τηρεῖν

ἐάν τὰς ἐντολάς μου τηρήσητε, μενεῖτε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῇ μου, καθὼς έγὼ τάς ἐντολάς τοῦ πατρός μου τετήρηκα καὶ μένω αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:10

ean tas entolas mou teresete, meneite en te agape mou, kathos ego tas entolas tou patros mou tetereka kai meno autou en te agape. — kata Ioannen 15:10

If you observe my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of my Father and remain in His love. — John 15:10, translation mine

Attention is hard to come by in this present age. Notice or notoriety are easily enough acquired, but attention, as in attention span and attention to detail, is in short supply. We know we are missing something, else we would not have deemed the deficit of attention a disorder. Yet despite this and other passing acknowledgments, our inclination to impatience drives us to praise those who respond off the cuff as quick-witted and those who are slow to speak as slow of mind.

Jesus, though master of the turn of phrase, did not invest in easily digested and just as easily discarded sound bytes, but rather made the audacious claim, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35, ESV). If this be true, it would stand to reason that one would want to pay close attention to or, as the word's Latin roots suggest, hold onto Jesus' words.

Christ's admonition to observe His commandments, the words He spoke to His disciples, deserves the same consideration. This emphasis on the observation of the Father's commandments given through Christ is mirrored in Matthew's gospel where Jesus tells His disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a, ESV). Both evangelists combine forms of the Greek verb τηρέω (tereo, “I observe, I watch, I keep, I guard”) and forms and derivations of the Greek verb ἐντέλλομαι (entellomai, “I command, I enjoin”) to convey Jesus' words concerning the observation of commandments.

The word observe comes from the Latin servare, which also means to watch or guard and which is used to translate the forms of τηρέω in both verses for the Latin Vulgate. Observation, when properly done, is a time-consuming and painstaking task. Scientific observation is a studied watch of phenomena in consideration. The object is kept under close scrutiny and extensive time must be devoted to its study in order to support any conclusions arising therefrom. Just as one hour of perfunctory research into a phenomenon cannot confirm a hypothesis, a cursory glance at a smattering of Scripture cannot provide the basis for a firm foundation in Christ. The observation of the Father's commandments through Christ is a life's work and the proof of remaining in Him and His love.

This is not to say that our works will save us — far from it! For if we were righteous on our own account, there would have been no need for Christ. Salvation comes from God, and that through His grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV). Whatever good works we may bear in Christ are the fruit, not the seed: not the stimulus, but the response.

The word translated as “commandments” should serve as a reminder of this. Ἐντολάς, derived from the verb ἐντέλλομαι, “I command”, is at its root based on the verb τέλλω (tello), or “I make to arise”, and more generally, “I accomplish, I cause to be done.” With the prefixture of the preposition ἐν (en), that is, “in, on, by means of,” the verb ἐντέλλομαι takes on the character of something akin to “I accomplish in or upon.” With the commandment remaining the accusative direct object to be accomplished, Christ's disciples, as the dative indirect objects of the charge in Matthew's gospel, become the instruments by which God achieves His purposes. This should come as no surprise, “for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).

The Father reveals His will through Christ and the Word and makes that which He has commanded to arise in us and come to fruition, stirring us to action according to His good counsel. We must therefore remain in His Word to know what He commands and remain in His love to know how to love. Christ is right when He says that we can do nothing without Him (John 15:5), we with our all-too-short attention spans and affectation to detail. Yet we have hope in the everlasting Word of Him who goes before us, for though we be incomplete in love — in short, fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) — in Christ we are complete, and in His word we are completed.