Open English Translation YHN (JHN) Chapter 15

15 “I am the true vine and my father is the farmer. 2 He removes every one of my branches that doesn’t bear fruit, but those that do bear fruit, he prunes them so they’ll produce even more. 3 You are all clean already because of the teaching that I’ve given you. 4 Stay in me, and I will stay in you all, because just as a branch can’t bear fruit in isolation when it’s not connected to the vine, neither can you if you don’t stay in me.

5 “I am the vine and you all are the branches. Anyone who stays in me will produce a lot of fruit—apart from me you can’t do anything. 6 Anyone who doesn’t stay in me will be thrown away like a branch, and will wither and be gathered together with others, and thrown into the fire to be burnt. 7 If you stay in me and my teaching stays in you, then you can request whatever you all want and it will be done for you. 8 My father will be honoured and praised when you produce a lot of fruit, and you all become my followers. 9 I loved you all just as the father loved me, so stay in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you all will be staying in my love, just like I’ve obeyed my father’s commands and I am staying in his love.

11 “I’ve told you these things so that I’ll be happy with you all, and so that your happiness will be genuine and long-lasting. 12 [ref]So here’s my request: keep loving each other just like I loved you all. 13 No one has greater love than the one who gives up their own life for their friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I am telling you. 15 I’m not calling you slaves, because a slave doesn’t know his master’s plans, but I’m calling you friends because I’ve told you everything that I heard from my father. 16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you all, and I assigned you to go and produce fruit and for your fruit to be permanent so that whatever you request from the father in my name and authority, he will give it to you. 17 I am telling you all this so that you can all love each other.

18 “If the world hates you, you all know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to this world, then the world would love you as it loves its own people, but you don’t belong to this world because I chose you out of it. That’s why they hate all of you. 20 [ref]Remember that I told you that slaves are not greater than their master. So if they persecuted me, they’ll also be persecuting you all. (If they’d obeyed my teaching, they would also obey your teaching.) 21 But they will do all these things against you because of my name, because they don’t know the father who sent me. 22 They wouldn’t be considered sinners except that I came and spoke to them, so now they don’t have any excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me, also hates my father. 24 If I hadn’t done miracles among them of the sort that no one else has done, they wouldn’t be considered to be sinners, but now they’ve observed me and hated both me and my father. 25 [ref]The writings of the prophets will certainly come to pass, that ‘they hated me undeservedly’.

26 “When the assistant arrives that I will send to you all from the father, the spirit of truth coming from the father, he will tell the truth about me. 27 You also will be able to tell the truth about me because you all were with me from the beginning.