The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” John 21:17
After the resurrection, Jesus had asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Each time Peter would reply that he did. Each time Jesus would also tell him to feed His sheep.
Saying that a person loves someone is easy to say. People say that they love someone all the time. Yet, the love being shown is usually very selfish and not real love. It is about what person is getting that the person loves, not always the person directly.
People all over the world claim to love Jesus. They claim to be believers in Him and claim to be His follower. However, many of those same people are not doing what He told them to do.
Belief and love of Jesus is often done for selfish reasons. People do not want to be condemned or go to hell for all eternity, so they believe in Jesus. This is a good beginning, but it should not be the end.
Once a person begins to believe in Jesus, his love for Him must grow. True love looks out for the other person, not self. True love is self-sacrificing for the other person.
Jesus had one goal in mind when He came to this earth and that was to seek and save all the lost. He wants to feed and build up every person to be more like Him. Jesus sacrificed Himself for every person on this earth.
Believers, today, must be willing to sacrifice themselves for Jesus now. This means putting their own desires aside to truly love Him and do what He asked them to do…feed His sheep.
If you are a believer in Jesus and claim to love you, what are you doing? Are you doing what He asked you to do?
Jesus told every person to go and make disciples of all the world. He said to build and not destroy.
Each day God gives you the opportunity to feed into someone else’s life the word of God. You have the opportunity to be His witness each day.
Do you really love Jesus?
Or do you just claim you do?
I pray today that you will know Jesus as your Savior; that you will love Jesus with true love; that you will follow the commission of Jesus; and that you will feed everyone you can the truth of Jesus and build them up in Christ.
It is interesting that when Jesus asked Peter if Peter loved him he used the word “agape”, which is the highest form of love, self sacrificing love. Peter answers Jesus that he loves Jesus, using the word “philia”, the love of a friend. Jesus uses “agape” a second time, and Peter responds with “philia” a second time. The third time Jesus comes down to Peter’s level, and uses the word “philia”, and Peter responds with “philia”. It is touching how Jesus comes down to our level, so that he can raise us to his own.
Amen! He is a great God who can understand us and wants to meet us where we are. Thank you for reading and the great comment. Have a blessed night!