Chapter 15

  'I am the Vine--the True Vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser.

  Every branch in me--if it bears no fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

  Already you are cleansed--through the teaching which I have given you.

  Continue in me, and let me continue in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself--that is, if it does not continue in the vine--so neither can you if you do not continue in me.

  I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who continues in me and in whom I continue bears abundant fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

  If any one does not continue in me, he is like the unfruitful branch which is at once thrown away and then withers up. Such branches they gather up and throw into the fire and they are burned.

  'If you continue in me and my sayings continue in you, ask what you will and it shall be done for you.

  By this is God glorified--by your bearing abundant fruit and thus being true disciples of mine.

  As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you: continue in my love.

  If you obey my commands, you will continue in my love, as I have obeyed my Father's commands and continue in His love.

  'These things I have spoken to you in order that I may have joy in you, and that your joy may become perfect.

  This is my commandment to you, to love one another as I have loved you.

  No one has greater love than this--a man laying down his life for his friends.

  You are my friends, if you do what I command you.

  No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you.

  It is not you who chose me, but it is I who chose you and appointed you that you might go and be fruitful and that your fruit might remain; so that whatever petition you present to the Father in my name He may give you.

  'Thus I command you to love one another.

  If the world hates you, remember that it has first had me as the fixed object of its hatred.

  If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own property. But because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world--for that reason the world hates you.

  Bear in mind what I said to you, 'A servant is not superior to his master.' If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

  But they will inflict all this suffering upon you on account of your bearing my name--because they do not know Him who sent me.

  'If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have had no sin; but as the case stands they are without excuse for their sin.

  He who hates me hates my Father also.

  If I had not done among them, as I have, such miracles as no one else ever did, they would have had no sin; but they have in fact seen and also hated both me and my Father.

  But this has been so, in order that the saying may be fulfilled which stands written in their Law, 'They have hated me without any reason.'

  'When the Advocate is come whom I will send to you from the Father's presence--the Spirit of Truth who comes forth from the Father's presence--He will be a witness concerning me.

  And you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the first.