Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 15:14-17

"Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you. Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye may love one another." — John 15:14-17 (ASV)

1. Previously, our Lord urged us to love our neighbor based on His example. Here, Christ shows His disciples the benefit conferred on them, which obligates them to imitate Him: namely, that He has embraced them in His love.

First, He mentions a sign of friendship; second, the cause of this friendship: you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.

He gives two signs of friendship:

• One is found in the disciples.
• The other is in Himself: I will not now call you servants.

2. The sign that the disciples are friends of Christ is that they keep His commandments. He says, you are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. He is saying, in effect: until now I have urged you to love one another, but now I am speaking and teaching you about your friendship with Me.

The statement, you are my friends, can be understood in two ways, based on the two ways someone is called a friend. A person is called a friend either because he loves or because he is loved. What follows, if you do the things that I command you, is true for both meanings of "friend." Those who love God keep His commandments. Because a friend is, as Gregory says, in a way the guardian of the other’s soul, it is appropriate that one who guards or keeps the will of God in His commandments is called the friend of God. Again, those whom God loves keep His commandments, because by conferring His grace on them He helps them to keep them. For by loving us, God makes us love Him: I love those who love me (Proverbs 8:17). They did not first love God; rather, God makes them lovers by loving them.

3. Note that keeping the commandments is not the cause of divine friendship but its sign—a sign both that God loves us and that we love God: love of her is the keeping of her laws ; he who says he loves him and does not keep his commandments is a liar (1 John 2:4).

4. The sign of Christ’s friendship for them is mentioned when He says, I will not now call you servants.

1. First, He excludes what seems opposed to friendship.
2. Second, He mentions the sign of true friendship: but I have called you friends.

5. Servitude is opposed to friendship, and He rejects this by saying, I will not now call you servants. This is like saying: although you were formerly servants under the law, now you are free under grace, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15).

Second, He adds the reason for this when He says, for the servant does not know what his lord does. A servant is like a stranger to his master, for the servant does not abide in the house forever (John 8:35). Secrets should not be told to strangers: do not tell a secret to a stranger (Proverbs 25:9). And so secrets should not be given to those who are servants in this sense.

We can thus connect this to the preceding point. The disciples could have said, "If we keep your precepts, we are your friends, but keeping precepts seems more like the task of a servant than a friend." Therefore, to exclude this idea, the Lord says, I will not now call you servants.

6. A question arises here. How can the Lord say, I will not now call you servants, when the apostles call themselves servants of Christ, as in, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1)? David also says, I am your servant (Psalms 119:125), and the one welcomed into eternal life is called a good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:23).

A further question arises because masters frequently reveal secrets to their servants, as God does: for the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Therefore, it does not seem to be true when Christ says, for the servant does not know what his lord does.

I respond, with Augustine, that the servitude Christ speaks of is born of fear. There are two kinds of fear: servile fear, which love casts out (as 1 John 4:18 says, fear is not in charity), and filial fear, which is generated by love, because one fears losing the one he loves. This fear is good and pious, as it is said, the fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever (Psalms 19:9). Correspondingly, there are two kinds of servitude. One proceeds from filial fear, and in this sense, all the just are servants and sons of God. The other servitude proceeds from the fear of punishment and is contrary to love. It is concerning this latter type that He says, I will not now call you servants.

It should be understood that a servant, properly speaking, is one who is not his own cause, while a free person is the cause of himself. There is a difference between the actions of servants and free men. The servant acts for the sake of another, whereas the free man acts as his own cause—both as the final cause of the work and as the moving cause. For the free man acts on account of himself, as an end, and acts by himself, because he is moved by his own will to work. But the servant does not act on account of himself, but on account of his master; nor from himself, but rather by his master’s will, as if in cooperation.

However, it sometimes happens that a servant acts for the sake of another (as the final cause), yet still acts by himself, insofar as he moves himself to work. This is good servitude, because it is moved by charity to perform good works, but not for its own sake, because charity does not seek its own interests, but those of Jesus Christ and the salvation of one's neighbors. Those, however, who act entirely on account of another are bad servants. It is clear, therefore, that the disciples were serving, but in a good servitude, which proceeds from love.

