So when they had dined, Jesus saith … Simon son of Judas, lovest thou Me more than these?
Peter’s restoration
I. THE LORD’S QUESTION.
1. The question itself.
(1) The feeling inquired about. Other feelings there are which often move the soul; but love surpasses them all. Every one knows what is meant by love.
(2) The object of the love to which the question relates. The question is not, dost thou love at all? Perhaps there never was a heart so hard as to be entirely a stranger to it. The question is, among the various objects thy love embraces, is that object to be found whose claim is paramount? We say not that unrenewed persons do not love at all; but they love other objects in place of Christ. But the new birth carries up the dear emotion to the object that best deserves it.
(3) The degree of this love to Christ. The question may mean, either, “Lovest thou Me more than these men? or more than these things,” and calls upon us to say, not that we love the Lord, but how much we love Him. Does it prevail over the love we feel for inferior objects?
2. The circumstance that Christ puts the question. It is often put by Christ’s friends and ministers; but it comes with deeper meaning and greater power from Christ. It implies
(1) That Christ considers He has a claim to the love of His people. What are the grounds of this claim? We ought to love Him
(a) For what He is. What saith the law? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart,” &c., “and thy neighbour as thyself.” God and man, as Christ is, in one Person, both tables of the law command Him to be loved
(b) For what He has done: long ago as God the Son in the council of peace, and in human history as the Man Christ Jesus.
(2) That He sets a value on His people s love. When another asks you, “Lovest thou Christ?” you cannot gather from it that Christ Himself cares whether you love Him or not. But Christ’s own inquiry shows that the matter is not indifferent to Him. Despise His people’s level He reckons it a portion of His reward. And, when He sees its fruits, He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied.
(3) That He is concerned for the prosperity of His people’s souls. The love of Christ is inseparably connected with the love of God.
(4) Let us advert to some of the occasions when Christ puts the question.
(a) The occasion of showing His own love. Such was the present. He was fresh from Calvary. “Lovest thou Me? See how I have loved thee!” Such is the occasion when a sinner is converted. Then, for the first time, a sense of Christ’s love breaks in.
(b) When He gives His people special work to do.
(c) In the day of temptation, and suffering for His sake. Trials bring our love to the proof.
3. The circumstance that Christ repeats it. The gospel ministry puts it from week to week. Why? Because
(1) Love to Christ is of vital importance.
(2) There is a spurious love to Christ, a feeling of sentimentalism, which is called, by some, love to Christ. There are some, too, who love a Christ of their own, who, they fancy, takes away the sting from sin. As if that were possible, or that God’s holy Son would do it if He could!
II. THE DISCIPLE’S ANSWER. We cannot say that believers are always able to reply as Peter did. There are times when they think that they do not love the Lord. And there are times when the utmost length they can go is, “Lord, I can scarcely tell if I love Thee or not.” Yet there are times when they can use Peter’s language. Secret seasons of enlargement, when the Lord unveils His face to them, and they see the King in His beauty. Words are good, but not essential; and there is an answer in the heart which the Lord can interpret right well.
1. Who does not know that true love can proclaim its existence through the eyes when the tongue says nothing? The soul has eyes as well as the body. And, when God’s people are meditating on Christ, what are they doing but feasting the eyes of their souls, and involuntarily declaring their love to Him?
2. There are acts of memory also, which are the consequences of love. In the long absence of loved ones how fondly do we call to mind what they said to us, and cherish the particulars of the interviews we had together! And how natural is it to prize the messages they send us! Thus works the love of believers towards Christ. They take pleasure in remembering past fellowship.
3. The way, too, in which Christ’s approaches are received is a declaration of love. It makes their heart leap when tidings that He is near is brought to them, and when the sound of His footsteps is heard.
III. THE LORD’S COMMAND.
1. Its nature. Christ has a flock, of which He is the owner; for it was given to Him of the Father, and He bought it with His blood. He is its Shepherd; for it was committed to His care, and He accepted the charge of it. This flock He commends to the good offices of all that love Him. Private disciple though you be, you may help to feed Christ’s flock. Though you cannot dispense the bread of life by public ministrations, you may dispense it by private intercourse, prayers, and contributions.
2. Some important principles which it involves.
(1) That love needs an exercise as well as am object. The first thing is to fix it on Christ. That being done, “Now,” says the Lord, “thy love must not be idle. If thou lovest Me, go work for Me. Only thus can thy love continue and increase.”
(2) That love prepares us for the service of Christ. It is a motive inciting to that which is well-pleasing to Him, the doing of His will.
(3) That love must extend to His people. “Feed My lambs--feed My sheep.”
(4) That love ought to show itself to the world. The feeding of Christ’s lambs and sheep implies publicity. It is, therefore, a confession of Christ before men. Thereby we tell the world that we love Him, and prove that we are not ashamed of His cause. (A. Gray.)
The grand inquiry
The question is
I. REASONABLE. Because we ought to love Him, and the affection is just. Contemplate
1. His Person. He is altogether lovely: comprising in Himself all the graces of time and of eternity; all the attractions of humanity and of Deity. Bring forward all the excellences the world ever saw; add as many more as the imagination can supply: all this aggregate is no more to Him than a ray of light to the sun, or a drop of water to the ocean.
2. His doings.
(1) Look backward, and consider what He has done.
(2) Look upward, and consider what He is doing.
