The Gospel According to John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 27 of 37 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
15:4-15:27
[15:4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me.
[15:5] I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.
[15:6] If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
[15:7] If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
[15:8] Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.
[15:9] Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love.
[15:10] If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
[15:11] These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
[15:12] This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.
[15:13] Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[15:14] Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
[15:15] No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.
[15:16] Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
[15:17] These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
[15:18] If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you.
[15:19] If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
[15:20] Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
[15:21] But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
[15:22] If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.
[15:23] He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
[15:24] If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
[15:25] But this cometh to pass, that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
[15:26] But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me:
[15:27] and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.
The passage repeatedly frames devotion and love as the soteriological path itself—'abide ye in my love,' 'love one another even as I have loved you'—making loving devotion the means of remaining in divine relationship.
A binding agreement or relationship between the divine and a people or individual, establishing mutual obligations.
The passage establishes a binding relationship of mutual obligations: God chooses and loves, the disciples keep commandments, love one another, and bear fruit that abides.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
The divine is present inside the individual believer through mutual indwelling, accessible without external mediation—'if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will.'
Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love.
'This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you' and 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends' make active compassionate care for others a central obligation.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
The entire passage centers on mutual indwelling—'Abide in me, and I in you'—as the defining relationship between the divine and the believer, making union the central theme.
Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.
'Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you' and 'whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you' present direct petitionary address to the divine as a central practice.
The phenomenon where spiritual messengers or healers are rejected by their own community due to familiarity or lack of awe.
'If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you' and 'they hated me without a cause' explicitly describe the phenomenon of spiritual messengers being rejected by their own community.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The withered branch 'cast forth' that is 'gathered and cast into the fire' vividly depicts the felt condition of exile from one's divine origin as the negative pole of abiding.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Comforter/Spirit are all named and functionally distinct yet in relationship, reflecting a three-aspected divine structure without explicit Trinitarian formula.