John from The Message Bible with an opportunity to comment on each chapter

John 15:1  "I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer.

John 15:2  He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more.

John 15:3  You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.

John 15:4  "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

John 15:5  "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing.

John 15:6  Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.

John 15:7  But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.

John 15:8  This is how my Father shows who he is--when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

John 15:9  "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.

John 15:10  If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done--kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.

John 15:11  "I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.

John 15:12  This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you.

John 15:13  This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.

John 15:14  You are my friends when you do the things I command you.

John 15:15  I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.

John 15:16  "You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.

John 15:17  "But remember the root command: Love one another.

John 15:18  "If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me.

John 15:19  If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms and no longer on the world's terms, the world is going to hate you.

John 15:20  "When that happens, remember this: Servants don't get better treatment than their masters. If they beat on me, they will certainly beat on you. If they did what I told them, they will do what you tell them.

John 15:21  "They are going to do all these things to you because of the way they treated me, because they don't know the One who sent me.

John 15:22  If I hadn't come and told them all this in plain language, it wouldn't be so bad. As it is, they have no excuse.

John 15:23  Hate me, hate my Father--it's all the same.

John 15:24  If I hadn't done what I have done among them, works no one has ever done, they wouldn't be to blame. But they saw the God-signs and hated anyway, both me and my Father.

John 15:25  Interesting--they have verified the truth of their own Scriptures where it is written, 'They hated me for no good reason.'

John 15:26  "When the Friend I plan to send you from the Father comes--the Spirit of Truth issuing from the Father--he will confirm everything about me.

John 15:27  You, too, from your side must give your confirming evidence, since you are in this with me from the start.

The Message:
The Bible in Contemporary Language
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