< John 15 >
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit he cleanseth, that it may bear more fruit.
3 Ye are clean already, by reason of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, if it abide not in the vine, so neither can ye, unless ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from me ye can do nothing.
6 If any one abideth not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it is burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever ye will, and it shall be done for you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and ye will become my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye will abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do what I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things which I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
16 Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever ye ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 This I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember what I said to you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my words, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do to you on account of my name, because they know not him that sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law: “They hated me without a cause.”
26 When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he will bear witness of me.
27 And ye also are witnesses, because ye have been with me from the beginning.