Do You Love Me?

“I’m going fishing!” Peter said one day after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was saying to the other disciples that he was going back to his old fishing business. (Of course at this time, this group of disciples was not aware of the Lord’s resurrection yet.) Since Peter was the leader, the rest followed him dutifully to the boat. But you know from the story found in John 21 starting at verse 2, even if they worked hard the whole night, they caught nothing.

“Have you caught anything?” a stranger called out to them at dawn on the next day. “Cast the net on the other side of the boat and you’ll catch some fish.” They did what the stranger suggested and boy! Did they catch some fish! The nets were so heavy they could not even pull the nets aboard the boat!

John said, “It is the Lord.” Peter got so excited that he jumped off and swam ashore. Jesus invited them for breakfast – perhaps prepared supernaturally. As Peter and the other disciples sat and ate with Jesus, Peter must have thought, “What a fool I am! I have been disobedient again. I have failed again.” Peter had virtually failed every test the Lord had given Him. Remember just a few days back, he denied the Lord three times. He had repented but now, he tried to go back to what he used to do instead of doing what the Lord wanted him to do. He just could not succeed. Does this sound like us?

Then Jesus asked him, not once, but three times, “Peter, do you love me more than these?” These meaning – the boat, the nets filled with the catch, the fishing business. This could have been the question our Lord Jesus Christ is asking from us. Do we love Him more than these? More than what He already gave us – our family, our homes, our business, our work, our church? Do we love our Provider more than what He had provided for us? Deep in our hearts we love Him, and yet, just like Peter, why do we serve Him poorly?

Peter was grieved after the Lord probed for the third time. “Lord, You know all things. You know I love You. Look into my heart.” Aren’t you glad that even if we fail again and again, we have an omniscient God who knows us well? But this does not give us any excuse for not serving our Master. The Lord taught Peter, not once but three times “Tend my sheep.” It seems just like Peter, we do need repetitive lessons in obedience. Do we love God? Then we should show our love through our actions, through our lives.

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” 1 John 3:18 NASB



Illustration taken from: The Keys to Spiritual Growth. John MacArthur. Crossway Books ©2001. pp. 108-109.