John 15 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
2 He cuts off every one of my branches that doesn't bear fruit. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so it can bear even more.
2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already pruned and made clean through what I've told you.
3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it remains part of the vine, so it is for you: you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.
4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
5 I'm the vine, you're the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce plenty of fruit—for apart from me you can't do anything.
5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6 Anyone who doesn't remain in me is like a branch that is thrown out and dries up. Such branches are gathered together, thrown into the fire and burned.
6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, then you can ask for whatever you want, and it will be given you.
7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified as you produce plenty of fruit, proving you are my disciples.
8 “In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.
9 As the Father loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love.
9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.
10 If you do what I say, you will remain in my love, just as I do what my Father says and remain in his love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
11 I've explained this to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 This is my command: love one another as I have loved you.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
13 There is no greater love than to give your life for your friends.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You're my friends if you do what I tell you.
14 You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 I don't call you servants any longer, for servants are not taken into their master's confidence. I call you friends, for everything my Father told me I've explained to you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
16 You didn't choose me, I chose you. I have given you the responsibility to go and produce lasting fruit. So the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17 This is my command to you: love one another.
17 “I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
18 If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before it hated you.
18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were part of this world, it would love you as its own. But you're not part of the world, and I chose you out of the world—that's why the world hates you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember what I told you: servants aren't more important than their master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they did what I told them, they would do what you tell them too.
20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
21 But everything they do to you will be because of me, for they don't know the one who sent me.
21 But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
22 If I hadn't come and spoken to them, they wouldn't be guilty of sin—but now they have no excuse for their sin.
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.
23 Anyone who hates me hates my Father as well.
23 He who hates me, hates my Father also.
24 If I had not given them such a demonstration through things that no one had ever done before, they wouldn't be guilty of sin, but despite seeing all this they hated both me and my Father.
24 If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father.
25 But this just fulfilled what Scripture says, ‘They hated me for no reason at all.’
25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 But I will send you the Comforter from the Father. When he comes, he will give evidence about me. He is the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father.
26 “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
27 You will also give evidence about me because you were with me from the beginning.”
27 You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Cross references (27)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jeremiah 2:21; Isaiah 27:2–3; 1 Corinthians 3:9; Isaiah 60:21; Psalm 80:8–19
- 2 Matthew 3:10; Hebrews 12:10–11; Matthew 15:13; Revelation 3:19; John 15:8
- 3 John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26; 1 Peter 1:22; John 13:10
- 4 1 John 2:6; Galatians 2:20; John 8:31; 2 John 9; John 6:56
- 5 Philippians 4:13; Colossians 1:10; John 15:16; Galatians 5:22; Proverbs 11:30
- 6 Matthew 7:19; Hebrews 6:7–8; Matthew 13:41; John 15:2; Matthew 3:10
- 7 Psalm 37:4; 1 John 5:14; John 14:13; 1 John 3:22; John 15:16
- 8 Matthew 5:16; John 8:31; Philippians 1:11; 2 Corinthians 9:10–15; John 15:5
- 9 John 17:23–24; John 17:26; 1 John 2:28; Revelation 1:5; John 15:13
- 10 John 14:15; 1 John 5:3; 1 John 3:21–24; 1 John 2:5; 2 Peter 2:21
- 11 Romans 15:13; John 17:13; John 16:24; 1 Peter 1:8; 1 John 1:4
- 12 1 John 4:21; 1 Peter 4:8; John 13:34; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 12:10
- 13 John 10:11; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 5:6–8; John 10:15; 1 John 4:7–11
- 14 Matthew 12:50; 1 John 5:3; James 2:23; John 14:21; John 14:15
- 15 Psalm 25:14; 1 Corinthians 2:9–12; Matthew 13:11; James 2:23; Colossians 1:26
- 16 Jeremiah 1:5–7; John 15:19; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; 1 John 4:19
- 17 John 15:12; 1 John 3:14–17; 1 Peter 2:17
- 18 1 John 3:13; John 7:7; Luke 6:22; Mark 13:13; John 3:20
- 19 1 John 4:4–5; John 17:14–16; Ephesians 1:4–11; Titus 3:3–7; John 15:16
- 20 2 Timothy 3:12; John 13:16; Matthew 10:24; Ezekiel 3:7; 1 Corinthians 4:12
- 21 Matthew 10:22; John 16:3; John 8:19; Matthew 10:18; Matthew 24:9
- 22 John 9:41; James 4:17; Acts 17:30; Romans 1:20; John 12:48
- 23 John 8:40–42; 1 John 2:23; 2 John 9
- 24 John 14:9; John 5:36; John 10:32; John 7:31; John 10:37
- 25 Psalm 109:3; Psalm 69:4; Psalm 35:19; Luke 24:44; 2 Corinthians 11:7
- 26 John 14:26; John 14:16–17; John 16:13–15; Acts 5:32; Acts 2:32–33
- 27 1 John 4:14; John 21:24; Acts 10:39–42; Luke 24:48; Acts 23:11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Jesus called Himself the vine, and His disciples the branches, and His Father the husbandman; whereon we have already discoursed as we were able.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
All things good then have their reward, when they arrive at their proper end, but if they be cut off midway, shipwreck ensues.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 14 (1889)
… Him, as He does Himself declare to His disciples: "I will not now call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things which I have heard from My Father I have made known." For in that which He says, "I will not now call you servants," He indicates …
… handed down to us from the Lord, and to do nothing that our Lord has not first done for us: so that the cup which is offered in remembrance of Him should be mixed with wine. For, as Christ says, I am the true vine,' it follows that the blood of Christ is wine, not water; and the cup cannot …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For "He will burn the chaff," saith he, "with unquenchable fire." Thou seest that He is Lord of all things, and that He is Himself the Husbandman; albeit in another place He calls His Father the same. For "My Father," saith He, "is the Husbandman." Thus, inasmuch as He had spoken of an axe, lest thou shouldest suppose that the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)