John 14-17

Easy-to-Read Version

Jesus Comforts His Followers

14 Jesus said, “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me. ² There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³ After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back. Then I will take you with me, so that you can be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵ Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me. ⁷ If you really knew me, you would know my Father too. But now you know the Father. You have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”

⁹ Jesus answered, “Philip, I have been with you for a long time. So you should know me. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father too. So why do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The things I have told you don’t come from me. The Father lives in me, and he is doing his own work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or believe because of the miracles I have done.

¹² “I can assure you that whoever believes in me will do the same things I have done. And they will do even greater things than I have done, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And if you ask for anything in my name, I will do it for you. Then the Father’s glory will be shown through the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will do what I command. ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper^[a] to be with you forever. ¹⁷ The Helper is the Spirit of truth.^[b] The people of the world cannot accept him, because they don’t see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you all alone like orphans. I will come back to you. ¹⁹ In a very short time the people in the world will not see me anymore. But you will see me. You will live because I live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in the Father. You will know that you are in me and I am in you. ²¹ Those who really love me are the ones who not only know my commands but also obey them. My Father will love such people, and I will love them. I will make myself known to them.”

²² Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “Lord, how will you make yourself known to us, but not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered, “All who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them. My Father and I will come to them and live with them. ²⁴ But anyone who does not love me does not obey my teaching. This teaching that you hear is not really mine. It is from my Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have told you all these things while I am with you. ²⁶ But the Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name.

²⁷ “I leave you peace. It is my own peace I give you. I give you peace in a different way than the world does. So don’t be troubled. Don’t be afraid. ²⁸ You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going back to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ²⁹ I have told you this now, before it happens. Then when it happens, you will believe.

³⁰ “I will not talk with you much longer. The ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me. ³¹ But the world must know that I love the Father. So I do exactly what the Father told me to do.

“Come now, let’s go.”

Jesus Is Like a Vine

15 Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch^[c] of mine that does not produce fruit.^[d] He also trims every branch that produces fruit to prepare it to produce even more. ³ You have already been prepared to produce more fruit by the teaching I have given you. ⁴ Stay joined to me and I will stay joined to you. No branch can produce fruit alone. It must stay connected to the vine. It is the same with you. You cannot produce fruit alone. You must stay joined to me.

⁵ “I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I to you, you will produce plenty of fruit. But separated from me you won’t be able to do anything. ⁶ If you don’t stay joined to me, you will be like a branch that has been thrown out and has dried up. All the dead branches like that are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ Stay joined together with me, and follow my teachings. If you do this, you can ask for anything you want, and it will be given to you. ⁸ Show that you are my followers by producing much fruit. This will bring honor^[e] to my Father.

⁹ “I have loved you as the Father has loved me. Now continue in my love. ¹⁰ I have obeyed my Father’s commands, and he continues to love me. In the same way, if you obey my commands, I will continue to love you. ¹¹ I have told you these things so that you can have the true happiness that I have. I want you to be completely happy. ¹² This is what I command you: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ The greatest love people can show is to die for their friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I tell you to do. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. But now I call you friends, because I have told you everything that my Father told me.

¹⁶ “You did not choose me. I chose you. And I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Jesus Warns His Followers

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, remember that they hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as it loves its own people. But I have chosen you to be different from those in the world. So you don’t belong to the world, and that is why the world hates you.

²⁰ “Remember the lesson I told you: Servants are not greater than their master. If people treated me badly, they will treat you badly too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. ²¹ They will do to you whatever they did to me, because you belong to me. They don’t know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to the people of the world, they would not be guilty of sin. But now I have spoken to them. So they have no excuse for their sin.

²³ “Whoever hates me also hates my Father. ²⁴ I did things among the people of the world that no one else has ever done. If I had not done those things, they would not be guilty of sin. But they have seen what I did, and still they hate me and my Father. ²⁵ But this happened to make clear the full meaning of what is written in their law: ‘They hated me for no reason.’^[f]

²⁶ “I will send you the Helper^[g] from the Father. The Helper is the Spirit of truth^[h] who comes from the Father. When he comes, he will tell about me. ²⁷ And you will tell people about me too, because you have been with me from the beginning.

16 “I have told you all this so that you won’t lose your faith when you face troubles. ² People will tell you to leave their synagogues and never come back. In fact, the time will come when they will think that killing you would be doing service for God. ³ They will do this because they have not known the Father, and they have not known me. ⁴ I have told you all this now to prepare you. So when the time comes for these things to happen, you will remember that I warned you.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

“I did not tell you these things at the beginning, because I was with you then. ⁵ Now I am going back to the one who sent me. And none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ But you are filled with sadness because I have told you all this. ⁷ Let me assure you, it is better for you that I go away. I say this because when I go away I will send the Helper to you. But if I did not go, the Helper would not come.

