"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me
and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a
branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into
the fire and burned. If you remain in me
and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you
bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now
remain in my love. If you keep my
commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands
and remain in his love. I have told you
this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have
loved you. Greater love has no one than
this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no
longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s
business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned
from my Father I have made known to you. You did
not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear
fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father
will give you. This is my command: Love
each other.
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me
first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is,
you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is
why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater
than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they
obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They
will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who
sent me. If I had not come and spoken to
them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their
sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the
works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have
seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill
what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from
the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify
about me. And you also must testify, for
you have been with me from the beginning. John 15
No comments:
Post a Comment