¶ I am the true vine, and my father is an husbandman. Every branch that beareth not fruit in me, He will take away. And every branch that beareth fruit will he purge that it may bring more fruit. Now are ye clean, be that means of the words which I have spoken unto you. Bide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it bide in the vine: no more can ye except ye abide in me.
¶ I am the vine, and ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me can ye do nothing. If a man bide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered: and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they burneth. If ye bide in me, and my words also bide in you: ask what ye will, and it shall be given you. Here in is my father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and be made my disciples.
¶ As the father hath loved me, even so have I loved you. Continue in my love. If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall bide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments, and bide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love together as I have loved you. Greater love than this hath no man, than that a man bestow his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth call I you not servants: For the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. But you have I called friends: For all things that I have heard of my father, I have opened to you.
¶ Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye go, and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of my father in my name he should give it you.
¶ This command I you, that ye love together. If the world hate you, ye know that he hated me before he hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore hateth you the world. Remember the saying, that I said unto you: the servant is not greater than the lord. If they have persecuted me, so will they persecute you. If they have kept my saying, so will they keep yours.
¶ But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they have not known him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they should have no sin: but now have they nothing to cloak their sin withall. He that hateth me, hateth my father. If I had not done works among them which none other man did, they should be without sin. But now have they seen, and yet have hated both me and my father: Even that the saying might be fulfilled that is written in their law: they hated me without a cause. But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the father, which is the spirit of verity, which proceedeth of the father, he shall testify of me. And ye shall bear witness also, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
© Faith of God
William Tyndale 1526