15 I am the real fruit tree. My Father is the One who takes care of the tree.

² He takes away from me every branch that does not bear fruit. And he cleans every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.

³ What I said to you has made you clean already.

⁴ But you must be in me and I will be in you. The branch cannot bear fruit by itself. It must be joined to the tree. And you cannot do any good thing if you are not joined to me.

⁵ I am the fruit tree and you are the branches. I will be in the person who is in me. That person will have a fruitful life. But you can do nothing without me.

⁶ If any person is not in me, he is cut off like a branch and dies. People gather the dry branches and throw them into the fire to be burned.

⁷ If you are in me and obey me, you may ask me for anything you want and I will give it to you.

⁸ If you do much good and become my disciples, you will make my Father's name great.

⁹ `I have loved you just as my Father has loved you. So let me love you always.

¹⁰ If you obey me, I will love you always. That is what I have done. I have obeyed my Father. And he will love me always.

¹¹ `I have told you these things so that you may be glad in the same way I am glad. Then you will be very glad always.

¹² `I am telling you to love each other as I have loved you.

¹³ The strongest love anyone can have is this. He will die to save his friends.

¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I tell you to do.

¹⁵ I do not call you servants anymore, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends because you know everything that my Father has told me.

¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you. I gave you a big work to do. That work is to go out and do good things and to make the good things that you do remain strong. If you do that, my Father will do anything you ask in my name.

¹⁷ `Here is the law I gave you. Love each other.'

¹⁸ `If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before it hated you.

¹⁹ If you belonged to this world, the world would love you. But you do not belong to the world. I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

²⁰ Remember what I told you. I said, "The servant is not better than his master." If the people in the world have troubled me, they will also trouble you. If they obey me, they will also obey you.

²¹ They will do all these things to you because you are true to me. They do not know the one who sent me.

²² `I came and spoke to them. If I had not done that, then what they did would not have been a wrong thing. But now they have no excuse for doing it.

²³ The person who hates me hates my Father also.

²⁴ No other person has ever done the work that I have done. If they had, then what they did would not be a wrong thing. But now they have seen me and hated me and my Father also.

²⁵ This has happened in order to make the words of their law book come true. It says, "They hated me for no reason."

²⁶ `I will send the true Spirit to comfort you. He will come from my Father. When he comes, then he will talk about me.

²⁷ You also will talk about me because you have been with me from the time I began my work.'