He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” (John 21:17 KJV)
Picture this in your mind. The choir, dressed in their robes, rises to sing their first selection. The selection includes words that say, “I want to know if you really love the Lord.” They make it applicable, personal to everyone in the sanctuary and ask in a loving, but demanding way, “Is there anybody here that loves my Jesus; anybody, anybody, anybody here?”
Okay step out of the elevated choir stand and envision that it is just you and I in conversation. Visualize me looking you straight in your face, eye to eye, and making the same statement that the choir posed above, “I want to know if you really love the Lord.” I’m guessing your response was, “You know I love Him.” Well did you know that you show your love by the Lord by faithful obedience? Okay then, I’m saying it a second time, “I want to know if you really love the Lord!”
We see Peter’s verbal response in the verse above as he responds to Jesus. As we read what is recorded in The Book of Acts, regarding Peter, and as we review the content of Peter’s three epistles in the Bible, we see that he demonstrated that he really loved the Lord and he did it by obedience. He did tend to the lambs! He did shepherd the sheep! He did tend to the Lord’s sheep!
Go ahead and get ready for work, drink your coffee, enjoy your pastry or nutrition bar, but don’t forget that I want to know! I’m not playing with you now! I want to know if you really love the Lord. In the closing verse you can see evidence that Peter demonstrated His love for the Lord by obedience! What are you going to do? Be blessed!
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 1:1 KJV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King