⁸ “When the Helper comes, he will show the people of the world how wrong they are about sin, about being right with God, and about judgment. ⁹ He will prove that they are guilty of sin, because they don’t believe in me. ¹⁰ He will show them how wrong they are about how to be right with God. The Helper will do this, because I am going to the Father. You will not see me then. ¹¹ And he will show them how wrong their judgment is, because their leader^[i] has already been condemned.

¹² “I have so much more to tell you, but it is too much for you to accept now. ¹³ But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth. He will not speak his own words. He will speak only what he hears and will tell you what will happen in the future. ¹⁴ The Spirit of truth will bring glory to me by telling you what he receives from me. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will tell you what he receives from me.

Sadness Will Turn Into Happiness

¹⁶ “After a short time you won’t see me. Then after another short time you will see me again.”

¹⁷ Some of the followers said to each other, “What does he mean when he says, ‘After a short time you won’t see me. Then after another short time you will see me again’? And what does he mean when he says, ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They also asked, “What does he mean by ‘a short time’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus saw that the followers wanted to ask him about this. So he said to them, “Are you asking each other what I meant when I said, ‘After a short time you won’t see me. Then after another short time you will see me again’? ²⁰ The truth is, you will cry and be sad, but the world will be happy. You will be sad, but then your sadness will change to happiness.

²¹ “When a woman gives birth to a baby, she has pain, because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the pain. She forgets because she is so happy that a child has been born into the world. ²² It is the same with you. Now you are sad, but I will see you again, and you will be happy. You will have a joy that no one can take away. ²³ In that day you will not have to ask me about anything. And I assure you, my Father will give you anything you ask him for in my name. ²⁴ You have never asked for anything in this way before. But ask in my name, and you will receive. And you will have the fullest joy possible.

Victory Over the World

²⁵ “I have told you these things, using words that hide the meaning. But the time will come when I will not use words like that to tell you things. I will speak to you in plain words about the Father. ²⁶ Then you will be able to ask the Father for things in my name. I’m not saying that I will have to ask the Father for you. ²⁷ The Father himself loves you because you have loved me. And he loves you because you have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹ Then his followers said, “You are already speaking plainly to us. You are not using words that hide the meaning. ³⁰ We can see now that you know all things. You answer our questions even before we ask them. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹ Jesus said, “So now you believe? ³² Listen to me. A time is coming when you will be scattered, each to his own home. In fact, that time is already here. You will leave me, and I will be alone. But I am never really alone, because the Father is with me.

³³ “I have told you these things so that you can have peace in me. In this world you will have troubles. But be brave! I have defeated the world!”

Jesus Prays for Himself and His Followers

17 After Jesus said these things, he looked toward heaven and prayed, “Father, the time has come. Give glory to your Son so that the Son can give glory to you. ² You gave the Son power over all people so that he could give eternal life to all those you have given to him. ³ And this is eternal life: that people can know you, the only true God, and that they can know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. ⁴ I finished the work you gave me to do. I brought you glory on earth. ⁵ And now, Father, give me glory with you. Give me the glory I had with you before the world was made.

⁶ “You gave me some people from the world. I have shown them what you are like. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your teaching. ⁷ Now they know that everything I have came from you. ⁸ I told them the words you gave me, and they accepted them. They realized the fact that I came from you and believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them now. I am not praying for the people in the world. But I am praying for these people you gave me, because they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And my glory is seen in them.

¹¹ “Now I am coming to you. I will not stay in the world, but these followers of mine are still in the world. Holy Father, keep them safe by the power of your name—the name you gave me. Then they will be one, just as you and I are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power of your name—the name you gave me. I protected them. And only one of them was lost—the one who was sure to be lost. This was to show the truth of what the Scriptures said would happen.

¹³ “I am coming to you now. But I pray these things while I am still in the world. I say all this so that these followers can have the true happiness that I have. I want them to be completely happy. ¹⁴ I have given them your teaching. And the world has hated them, because they don’t belong to the world, just as I don’t belong to the world.

¹⁵ “I am not asking you to take them out of the world. But I am asking that you keep them safe from the Evil One. ¹⁶ They don’t belong to the world, just as I don’t belong to the world. ¹⁷ Make them ready for your service through your truth. Your teaching is truth. ¹⁸ I have sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. ¹⁹ I am making myself completely ready to serve you. I do this for them, so that they also might be fully qualified for your service.

²⁰ “I pray not only for these followers but also for those who will believe in me because of their teaching. ²¹ Father, I pray that all who believe in me can be one. You are in me and I am in you. I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me. I gave them this glory so that they can be one, just as you and I are one. ²³ I will be in them, and you will be in me. So they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I want these people you have given me to be with me in every place I am. I want them to see my glory—the glory you gave me because you loved me before the world was made. ²⁵ Father, you are the one who always does what is right. The world does not know you, but I know you, and these followers of mine know that you sent me. ²⁶ I showed them what you are like, and I will show them again. Then they will have the same love that you have for me, and I will live in them.”