John 15

₁Jesus told his disciples: ‘I am the true vine. My Father is the Farmer. ₂There are some branches that grow out of Me that have no fruit. My Father cuts off those branches. But He cleans and prunes all the branches that have fruit so that they will have more fruit. ₃The words that I have spoken to you have already cleaned and pruned you.

₄You must always stay with Me as I stay with you. You must remember: A branch on its own can not grow fruit by itself. It must be part of the vine. You also can not grow fruit if you do not stay with Me. ₅I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay with Me and I stay with you, then you will grow a lot of fruit. But if I am not with you, then you can do nothing. ₆If people do not stay with Me, the same will happen to them that happens to branches that do not grow fruit. People throw those branches away and they become dry and people throw them into the fire to burn.

₇You must stay with Me and the things that I tell you must stay in your hearts. Then you can ask Me anything that you want and I will give it to you. ₈If you are my disciples and you show that you have a lot of fruit, then people will know that my Father is God. ₉I love you as the Father loves Me. You must keep on loving Me. ₁₀If you do what I say, then you will stay in my love the same as I have stayed in my Father's love because I did what He said.

₁₁I say this to you because I want you to be really happy, as I am. ₁₂I have shown you how much I love you. Now I give you a law that I want you to obey: You must love each other as I love you. ₁₃The best way that a person can show that he loves his friends is when he dies for them so that they can live. ₁₄You are my friends if you do what I say. ₁₅I do not say you are my servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. I say you are my friends because I told you everything that my Father has told Me.

₁₆You did not choose Me. I have chosen you. Yes, I chose you and told you to go out and grow fruit that will not go bad but stay good forever. Then my Father will give you everything that you ask of Him because you belong to Me. ₁₇I tell you: You must love each other.’

₁₈Jesus told his disciples: ‘If the people of the world hate you, remember that they hated Me before they hated you. ₁₉If you belong to the world, then the people of the world will love you because then you are the same as they are. But you do not belong to the world. I have chosen you from the people of the world. That is why the people of the world hate you. ₂₀You must remember: I told you that a slave is not more important than his master. The people of the world will do bad things to Me. They will also do bad things to you. They did not listen to what I said. They will also not listen to what you say.

₂₁They will do bad things to you because you belong to Me and they do not know God who has sent Me to the world. ₂₂I have come to them and talked to them. Now they can not say that they did not know that they are guilty of sin. They can not say that they have done nothing wrong.

₂₃If someone hates Me, then he also hates my Father. ₂₄I have done miracles that no other person can do and these people saw the things that I did. Now they can not say that they did not know that they are guilty of sin. They saw what I did, but they keep on hating Me and my Father. ₂₅But this had to happen because it is written in the Old_Testament:

₂₆Then Jesus said: ‘I will send you a Helper who will come from the Father. (The Helper is the Holy_Spirit who will show you the truth). The Helper will tell you more about Me. ₂₇You must also tell the people about Me, because you were with Me from the time that I started to do the work that my Father gave Me.’