As for the second difficulty, we should say that a servant who is moved only by another and not by himself is related to the one who moves him as a tool is to a worker. A tool shares in the work but not in the reason for the work. Such servants, therefore, share only in the work. But when a servant acts by his own will, it is necessary for him to know the reason for the work and have secrets revealed to him so he can know what he is doing, as it is written, If you have a servant, regard him as your own soul . The apostles, as was said, were moved by themselves—that is, by their own will, inclined by love—to accomplish good works. And so our Lord revealed His secrets to them. But bad servants do not know what their master is doing. What do they not know? Strictly speaking, they do not know what God does in us. For God acts in us in all the good we do: O Lord . . . you have worked for us all our works (Isaiah 26:12); For it is God who works in you, both to will and to accomplish (Philippians 2:13). So the bad servant, darkened by the pride in his own heart, does not know what his lord does when he attributes to himself what he does.

7. Now He states the true sign of friendship on His own part, which is that all I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. For the true sign of friendship is that a friend reveals the secrets of his heart to his friend. Since friends have one mind and one heart, it does not seem that what one friend reveals to another is placed outside his own heart: argue your case with your neighbor (Proverbs 25:9). Now God reveals His secrets to us by letting us share in His wisdom: in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets .

8. A question arises here as to what and in what way the Son hears from the Father. The answer has already been indicated in many ways. Since to hear is to receive knowledge from another, for the Son to hear from the Father is nothing other than for the Son to receive knowledge from the Father. Now, the knowledge of the Son is His own essence. Thus, for the Son to hear from the Father is for the Son to receive His essence from the Father.

9. Another question concerns the statement, all I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. If He made all things known to them, it would follow that the disciples knew as much as the Son.

According to Chrysostom, the answer is that all I have heard means all that He heard which they ought to hear. He has made that known to them, but not absolutely all things, for He says later, I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12).

Alternatively, according to Augustine, what He would say to them was so certain that He used the past tense for the future. The meaning then becomes: all I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you—that is, I will make it known with that fullness of which the Apostle speaks: then I will understand fully, even as I have been fully understood (1 Corinthians 13:12). And as we read later, the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs but will tell you plainly about the Father (John 16:25). This refers to when He leads us to the vision of the Father. For the Father knows all things the Son knows. So when the Son reveals the Father to us, He will reveal all that He Himself knows and which we are capable of knowing.

Again, one could say with Gregory—and this is the better explanation—that the same thing can be known perfectly or imperfectly. In the sciences, for example, a person who knows all the principles of a science is said to know that science, although imperfectly. Thus, a person who teaches some principles of a science can say that he teaches that science, because everything belonging to it is virtually contained in its principles. But one will know that same science more perfectly when he knows the individual conclusions that are virtually contained in the principles.

In the same way, we can have a twofold knowledge of divine matters. One is imperfect and is gained by faith, which is a foretaste of the future happiness and knowledge we will have in heaven: faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the assurance of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). It is of this knowledge that He says, all . . . I have made known to you—that is, in faith, by a kind of foretaste, just as conclusions are virtually contained in their principles. So Gregory says: "All the things He has made known to His servants are the joys of interior love and the feasts of our heavenly fatherland, which He excites in our minds every day by the breath of His love. For as long as we love the sublime heavenly things we have heard, we already know what we love, because the love itself is knowledge."

10. Now the author mentions the cause of this friendship. It is common for each of us to claim to be the cause of a friendship: every friend will say, "I started the friendship" . In the same way, many people attribute the cause of God’s friendship to themselves when they credit themselves, and not God, with the source of their good actions. Our Lord rejects this by saying, you have not chosen me. He is saying, in effect: whoever has been called to this sublime friendship should not attribute its cause to himself, but to Me, who chose him as a friend.

1. First, He mentions the gratuitous choice of God.
2. Second, He sets forth what they have been chosen for: that you should go and should bear fruit.

11. He says, you have not chosen me—you did not choose Me to be your friend—but I have chosen you to make you My friends: not that we loved God, but that he loved us first (1 John 4:10). Now, God’s love is twofold. One is eternal, by which we are predestined: he chose us in him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). The other is temporal, by which we are called by Him; this is simply the carrying out of eternal predestination. This is because those He chose by predestining them, He also chose by calling them: those whom he predestined he also called (Romans 8:30); he chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles (Luke 6:13).

12. Some say that God’s temporal choice is caused by the merits of those who are chosen. This conflicts with what is said here. For if God chose you because you were good, you were still not able to be good unless you chose the good, and this good is especially God. Therefore, you would have first chosen the good, which is God, before you were chosen. But our Lord says the contrary: you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Thus, we should not say that our own goodness entirely precedes God’s choice. I say "entirely" because we might have some particular good that could be the cause of another good being given to us, and this good could be the cause of being given still another good, since there is a certain order in God’s gifts. But in general, nothing of our own can be the cause of and precede the divine choice, because all our goods are from God.

