(Isaiah 27:1–13)

¹ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.

² He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

⁴ Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.

⁵ I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

⁶ If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered 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, proving yourselves to be My disciples.

No Greater Love

⁹ As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love.

¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

¹¹ I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.

¹⁶ You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.

¹⁷ This is My command to you: Love one another.

The Hatred of the World

¹⁸ If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.

¹⁹ If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

²⁰ Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’¹ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.

1. John 13:16

²¹ But they will treat you like this because of My name, since 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. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

²³ Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.

²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.

²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’¹

1. See Psalm 35:19, Psalm 38:19, and Psalm 69:4.

²⁶ When the Advocate¹ comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.

1. Or Comforter or Helper or Counselor; Greek Paraclete

²⁷ And you also must testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.