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.^(X)

The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸ “If the world hates you,^(Y) 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^(Z) out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^{(AA) 20} Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^[b](AB) If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.^(AC) If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name,^(AD) for they do not know the one who sent me.^{(AE) 22} If I had not come and spoken to them,^(AF) they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{(AG) 23} Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did,^(AH) they would not be guilty of sin.^(AI) 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:^(AJ) ‘They hated me without reason.’^[c](AK)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶ “When the Advocate^(AL) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father^(AM)—the Spirit of truth^(AN) who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.^{(AO) 27} And you also must testify,^(AP) for you have been with me from the beginning.^(AQ)

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate^(A) a pool, which in Aramaic^(B) is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^{[4] [b] 5} One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”^{(C) 9} At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,^{(D) 10} and so the Jewish leaders^(E) said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”^(F)

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning^(G) or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders^(H) that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father^(I) is always at his work^(J) to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him;^(K) not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.^(L)

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself;^(M) he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son^(N) and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these,^(O) so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,^(P) even so the Son gives life^(Q) to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,^{(R) 23} that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.^(S)

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me^(T) has eternal life^(U) and will not be judged^(V) but has crossed over from death to life.^{(W) 25} Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come^(X) when the dead will hear^(Y) the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life^(Z) in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge^(AA) because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming^(AB) when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.^{(AC) 30} By myself I can do nothing;^(AD) I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just,^(AE) for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.^(AF)

Testimonies About Jesus

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.^{(AG) 32} There is another who testifies in my favor,^(AH) and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³ “You have sent to John and he has testified^(AI) to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept human testimony;^(AJ) but I mention it that you may be saved.^{(AK) 35} John was a lamp that burned and gave light,^(AL) and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶ “I have testimony weightier than that of John.^(AM) For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing^(AN)—testify that the Father has sent me.^{(AO) 37} And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.^(AP) You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,^{(AQ) 38} nor does his word dwell in you,^(AR) for you do not believe^(AS) the one he sent.^{(AT) 39} You study^[c] the Scriptures^(AU) diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.^(AV) These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,^{(AW) 40} yet you refuse to come to me^(AX) to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory from human beings,^{(AY) 42} but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God^[d]?^(AZ)

⁴⁵ “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses,^(BA) on whom your hopes are set.^{(BB) 46} If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.^{(BC) 47} But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”^(BD)