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 (W)“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. ^19 (X)If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet ^(Y)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, ^(Z)‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. ^(AA)If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But ^(AB)all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. ^22 (AC)If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, ^(AD)but now they have no excuse for their sin. ^23 (AE)He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them ^(AF)the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have ^(AG)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, ^(AH)‘They hated Me without a cause.’

The Coming Rejection

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

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

^37 (A)On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ^(B)“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ^38 (C)He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ^(D)out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ^39 (E)But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those ^[a]believing in Him would receive; for the ^[b]Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet ^(F)glorified.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the ^(A)gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you ^(B)living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

²³ But Jesus answered them, saying, ^(A)“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. ²⁴ Most assuredly, I say to you, ^(B)unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much ^[a]grain. ^25 (C)He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those ^(A)who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom ^(B)He foreknew, ^(C)He also predestined ^(D)to be conformed to the image of His Son, ^(E)that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also ^(F)called; whom He called, these He also ^(G)justified; and whom He justified, these He also ^(H)glorified.

God’s Everlasting Love

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? ^(I)If God is for us, who can be against us? ^32 (J)He who did not spare His own Son, but ^(K)delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? ^(L)It is God who justifies. ^34 (M)Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, ^(N)who is even at the right hand of God, ^(O)who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

^37 (Q)Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor ^(R)principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.