1Jesus told his followers a picture story about a plant that grapes grow on. It is called a grape vine.
Jesus said, “I am like a good grape vine, growing in a garden. And God, my father, is like the gardener.
2And people are like the branches of that grape vine. There are some people that don’t live God’s way. They are like branches on the vine that don’t grow any fruit. They are no good, so the gardener cuts them off. But some people do live God’s way. They are like branches on the vine that do grow fruit. My father keeps on working on those people, to get them to live God’s way even better. He is like the gardener that cleans up the good branches and trims them back a little bit, so that they will grow more fruit.
3You are like those good branches. You believed my words, so you are already clean.
4And, you know, a branch has to stay joined to the main trunk of the vine, so it can grow fruit. A broken branch lying on the ground can’t grow any fruit. The trunk and the branch have to stay joined together. Well, just like that, you have to stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. If you don’t stay joined to me, you can’t live God’s way.
5So I tell you, I am like the main trunk of the grape vine, and you are like the branches. If you stay joined to me, I will stay joined to you, and you will keep on doing what God wants you to do. You see, if any branches don’t stay joined to the trunk of the vine, they can’t grow any fruit. Just like that, if you are not joined to me, you can’t do anything for God.
6Some people might not stay joined to me. They will be like branches that the gardener cuts off and throws away. They lie on the ground and dry up, and later on, he will pick them up and throw them into a fire, and it will burn them up.
7But, if you stay joined to me, and keep on doing what I taught you, you can ask me for anything, and I will do it.
8And when you live God’s way, other people will see the good things that you do, and they will know that you are my followers, so they will respect my father. You will be like a branch that grows a lot of fruit.
9I loved you just as much as my father loves me. So listen, you have to stay joined to me, and I will keep on loving you.
10I always do what my father wants me to do, and he keeps on loving me. In the same way, if you keep on doing what I told you to do, I will keep on loving you.
11I told you all these things now, so that you can be properly happy. Yes, you can be as happy as me.
12Yes, and I am telling you this, you have to love each other, just like I loved you.
21You are my followers, that’s the reason why some people will make trouble for you. You see, they don’t know God. He is the one that sent me here.
22I came and talked to them, but they didn’t listen to me. So they are going against God, and he will say they are guilty. And they can’t argue with him. They can’t say they didn’t hear my message.
23You see, if anyone hates me, they hate my father too.
24And that mob saw me do powerful things, but they took no notice of me, so they are guilty of going against God. I did those powerful things that nobody else ever did, and they saw what I did, but they still hate me, and they hate my father too. So they are really guilty.
25A long time ago, God told one of his men to write about this, and they have it in God’s book. He wrote,
‘I didn’t do anything bad to them, but they hated me anyway.’
And that mob are doing that to me now.
26Listen, I am going back to my father, and then I will send you a helper. He is the Holy Spirit. He will come to you from the father, and everything he says is always true. He will tell you all about me.
27And you mob will talk about me too. You were with me from the time I started teaching, so you have to tell everyone about me.”
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