Dual PanelJesus Is Like a Vine
1{Jesus said,} “I am the true vine; my Father is the gardener.
2He cuts off every branch
3You are already clean because of the teaching I have told you.
4Continue in me and I will continue in you. No branch can make fruit alone. It must continue in the vine. It is the same with you. You cannot make fruit alone. You must continue in me.
5“I am the vine and you are the branches. If a person continues in me and I continue in that person, then that person will make much fruit. But without me that person can do nothing.
6If a person does not continue in me, then he is like a branch that is thrown away. That branch dies. People pick up dead branches, throw them into the fire, and burn them.
7“Continue in me and follow my teachings. If you do this, then you can ask for anything you want, and it will be given to you.
8You should make much fruit and show that you are my followers. This brings glory to my Father.
9I loved you like the Father loved me. Now continue in my love.
10I have obeyed my Father’s commands, and I continue in his love. In the same way, if you obey my commands, you will continue in my love.
11I have told you these things so that you can have the true happiness that I have. I want you to be completely happy.
12This is what I command you: Love each other like I have loved you.
13The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends.
14You are my friends if you do the things I tell you to do.
15I don’t call you servants now. A servant does not know what his master is doing. But now I call you friends because I have told you everything I heard from my Father.
16You did not choose me; I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and make fruit. I want this fruit to continue {in your life} . Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name.
17This is my command: Love each other.
Jesus Warns His Followers
18“If the world hates you, remember that the world hated me first.
19If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you like it loves its own people. But I have chosen you out of the world. So you don’t belong to the world. That is why the world hates you.
20Remember the lesson I told you: A servant is not greater than his master. If people did wrong to me, then they will do wrong to you too. And if people obeyed my teaching, then they will obey yours too.
21People will do all this to you because of me. They don’t know the One who sent me.
22If I had not come and spoken to the people of the world, then they would not be guilty of sin. But now I have spoken to them. So they have no excuse for their sin.
23Any person that hates me also hates my Father.
24I did things among those people that no other person has ever done. If I had not done those things, they would not be guilty of sin. But they have seen those things I did. And still they hate me and my Father.
25But this happened so that what is written in their law would be true: ‘They hated me for no reason.’
26“I will send you the Helper
27And you will tell people about me too, because you have been with me from the beginning.