13. It would be an even greater error to say that our eternal election was preceded by our own choice. Yet some have said that our preceding merits are the cause of that election. This was Origen’s error. He said that human souls were created equal at the same time and that while some stood firm, others sinned, more or less seriously. Thus, some merited to receive grace, and others did not. Our Lord’s saying, you have not chosen me, is opposed to this.

14. Others say that while our actually existing merits are not the cause of our predestination, our merits as they preexist in the foreknowledge of God are. They say that because God knew that certain persons would be good and make good use of grace, He decided to give them grace. But if this were so, it would follow that the reason He chose us was because He foreknew we would choose Him. And so our choice would be prior to the divine choice, which is contrary to our Lord’s statement.

15. Perhaps someone might ask: "What choice could there be, since we were nothing and there was no rank among us?"

But one who says this is misled by thinking that the divine choice is like human choice. They are not the same. Our choice is caused by some already existing good, while God’s choice is the cause of an influx of good, greater in one person than in another. Since choice is an act of the will, the character of God's choice and human choice will be different, according to how the will of God and the human will are differently related to the good. God’s will is related to a created good as its cause: how would anything have endured if you had not willed it? . And so, goodness is dispensed to created things from the will of God. Accordingly, God prefers one person to another insofar as He confers more good on that one than on another. But the human will is moved to something by a preexisting good that has become known. Therefore, in our choices, it is necessary that one good exist before another.

The reason God confers more good on one than on another is so that there might be a splendor of order in things. This is clear in material things, where prime matter of itself is uniformly disposed to all forms. Also, before things themselves exist, they are not disposed to this or that existence; rather, they receive different forms and existences from God so that an order can be established among them. It is the same among rational creatures, where some are chosen for glory and some are rejected for punishment: The Lord knows who are his... In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble (2 Timothy 2:19–20). And so we see a diversified order: the mercy of God shines forth in those whom, without any previous merits, He prepares for grace; in others, we see the justice of God when, because of their own guilt, He allots them punishment, yet less than is deserved. So, "I have chosen you" means by predestining you from all eternity and by calling you to the faith during your lifetime.

16. Then He points out for what He has chosen them when He says, I have appointed you, that you should go, and should bear fruit.

First, He states for what He chose them; second, He gives a reason for this: these things I command you, that you love one another.

In regard to the first point, He does two things:

1. He shows that He chose them to do something.
2. He shows that He chose them to receive something: that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

17. He says, I . . . appointed you, that is, I gave you a definite rank in My Church: and God has appointed in the Church, first apostles, second prophets (1 Corinthians 12:28). Again, I . . . appointed you means I firmly set you, just as God made the two great lights . . . and God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth (Genesis 1:16–17). As it is also written, The stars remaining in their order and courses fought against Sisera (Judges 5:20). For this position brings about order and strength.

18. I . . . appointed you, I say, for three things. First, to go. He says, that you should go, traveling over the whole world to convert it to the faith: go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15). Or, that you should go means to progress from virtue to virtue: they go from virtue to virtue; the God of gods will be seen in Zion (Psalms 84:7); his shoots will spread out (Hosea 14:6).

Second, He appointed them to bear fruit, so He says, and should bear fruit. This fruit is the fruit of conversion to the faith, as in Paul’s first journey: in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the gentiles (Romans 1:13). Or it is an interior and spiritual fruit, as in his second journey: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (Galatians 5:22); my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit .

Third, they were appointed to bear fruit that would not be destroyed by death or sin, so He says, and that your fruit should abide. This means that the community of the faithful would be led into eternal life and their spiritual fruit would flourish: he . . . gathers fruit for life everlasting (John 4:36).

19. That whatever you will ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Here He shows that He chose them to receive something: namely, whatever they ask for. He is saying: "I have appointed you to be worthy to receive from the Father in My name," for if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask (1 John 3:21–22).

20. These things I command you, that you love one another. Here He gives the reason for what He has said.

Someone might ask why Christ told them all these things. Our Lord answers: these things I command you, that you love one another. He is saying, in effect, that everything He said was to lead them to love their neighbor: the aim of our charge is love (1 Timothy 1:5).

One could also say, with Chrysostom, that the apostles might have asked, "Lord, why are you reminding us so much about Your love? Are you rebuking us?" But our Lord answers: "Not at all. I am doing this to encourage you to love your neighbor," for this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also (1 John 4:21).