John 15
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · AD 30 – AD 33 · Life of Jesus · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
27 verses · 590 words · ~3 min read · ~4 min listen
Jesus the True Vine
1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard. 2He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.
5I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to My Fatherʼs glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.
No Greater Love
9As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. 10If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Fatherʼs commandments and remain in His love. 11I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
12This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 17This is My command to you: Love one another.
The Hatred of the World
18If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
20Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well. 21But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
23Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well. 24If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
26When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me. 27And you also must testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Footnotes (3)
- a v20 John 13:16
- b v25 See Psalms 35:19,Psalms 38:19,and Psalms 69:4.
- c v26 Or Comforter or Helper or Counselor; Greek Paraclete
Study notes on this chapter · 2
They hated me without a cause
Jesus tells his disciples that the world's hatred of him fulfils a line 'written in their Law': they hated me without reason. The phrase appears in both Psalm 35 and Psalm 69, psalms of David's unjust suffering. 'Law' here means Scripture broadly.
When: Psalms of David, c. 1000 BC; Jesus' upper-room discourse, c. AD 30–33.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
Israel the vine and Jesus the true vine
The Old Testament often pictures Israel as a vine or vineyard planted by God, sometimes fruitful and often failing. Jesus says 'I am the true vine', and that his followers must remain in him to bear fruit.
When: Psalm 80, Isaiah 5, Hosea 10; Jesus' upper-room discourse, c. AD 30–33.
Ways people read this (2)
- Jesus replaces or fulfills Israel as God's true vine, bearing the fruit Israel did not.
- The image also draws on the vine as a symbol of the temple (a golden vine decorated its gate) and of Israel's restoration.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.