John 15:1-17

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 [As to] every branch in me not bearing fruit, he takes it away; and [as to] every one bearing fruit, he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Ye are already clean 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 unless it abide in the vine, thus neither [can] ye unless ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, *he* bears much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.

6 Unless any one abide in me he is cast out as the branch, and is dried up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall come to pass to you.

8 In this is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and ye shall become disciples of mine.

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

10 If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

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

12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends.

14 Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you.

15 I call you no longer bondmen, for the bondman does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have set you that ye should go and [that] ye should bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he may give you.

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Footnotes

• [a] Aiteo: see Note a, ch. 14.16.
• [b] 'In this' refers to what follows: no one, I think, can be familiar with John's writings and doubt it. Thus the Father is glorified and they become disciples of his.
• [c] Perhaps more exactly, 'In this will my Father have been glorified that ye have borne much fruit, and ye will have become,' &c.
• [d] Para with gen.: see Note a, ch. 6.45.