By guest writer I.F.
John 14:15 in the original Greek says:
The Greek verb téreó which is translated as ‘you will keep’ by the Bible Hub interlinear actually means to ‘watch over’ or ‘to guard’.
Strong’s Concordance
téreó: to watch over, to guard
Original Word: τηρέω
https://biblehub.com/greek/5083.htm
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: téreó
Phonetic Spelling: (tay-reh’-o)
Definition: to watch over, to guard
This verse does NOT mean that we should keep His commandments in the sense of performing them, because this implies that it is entirely possible for us to do His commandments in our strength. As a result of misunderstanding the essential meaning of this verb téreó, many in the church believe that all we need to do is to use the Word of God to consciously, through our own effort, conform our way of living to the way in which Jesus lived. But Jesus has made it clear to us that this method of living is not His Way, His Truth, or His Life and is entirely ineffective and is displeasing to God.
It was never God’s intention that we should ever try to do anything on our own. Jesus uses the analogy of our intended organic relationship between Him and us, the church:
I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.
(John 15:5-8 Berean Standard Bible)
Jesus is telling us that separated from Him we can do nothing. Our flesh and our souls are entirely powerless and incapable of changing our way of living and this change is truly ONLY effected in us when we allow Jesus to work through our spirits constantly:
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life
(John 6:63 NIV)
If we keep the existing and unchallenged version of John 14:15 then we encounter a serious problem when it comes to us fulfilling Jesus’ commandment to love one another:
This is My commandment, that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you.
(John 15:12 Amplified)
This is because it is entirely beyond our ability ‘to keep’ this commandment if God is not helping us!
But this should not be a surprise to us because the first and greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is equally impossible for us to do, unaided by God:
Jesus declared, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
(Matthew 22:37-38)
According to HELPS Word-studies the Greek words for love which are used in John 14:15, John 15:12 and Matthew 22:37-38 derive from the word agapaó which involves living through Christ and obeying His commandments through His power:
https://biblehub.com/greek/25.htm
If we attempt to keep Jesus’ commandments in our own strength, we will surely fail and we will become discouraged and the devil will condemn us for our failure in this regard. This is why God does not condemn us in Christ because we cannot be found guilty of actions that we are unable to commit in our own strength.
When scripture is interpreted the word choice needs to be in keeping with the entirety of what is being said – because we know that there is only one Author of all Scripture, Who is the Holy Spirit – that is why all Scripture is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Therefore, a true interpretation of scripture should never contradict itself. What Jesus is asking us to do in John 14:15 is to spiritually guard the Word of God and this is doable.
One way in which we, as individual believers, can spiritually guard the Word of God is to not merely accept the English translations of the bible, but instead that we go back to the original Greek and Hebrew texts. We can all do this because we all have access to the online Interlinear Bible. We can look at the meanings of the specific words themselves in the interlinear Bible and, then, prayerfully consider what the Holy Spirit is saying – because we have access to the Author of all of these texts, He is in constant communication with our spirits and He will reveal His spiritual truth to us if we ask Him to:
(Matthew 7:7-8 English Standard Version)
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
We need to keep His unadulterated word ever before us and to use it as our spirit level to compare it to the way in which we are practically living and loving, so that we can be aware of how much we are sinning (falling short of His ideal). We hold the unadulterated word of God before us like a mirror so that we can see our spiritual imperfections, so that we can know what we need to be asking God to correct in us. Jesus was emphatic about our need to ask God for whatever we had need of, because he repeatedly told His disciples to do this in the following four distinct occasions in John: John 11:2, John 14:13-14, John 15:7, John 15:16. When we realize that we are failing short, then we need to ask God to give us that which we are spiritually lacking, in the Name of Jesus, so that God the Father is able to spiritually prune us to enable us to bear much fruit for His glory.
And having asked God for what we need in the name of Jesus, then we need to do the hardest thing that we can do, which is to wait for God to do this for us, in His perfect time and in accordance with His perfect plan for our lives and the lives of those around us. We must NOT try to do this in our own strength, because:
With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
(Matthew 19:26 Berean Standard Bible).
In this regard, we are all in the sad state of the invalid, spoken of in John 5:7, who lacked the physical ability to enter into the pool to obtain the healing that he so desperately needed. Like him, we too need to wait for Jesus to arrive, at the appointed time, to heal us.
We must not allow the devil to condemn us for our failure in this regard while we are waiting for God to effect this change within us, regardless of how long this takes! We need to wait for God to do this in us in His time, so that we will eventually bear the spiritual likeness of Jesus Himself (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is our destiny because by believing in Jesus we have entered into the Family of God and we have the amazing privilege that even though we are adopted children, we too can share the likeness of our Father in heaven!