John 14-16

New International Version

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.^(A) You believe^(B) in God^[a];^(C) believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there^(D) to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back^(E) and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.^{(F) 4} You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

⁵ Thomas^(G) said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am^(H) the way^(I) and the truth^(J) and the life.^(K) No one comes to the Father except through me.^{(L) 7} If you really know me, you will know^[b] my Father as well.^(M) From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip^(N) said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.^(O) How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?^(P) The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.^(Q) Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.^{(R) 12} Very truly I tell you, whoever believes^(S) in me will do the works I have been doing,^(T) and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask^(U) in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands.^{(V) 16} And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate^(W) to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.^(X) The world cannot accept him,^(Y) because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[c] in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans;^(Z) I will come to you.^{(AA) 19} Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.^(AB) Because I live, you also will live.^{(AC) 20} On that day^(AD) you will realize that I am in my Father,^(AE) and you are in me, and I am in you.^{(AF) 21} Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.^(AG) The one who loves me will be loved by my Father,^(AH) and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

²² Then Judas^(AI) (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”^(AJ)

²³ Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.^(AK) My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.^{(AL) 24} Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.^(AM)

²⁵ “All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate,^(AN) the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,^(AO) will teach you all things^(AP) and will remind you of everything I have said to you.^{(AQ) 27} Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.^(AR) I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled^(AS) and do not be afraid.

²⁸ “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’^(AT) If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father,^(AU) for the Father is greater than I.^{(AV) 29} I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.^{(AW) 30} I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world^(AX) is coming. He has no hold over me, ³¹ but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.^(AY)

“Come now; let us leave.

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am^(AZ) the true vine,^(BA) and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,^(BB) while every branch that does bear fruit^(BC) he prunes^[d] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.^{(BD) 4} Remain in me, as I also remain in you.^(BE) No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;^(BF) apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.^{(BG) 7} If you remain in me^(BH) and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.^{(BI) 8} This is to my Father’s glory,^(BJ) that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.^(BK)

⁹ “As the Father has loved me,^(BL) so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands,^(BM) you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.^{(BN) 12} My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{(BO) 13} Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{(BP) 14} You are my friends^(BQ) if you do what I command.^{(BR) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{(BS) 16} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^(BT) so that you might go and bear fruit^(BU)—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.^{(BV) 17} This is my command: Love each other.^(BW)

The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸ “If the world hates you,^(BX) keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you^(BY) out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^{(BZ) 20} Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^[e](CA) If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.^(CB) If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name,^(CC) for they do not know the one who sent me.^{(CD) 22} If I had not come and spoken to them,^(CE) they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{(CF) 23} Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did,^(CG) they would not be guilty of sin.^(CH) As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law:^(CI) ‘They hated me without reason.’^[f](CJ)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶ “When the Advocate^(CK) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father^(CL)—the Spirit of truth^(CM) who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.^{(CN) 27} And you also must testify,^(CO) for you have been with me from the beginning.^(CP)

16 “All this^(CQ) I have told you so that you will not fall away.^{(CR) 2} They will put you out of the synagogue;^(CS) in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.^{(CT) 3} They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.^{(CU) 4} I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember^(CV) that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,^{(CW) 5} but now I am going to him who sent me.^(CX) None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’^{(CY) 6} Rather, you are filled with grief^(CZ) because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate^(DA) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.^{(DB) 8} When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin,^(DC) because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness,^(DD) because I am going to the Father,^(DE) where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world^(DF) now stands condemned.

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.^{(DG) 13} But when he, the Spirit of truth,^(DH) comes, he will guide you into all the truth.^(DI) He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine.^(DJ) That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

¹⁶ Jesus went on to say, “In a little while^(DK) you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”^(DL)

¹⁷ At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’^(DM) and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”^{(DN) 18} They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn^(DO) while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.^{(DP) 21} A woman giving birth to a child has pain^(DQ) because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief,^(DR) but I will see you again^(DS) and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.^{(DT) 23} In that day^(DU) you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.^{(DV) 24} Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive,^(DW) and your joy will be complete.^(DX)

²⁵ “Though I have been speaking figuratively,^(DY) a time is coming^(DZ) when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name.^(EA) I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me^(EB) and have believed that I came from God.^{(EC) 28} I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”^(ED)

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.^{(EE) 30} Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe^(EF) that you came from God.”^(EG)

³¹ “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming^(EH) and in fact has come when you will be scattered,^(EI) each to your own home. You will leave me all alone.^(EJ) Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.^(EK)

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.^(EL) In this world you will have trouble.^(EM) But take heart! I have overcome^(EN) the world.”