John Chapter 15
The Gospel of John, by its form, stands apart from the other three. John organizes his message by focusing on seven signs that point to Jesus as the Son of God. His literaly style is reflective and full of images and figures.
A Conservative Version
15 : 1 I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the farmer.
15 : 2 Every branch in me not bearing fruit, he removes it. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it, so that it may bear more fruit.
15 : 3 Now ye are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
15 : 4 Dwell in me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it dwells in the grapevine, so neither ye, if ye do not dwell in me.
15 : 5 I am the grapevine, ye are the branches. He who dwells in me, and I in him, this man bears much fruit, because without me ye can do nothing.
15 : 6 If any man does not dwell in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and are burned.
15 : 7 If ye dwell in me, and my sayings dwell in you, ye will ask whatever ye may want, and it will be done to you.
15 : 8 By this my Father is glorified, that ye may bear much fruit, and ye will become my disciples.
15 : 9 As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Dwell ye in my love.
15 : 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye will dwell in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and dwell in his love.
15 : 11 These things I have spoken to you that my joy may dwell in you, and your joy may be full.
15 : 12 This is my commandment, that ye love each other, just as I have loved you.
15 : 13 Greater love has no man than this, that some man lay down his life for his friends.
15 : 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do as many things as I command you.
15 : 15 I no longer call you bondmen, because the bondman does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, because all things that I heard from my Father, I made known to you.
15 : 16 Ye did not choose out me, but I chose out you, and appointed you, so that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit may remain, so that anything whatever ye may ask of the Father in my name, he may give you.
15 : 17 These things I command you, so that ye may love each other.
15 : 18 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you.
15 : 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own, but because ye are not of the world (instead I chose you out of the world), because of this the world hates you.
15 : 20 Remember the word that I said to you, A bondman is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
15 : 21 But all these things they will do to you because of my name, because they have not known him who sent me.
15 : 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
15 : 23 He who hates me hates my Father also.
15 : 24 If I had not done among them the works that no other man has done, they would not have had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
15 : 25 But, that the word that is written in their law may be fulfilled, They hated me without cause.
15 : 26 But when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, that will testify about me.
15 : 27 And ye also testify, because ye have been with me from the beginning.