The Gospel According to St. John

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 15 -

(Isaiah 27:1–13)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

Every branch in me that does not grow fruit, my Father cuts it off and takes it away. As for every branch that gives good fruit, he makes it clean by pruning it so that it may produce even more fruit.

You are already pure because of the message I spoke to you.

Remain joined to me, and I will remain joined to you. As the branch cannot bear any fruit on its own, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay joined to me and depend upon me for everything.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain joined to me and I remain joined to you, you will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing at all.

Everyone who does not stay joined to me and draw his life from me will be thrown away like a dead branch. Those branches are gathered together and thrown into the fire and burned.

If you stay joined to me and live by my message, you can ask God for anything, and he will do it.

When you bear much fruit, it causes people to honor the Father. Then you are my disciples.

No Greater Love

As the Father loved me, so I have loved you. Continue to allow me to love you.

If you obey what I tell you to do, you will continue to allow me to love you. You will be like me in this way: I obeyed what my Father required me to do, and because of my obedience, I have stayed in his love. That will be true of you, too.

I told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and so that you may rejoice to the fullest extent.

What I command you to do is this: Love each other in the way that I have loved you.

You can have no greater love than this, that you give up your life for your friends.

You are my friends if you not only listen to my commands but also live by them.

I no longer call you my servants, for the servant does not understand what his master is doing. I now call you friends, for everything I heard from my Father I made it all known to you so that you also could understand it.

You did not choose me, but I chose you for a reason, so that you should go out and bear much fruit and so that your fruit should last forever. As a result, everything you ask the Father in my name, he will do for you.

This is what I command you to do: Love one another.

The Hatred of the World

If the world despises you, you should realize that it hated me first.

If you belonged to the unbelievers in this world, the world would love you, and you would love what they love and do what they do. But you do not belong to them; instead, I chose you to come out from among them. That is the reason the unbelievers in this world despise you.

Remember when I taught you this: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ Since they have made me suffer, you can be sure they will make you suffer also. If any of them have received my teachings and followed them, they will also follow what you teach them.

The unbelievers in this world will do horrible things to you because you represent me and because they do not know my Father, who has sent me to you.

If I had not come and spoken God’s message to them, they would not have been guilty of rejecting me and my message. However, now I have come and told them God’s message, and they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me also hates my Father.

If I had not done those things among them, those things in which I showed my power, things that no one else has ever done, they would not have been guilty of sin. Yet now that they have seen me, they hate me, and they hate my Father, too.

These words were written in their law and have now come true: ‘They hated me for no reason.’

When the Helper comes, he is the one who will come from the Father and who will comfort you. He is the Spirit who tells the truth about God and me. He will tell everyone who I am, and he will show everyone all that I have done.

You also must tell everyone what you know about me because you have been with me the whole time from the very first days when I began to teach the people and to do miracles.”

(Isaiah 27:1–13)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

“In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

No Greater Love

Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

The Hatred of the World

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ (a) If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

He who hates me, hates my Father also.

If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father.

But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’ (b)

“When the Counselor (c) has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Footnotes

(a)15:20 ℘ John 13:16

(b)15:25 ℘ Psalms 35:19; 69:4