|
The Vine and the Branches
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 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. 3 You are already clean because of
the word I have spoken to you. 4 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.
5 “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. 6 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. 7 If you
remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s
glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love. 10 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. 11 I have told you this so that my
joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My
command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life
for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I
command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because servants
do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called
you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I
have made known to you. 16 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. 17 This is my command:
Love each other.
The World Hates the Disciples
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated
me first. 19 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. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘Servants are not
greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will
obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of
my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 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. 23 Those who
hate me hate my Father as well. 24 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. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written
in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
The Work of the Holy Spirit
26 “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. 27 And you also must
testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
|
Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
