They said, “What is this he is saying,^[p] ‘In a little while’? We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

¹⁹ Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, and so he said to them, “Are you asking one another about what I said, ‘In a little while, you will not see me; again in a little while, you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn,^(DF) but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful,^(DG) but your sorrow will turn to joy. ²¹ When a woman is in labor, she has pain^(DH) because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child,^(DI) she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. ²² So you also have sorrow^[q] now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice,^(DJ) and no one will take away your joy from you.^(DK)

²³ “In that day you will not ask me anything. Truly I tell you, anything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.^{(DL) 24} Until now you have asked for nothing in my name.^(DM) Ask and you will receive,^(DN) so that your joy may be complete.^(DO)

Jesus the Victor

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ On that day you will ask^(DP) in my name, and^(DQ) I am not telling you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved^(DR) me and have believed that I came from God.^{[r](DS) 28} I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”^(DT)

²⁹ His disciples said, “Look, now you’re speaking plainly and not using any figurative language. ³⁰ Now we know that you know everything^(DU) and don’t need anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”^(DV)

³¹ Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe? ³² Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come,^(DW) when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.^{(DX) 33} I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Jesus Prays for Himself

17 Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son^(DY) may glorify you,^{(DZ) 2} since you gave him authority over all people,^[s](EA) so that he may give eternal life^(EB) to everyone you have given him.^{(EC) 3} This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only^(ED) true^(EE) God, and the one you have sent^(EF) —Jesus Christ.^{(EG) 4} I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ Now, Father,^(EH) glorify me in your presence with that glory^(EI) I had with you before the world existed.^(EJ)

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶ “I have revealed your name^(EK) to the people you gave me^(EL) from the world.^(EM) They were yours, you gave them to me,^(EN) and they have kept your word.^{(EO) 7} Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, ⁸ because I have given them the words you gave me.^(EP) They have received them and have known for certain that I came from you.^(EQ) They have believed that you sent me.

⁹ “I pray^[t] for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me,^(ER) because they are yours. ¹⁰ Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine,^(ES) and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.^(ET) Holy^(EU) Father, protect^[u] them by your name^(EV) that you have given me, so that they may be one^(EW) as we are^(EX) one. ¹² While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded^(EY) them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction,^[v] so that the Scripture^(EZ) may be fulfilled.^{(FA) 13} Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word. The world hated^(FB) them because they are not of the world,^(FC) just as I am not of the world.^{(FD) 15} I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.^{(FE) 16} They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.^{(FF) 17} Sanctify^(FG) them by the truth; ^(FH) your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world,^(FI) I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. ²¹ May they all be one,^(FJ) as you, Father, are in me and I am in you.^(FK) May they also be^[w] in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. ²² I have given them the glory^(FL) you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. ²³ I am in them and you are in me,^(FM) so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved^(FN) them as you have loved me.^(FO)

²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am,^(FP) so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation. ²⁵ Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you,^(FQ) and they have known that you sent me. ²⁶ I made your name^(FR) known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.”^(FS)