For small groups · 10 questions
John 15 Bible study questions
On his last night, Jesus says he is the vine and his followers are the branches. He calls them friends and warns that the world will hate them.
Read the chapter aloud first. Then take the questions in order: what it says, what it means, what to do. About 45 minutes. Skip any question that doesn’t fit your group.
Start here
- Who is a friend who has stuck with you for a long time?
Look: what does it say?
- Who is the vine, who is the gardener, and who are the branches?John 15:1-5
- What does the gardener do to branches that bear fruit, and to those that don’t?John 15:2
- What does Jesus call his followers, and why?John 15:13-15
Understand: what does it mean?
- What does it mean to remain in Jesus in everyday life?John 15:4-7
- Pruning cuts things away. What might that look like in a person’s life?John 15:2
- Jesus says, “It was not you who chose me; I chose you.” Why does that matter?John 15:16
Live it: what will we do?
- What fruit would you like to see in your life this year?John 15:8
- What habit helps you stay close to Jesus? What pulls you away?John 15:4-5
- Jesus says the greatest love is laying down your life for friends. What could that look like this week, on a small scale?John 15:12-13
Close in prayer
Thank Jesus for calling you friends, and ask him to keep you close.
John 15
Lumin Translation. It prints after the questions, so the group has the words in front of them.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the one who tends it.
2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit, and he prunes each one that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.
3 The word I have spoken to you has already made you clean.
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch is not able to bear fruit on its own unless it remains in the vine, and in the same way you cannot unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me, with me in him—that is the one who bears much fruit, since without me you are able to do nothing.
6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown out like a branch and dries up. People gather such branches and throw them into the fire, and they burn.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will happen for you.
8 This is how my Father is glorified: when you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
9 Just as the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I, having kept my Father’s commandments, remain in his love.
11 I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be made full.
12 This is my commandment: you are to love one another just as I loved you.
13 No one’s love is greater than this: that a person lay down his life on behalf of his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 I do not call you servants anymore, since a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have let you know everything I heard from my Father.
16 It was not you who chose me; I chose you, and I appointed you so that you would go and bear fruit and your fruit would remain, and so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
17 This is what I command you: love one another.
18 If the world hates you, be aware that it has hated me first, before hating you.
19 If you were from the world, the world would love what is its own. But you are not from the world—I chose you out of it—and for this reason the world hates you.
20 Keep in mind what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.
21 But all this they will do to you because of my name, since the one who sent me is unknown to them.
22 Had I not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But as it is, they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.
24 Had I not done among them works that no one else has done, they would have no sin. But now they have seen, and they have hated me and my Father alike.
25 But this happened so that the word written in their law might be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without cause.’
26 When the Advocate comes—the one I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes out from the Father—he will give testimony about me.
27 And you also give testimony, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.