I have been meditating on John 21:15-19. This is a passage often considered as the re-instating and re-commisioning of the Apostles, with special focus on Peter. We are aware that Peter denied the Lord 3 times and here, the Lord Jesus asked him three times – “Do you love Me?’ When Peter responded in the positive, the Lord told him to feed His sheep, tend the lambs and take care of them, as an under-shepherd, on behalf of the chief Shepherd.

It is interesting that Peter did not try to explain his failures, nor did he try to justify his short-comings. Instead, he replied that the Lord knows that he loved Him. Peter was grieved that the Lord had to ask him three times about his love for the Master.

The first thing we need to note is that service for the Master ought to be motivated by love for Him; our role as servants to the brethren and our care for them must spring forth from our love for the Master. The emphasis the Lord Jesus gave to this in His re-commissioning of the Apostles (and Peter) means that this is indispensable as the genuine motivation and zeal in serving God and His church. Without this, there is no real work for God that will yield eternal results, pleasing to Him. We need to ponder over this: our various involvements and activities in Christian service – are they powered by this significant motive?

Earlier on, the Lord asked Peter whether he loved Him more than these – the ‘these’ was not specifically identified, but the Lord was certainly making a comparison – to what degree do we love Him?

Christians today are content in believing too little – we are living in an age not only of scepticism and doubt, but of unbelief. The vast majority of people are irreligious and godless, and they do not bother about what believers are concerned about. Comparing ourselves with them, we may think that we are doing alright as far as God and faith are concerned, and we forget to measure our belief against the standard set in the Bible. Similarly, we often fail to measure the quality of our love for God against the standard in the Word of God. A sure way of discovering whether this is so is this: when things go wrong in our life, when circumstances seem to be against us, where there is war and calamity, is our first thought, “Why does God allow this?” If this is our first response, then within us there lurks the feeling that God is not a God of love and He is not dealing fairly with us – the attitude is not loving God but rather doubting Him and even being hostile to Him. We may claim to love Him when things are going our way.

Our love for God must be such that He is first and supreme – we must love Him more than anything or anybody (remember how the Lord Jesus said that he who loves parents, children or wife more than Him is not worthy of Him). The Lord Jesus wanted His Apostles to know that He required that kind of love and He is worthy of such a love because that is the way He loves the Father and that is the way He sought to love us.
Such a love for the Master shows itself by keeping His commandments, by loving our neighbour as ourselves, by loving the brethren and by being consumed by a desire to be like HIm and to place Him in all things above everything else.

It is a love that is conscious of His holiness and of His glorious attributes, accompanied by reverential fear; yet a love that is intimate, like a love of a child for his or her parent (we can call Him “ABBA”). It is a love that is grieved when one fails to honour and glorify Him, because the heart of love is not just upset with oneself in the failure, but is deeply concerned of hurting and grieving the One we love so deeply. Like Peter in John 21, we cannot defend ourselves or excuse ourselves when we fail the Master – all we can cry out from the depth of our hearts is a broken cry to Him, “Lord, you know all things, You know that I love You”?

Can we cry out similarly to our Master with this same brokenness? The Lord Jesus is asking you and me today,”Do you love Me?” We need to settle this before we can embark on serving Him and the brethren meaningfully.