15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
15:2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes [The Greek for prunes also means cleans.] so that it will be even more fruitful.
15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
15:4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
15:5 I am the vine you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit apart from me you can do nothing.
15:6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
15:8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
15:10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
15:13 Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15:15 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.
15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
15:17 This is my command: Love each other.
15:18 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
15:19 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 out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
15:20 Remember the words I spoke to you: `No servant is greater than his master.’ [John 13:16] If they persecuted me, they 281 will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
15:21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
15:23 He who hates me hates my Father as well.
15:24 If I had not done among them what no-one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
15:25 But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: `They hated me without reason.’ [Psalms 35:19 69:4]
15:26 When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
15:27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.