July 11th, 2026

This Sunday’s title is the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. You probably knew that already. And with this year being the “A Series”, you also probably knew that the Gospel Reading is from the Gospel according to Matthew. The readings are slowly making their way through that account. But with last week’s reading being a jump from the tenth chapter of the account to the eleventh chapter, you are ready for the fact that this week’s reading jumps to the thirteenth chapter (13:1-9, 18-23). Part of this is the third of five sermons in the Gospel according to Matthew; that sermon is basically parables, and you may be familiar with the parable of the man who goes out to sow his seed. You may also be familiar with the Collect of the Day as well. God’s words do not glow in the dark (at least they do not USUALLY do that), but they are EXTTREMELY special words. And they do some very amazing things.

The plan is for this website to focus on the Word of God. With the writings of this website, we have currently been going through the Gospel according to John, a significantly different Gospel account when compared to the other three, but also one with a lot of good news. We are much farther along in that account, getting closer to Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane. And we are taking a little bit of that account at a time, in the order in which it has been laid out, and we are not skipping any parts. And we are currently looking at the part of that account where Jesus essentially talks for an EXTREMELY long time.

It should be mentioned that we are going through that Gospel account with a unique translation called an EXTREMELY literal translation. If you are familiar with this style of translation, then you may wish to skip the next two paragraphs.

The first significant thing to mention regarding the description of this type of translation is that the chapter and verse numbers will not be included within the text itself. Both numbers were added quite later after the text was written, and they are certainly useful when someone is searching for a particular text, but the structure they imply is not always helpful. This pair of numerical designations tends to focus the reader on the very beginning of the text, where the writer started, and that is usually not be the most important thing that the writer wants to get across to the reader. His action of writing the document is definitely not the most important thing. The biblical writers basically wanted the readers to focus on God and not on themselves. And the words are much more important than the numbers, and often those words lead the reader near the middle and/or the end of the text in some way, to give to the reader some structure to all the words being read.

It should also be noted that the words with hyphens occur when more than one English word is used to describe a single word of the ancient Greek. And some of the words chosen below are meant to point out the close connection that often occurs between the English and Greek languages. (This can help to make the Greek language a bit easier to learn; and this time you get to experience the different types of love!) It is also important to mention that the order of the words below is also the same order that is in the ancient Greek. This may help to show the important words, especially when another word besides the verb is first in the sentence or phrase. Sometimes this emphasis will be shown with a “(!)”. The exception to this translation order is that there are just a small number of words (like “therefore”, “now”) that are usually second in a sentence that are meant to be first when translated. And although it should be obvious, it should be said that repetition of words should be noted as another type of emphasis. One more thing to mention, although it does not happen in the text below, is that the verbs in capital letters are called HISTORICAL PRESENTS.  An historical present is when a verb in a past tense is expected, but a verb in the present tense is given. More detail regarding the historical present has been explained elsewhere in these writings, and it may be helpful to read some of the other writings of this website. With all of the above things to consider, it will probably be helpful to have another translation or a study bible nearby as you read the text below.

What follows is an EXTREMELY literal translation of the first part of the what has been called the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John (15:1-17); Jesus is continuing to talk. And he talks A LOT. He talked about the other “Paraclete” in the last section, and he will not bring that up again in this section. You may look ahead if you wish (15:26-27; 16:7-11; that is one nice thing about chapter and verse designations; those sentences are easy to find, based on that information). Or you may choose to wait and enjoy just the following section of scripture of Jesus’ words:

“I,  I-am  the  vine,  the  true-one;  and  the  Pater  of-me,  the  land-worker  he-is.  Every  branch  in  me  not  bearing  fruit,  he-takes  it;  and  every-one  the  fruit  bearing,  he-cleanses  it,  in-order-that  fruit,  more,  it-may-bear.  Already  you(!),  clean,  you-are,  on-account-of  the  word  which  I-have-spoken  to-you.  Remain  in  me,  and-I  in  you,  just-as  the  branch,  not  is-able,  fruit  to-bear  from  itself,  if  not  it-remains  in  the  vine,  thus  not-also  you,  if  not  in  me  you-remain.”

“I,  I-am  the  vine;  you,  the  branches.  The-one  remaining  in  me  and-I  in  him,  this-one  bears  fruit,  much;  because  without  me,  not  you-are-able  to-do  nothing.  If  not  anyone  remains  in  me,  he-was-thrown  out  as  the  branch,  and  he-was-dried-out,  and  they-synagogue  them,  and  into  the  fire  they-throw,  and  it-is-burned.  If  you-remain  in  me  and  the  words  of-me,  in  you  it-remains,  the  whatever  you-want,  ask,  and  it-will-happen  to-you.  In  this  he-was-glorified,  the  Pater  of-me,  in-order-that  fruit,  much  you-bear,  and  you-would-become  to-me  disciples.”
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“Just-as  he-agape-ed  me,  the  Pater,  I-also  you(!)  I-agape-ed;  remain  in  the  agape,  the  my.  If  the  commands  of-me  you-watch,  you-will-remain  in  the  agape  of-me,  just-as  I,  the  commands  of-the  Pater  of-me  I-have-watched,  and  I-remain  of-him  in  the  agape.  These-things  I-have-spoken  to-you  in-order-that  the  joy,  the  my,  in  you  it-may-be,  and  the  joy  of-you  it-may-be-filled.” 
“This  is  the  command,  the  my,  in-order-that  you-agape  one-another,  just-as  I-agape-ed  you.  Greater  than-this  agape,  no-one  has,  that  anyone  the  psyche  of-him  he-should-place  on-behalf-of  the-brotherly-loved-ones  of-him.  You,  brotherly-loved-ones  of-me  you-are,  if  you-do  what  I,  I-command  you.  No-longer  I-say  to-you  “slaves”,  because  the  slave  not  he-knows  what  he-is-doing  of-him,  the  lord;  now  you  I-have-called  “brotherly-loved-ones”,  because  all-things  which  I-heard  back-from  the  Pater  of-me,  I-have-made-known  to-you.  Not  you,  me,  you-chose-out,  but-on-the-contrary,  I,  I-chose-out  you,  and  I-placed  you,  in-order-that  you,  you-should-go-out  and  fruit  you-should-bear,  and  the  fruit  of-you  it-should-remain,  in-order-that  the  what  ever  you-may-ask  the  Pater  in  the  name  of-me,  he-may-give  to-you.  These-things  I-command  to-you,  that  you-agape  one-another.”