DO we LOVE ANYTHING/ANYBODY MORE than JESUS?
November
5 Bible Reading: John Chapters 19-21
DO we LOVE ANYTHING/ANYBODY MORE than JESUS?
So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon
Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" (John 21:15)
In this
passage, the underlying lesson is that love
for Jesus is the only acceptable
motive for serving Him. Just as Peter had denied
the Lord thrice, so he was given three opportunities to confess Him.
The most important thing in ministry is to
love Jesus totally - for all
ministries flows out from that love!
This intimate
interview was probably conducted within the hearing of the other six disciples.
Peter had publicly professed his loyalty before the Crucifixion and Jesus wants
the other disciples to understand Peter’s restoration. The point of the entire
dialogue is to question not the extent of
Peter’s love for the Master, but the nature of his love. Jesus wanted to
impress upon Peter the diverse
responsibilities (“feed” and “tend”) and the tenderness (for “sheep” and “lambs”) demanded by his love for
Jesus. It is possible to construe the question posed by Jesus in several ways: “Do you love Me more than these others love
Me?”; “Do you love Me more than you
love these others?”; and “Do you love
Me more than you love these nets and fish?”
Never rebuking Peter for his replies, Jesus repeatedly commissioned him for the
pastoral ministry of God’s people. The grace of God had recovered a fallen
disciple, one who was later greatly used
by God to win many people to Christ (Acts 2–5; 10–11) and who later wrote two
general epistles. When Peter wrote to his fellow elders (1 Pet. 5:1, 2), he
urged them to “shepherd the flock of God”
apparently having taken to heart the words of Jesus, and called Jesus the “Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet. 5:4).
As we
meditate on the three repeated questions that Jesus asked Peter after His
resurrection, we need to ask ourselves this question: “What do I love more than Jesus?” It may be something innocent or
harmless or something seemingly good like food, hobbies, work, etc. We need to
realize that Jesus demands our first love over everything else. Let us be careful to love Jesus more than
anything or anyone in our lives!
Let us always remember the following words of Jesus: "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." (Matt 10:37)
