John 15 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 30 (during Passover week)
Location
Jerusalem, en route from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane
Audience
Jesus' eleven disciples (Judas Iscariot had already left)
Situation
On the night before his crucifixion, as part of his farewell discourse after the Last Supper, Jesus teaches his disciples using the metaphor of himself as the true vine and them as branches, urging them to abide in him to bear fruit.
Key Background
This imagery echoes Old Testament passages portraying Israel as a vine (e.g., Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80), but Jesus positions himself as the true vine, fulfilling and surpassing Israel's role. The chapter emphasizes mutual love among disciples as a new commandment, the coming advocacy of the Holy Spirit, and inevitable hatred from the world, preparing believers for persecution after Jesus' departure. It underscores themes of election, fruitfulness, and separation from those who reject Christ.
"I am the and my Father is the
He every branch in me that doesn't produce and he every branch that does produce so it will produce even more.
You are already because of the I've spoken to you.
to me, and I will to you. A branch can't produce fruit by itself — it has to to the vine. Same with you — you can't produce fruit unless you to me.
"I am the grapevine; you are the Whoever stays connected to me — and I to them — produces an of fruit. But separated from me, you can't do anything."
Anyone who doesn't stay connected to me gets out like a dead branch and dries up. People gather those branches, toss them into the fire, and they burn.
If you connected to me and my words in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will happen for you.
This is how my Father's is — when you produce an abundance of fruit. And this is how you show you're my
"Just as the Father has me, I have you the same way. Stay in my love."
If you do what I you will stay in my love — just like I've done what my Father says and I stay in his love.
"I've told you all this so that my will be in you and your will be
"This is what I'm telling you to do: each other the same way I have loved you."
No one has greater than this — to down for the you
You are the people I love — if you do what I'm telling you to do.
I'm not calling you anymore, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. Instead, I've called you because everything I've heard from my Father, I've made known to you.
You didn't choose me — I chose you. And I you to go out and produce — fruit that — so that whatever you ask the Father using my name, he will give it to you.
"This is what I'm telling you to do: Love each other."
"If the hates you, just remember — it hated me before it hated you."
If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. But I you out of the world — that's why it hates you. You don't belong to it anymore.
Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not above his master.' If they me, they'll go you too. If they took what I said seriously, they'll take what you say seriously too.
But they'll do all of this to you because of me — because they don't know the who me.
If I hadn't come and spoken to them, they wouldn't be guilty of But now they have no excuse for their
Whoever hates me hates my Father too.
If I hadn't among them that has they wouldn't be guilty of failure. But now they've seen these — and they still hate both me and my Father.
But this happened so that what's written in their own would come true: 'They hated me for no reason.'
"When the comes — the one I will send to you from the Father — the of who comes from the Father — he will the me."
And you are going to the me too, because you have been with me from the very