φίλοι

ὐμεῖς φίλοι μού ἐστε ἐὰν ποιῆτε ἃ ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαι ὑμῖν. — κατὰ Ἰωάννην 15:14

hymeis filoi mou este ean poiete ha ego entellomai hymin. — kata Ioannen 15:14

You are my friends if you do the things I command you. — John 15:14, translation mine

Learning by rote has received much in the way of bad press as of late. The relentless and often haphazard pursuit of progress that typifies our current American culture dictates that teachers avail themselves of more recent and thus ipso facto more effective strategies. While educational innovation can be a worthy goal, the careless discarding of proven methods for the sake of novelty ultimately does didactics a disservice.

Repetition is a natural linguistic expression of emphasis. In Ancient Greek, reduplication of the initial phoneme of a verb serves a grammatical function in that it indicates the perfect aspect. In English, we will often reduplicate words to emphasize the quality or quantity of that which we are describing, e.g., “He's a Christian, I mean a CHRISTIAN-Christian” (source: Corpus of English contrastive focus reduplications, assembled by Jila Ghomeshi, Ray Jackendoff, Nicole Rosen, and Kevin Russell). Christ Himself frequently reduplicated the word “Amen” when pointing out something that He wanted listeners to focus on, saying “Amen, Amen, I say unto you.” Jesus is recorded as having used this construction twenty-five times across all the Gospels, three times in the thirteenth chapter of John's gospel alone (John 13:16,20,21).

Repetition and reduplication for emphasis are not limited to phonemes and words but extend also to discourses and concepts. Parents repeat admonitions to their children ad infinitum so that what is said will sink in. Anyone who has read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy can attest to the repetition of particular laws, especially in Deuteronomy, which is, as its name suggests, the second recitation of the law.

It should come as no surprise then to see Christ repeat many of His teachings. The exhortation to keep His commandments, which are the Father's commandments, falls into this category. Within two chapters of John's gospel, the exhortation is repeated five times:

• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15, ESV)
• “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21, ESV)
• “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.” (John 14:23b-24, ESV)
• “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)
• “You are my friends if you do the things I command you.” (John 15:14, translation mine)

Keeping God's commandments is indicative of our love for Him, His love in us, and our friendship with Him. The word which is translated as “friends” in John 15:14 is φίλοι, literally those who are held dear, sometimes used in Ancient Greek to describe not only friends but kinsmen, as well.

No one would call a man his friend if he were habitually abandoned by that man. We go to great lengths to maintain friendships with those around us, often fulfilling the requests of friends for the sake of those friendships. Why should we treat Christ any differently? If we claim friendship with Christ, let us live like true friends, and not only as friends but as servants of the one true God in obedience. For the things Christ commands are not mere inclinations but mandatory instructions from the Father to us for our good and the Father's glory.

As the apostle James admonishes, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:22b-25, ESV).

Do not be like Judas, who spurned Christ's friendship and betrayed himself to sin and death. Rather, let us follow the example of the apostle John, who stayed at the cross after all the other apostles deserted Jesus and who, at Christ's behest, received His mother Mary into his home (John 19:26-27). We should likewise receive and respond to that which Christ entrusts to each of us, namely His Word, the message of His salvation. As Jesus said to those who were following Him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31, ESV). Though we be burdened with all manner of sin, if we repent from that sin and accept Christ's sacrificial gift and daily seek His friendship through the reading and practice of His Word, He will free us by the power of His Holy Spirit from the sin that holds us captive.