(3) Look forward, and consider what He will do.
3. His sufferings. To enable Him to be our best friend, He submitted to a scene of humiliation and anguish, such as no tongue can express, or imagination conceive. Never was there sorrow--and, therefore, never was there love--like thine! But we must observe, not only what He suffers for us, but what He suffers from us, and suffers in us. “For we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He that toucheth us toucheth the apple of His eye. “O, for this love, let rocks and hills,” &c
II. IMPORTANT, because we must love Him: and the affection is not only just but necessary
1. To our sanctification. Love is a transforming principle. By constant residence in the mind, the image stamps and leaves its own resemblance.
2. To give us delight in all our religious services. It is the nature of love to render difficult things easy, and bitter ones sweet. What was it that turned the seven years of hard bondage that Jacob served for Rachel into so many pleasant days? What is it that more than reconciles that mother to numberless nameless anxieties and privations in rearing her baby charge? But there is no love like that which a redeemed sinner bears to his Redeemer; and, therefore, no pleasure can equal that which he enjoys in pleasing Him.
3. To render our duties acceptable. The Lord looketh to the heart; and when this is given up to Him, He values the motive, though we err in the circumstances.
4. To ascertain our interest in the Saviour’s regards. His followers are not described by their knowledge, their gifts, their creed, their profession; but by their cordial adherence to Him., His love produces ours; but our love evinces His--“I love them that love Me.”
III. SUPPOSES DOUBT. Is there nothing in you to render this love suspicious
1. To the world? You are not only to be Christians, but to appear such. Have you risen up for Him against the evildoers, and never denied His name, nor concealed His truth?
2. To the Church? There are many of whom, as the apostle says, “We stand in doubt.” But your ministers and fellow-members are entitled to satisfaction concerning, if not the degree, the reality of your religion.
3. To yourselves. “Tis a point I long to know,” &c. If I loved Him--could I ever read without pleasure the Book that unveils His glories--could I ever fear to die--could I feel so impatient under those afflictions that make me a partaker of the fellowship of His sufferings?
4. To the Saviour. There is a sense in which this is impossible. We are all transparency before Him. But we are to distinguish the question of right from the question of fact. With regard to right, He may, and He often does, complain in His Word, as if He was disappointed and surprised at the conduct of His professing people. Estimating our proficiency by our advantages, ought He not to have found in us what He has yet sought for in vain.
IV. ADMITS OF SOLUTION It is not only possible, but comparatively easy, to know whether we love another. And here it will be in vain for you to allege that the ease before us is a peculiar one, because the object is invisible. For many of us never saw Howard, but who does not feel veneration at the mention of his name? How, then, will this love show itself?
1. By our thoughts. These naturally follow the object of our regard, and it is with difficulty we can draw them off. David could say, “I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” And what was the consequence? “How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!”
2. By our speech. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
3. By desire after intimacy. Separation is a grief. Distance is a torture. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks,” &c.
4. By devotedness to the service and glory of its Master. Nothing can authenticate the existence of this principle in our hearts, detached from this regard to His will. “He that hath My commandments,” &c. (W. Jay.)
The supreme question
A lad named Hoopoo, a South Sea Islander, was sent to America to be trained, that he might be useful in the Mission. One day he was in a large company, and was asked many questions about his birthplace. The lad spoke wisely, but some of his sayings made a gentleman laugh. “I am a poor heathen boy,” said Hoopoo; “it is not strange that my blunders in English should amuse you, but soon there will be a larger meeting than this, and if we should then be asked, ‘Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?’ I think I shall be able to say, ‘Yes.’ What will you say, sir?” The gentleman felt the force of the words, and found no rest till he also could say, “Yes” (J. L. Nye.)
Lovest thou Me?
St. Peter’s first answer was easy and light-hearted; it came only from the surface of his mind; it was little better than “Of course I love Thee.” But Christ’s close and penetrating way of putting the question a second time overawed the disciple, and brought an answer from much deeper down. The third time, Jesus sent the question like a sword down to the bottom of the soul, where it drew blood, and the answer was a groan of pain out of the depths. He puts the question to us thrice, because there are three storeys in our nature; the uppermost is feeling, the middle one is intellect, and the basement is will; Jesus opens the door of each, and asks, “Lowest thou Me?”
I. FEELING. This is the most superficial of the three; and here He first puts the question. Our feelings have had many objects. We cannot remember when we began to love some of those whom we hold dear. Other passions we remember distinctly the genesis of. Now, among the objects we have loved is Christ one? the principal one? Has our love to Him formed one of the colours which can be distinctly traced in the pattern of the past? Has it a history, and is it a distinct part of our history?
II. INTELLECT. A man who has been wise and fortunate in marriage will say, “I loved you at first, because my fancy was taken with you, and there was a blaze of feeling. But now, besides that, my calm judgment approves my choice; the experience of many years has made me only the more satisfied with it.” Happy the man who can say this and the woman who hears it! Do we love Christ with such love? Perhaps our religious life began with excitement and ecstasy. This is past: but every day we are more and more convinced that in choosing Christ we choose wisely; we have a hundred times more reason for loving Him than we had then.
III. WILL. The will is the part of our nature out of which resolutions and actions come, and on this specially wishes to have a hold. Love’s real trial comes when it is called upon to endure and to sacrifice. No man knows how strong his own love to any one is till it has gone past the stage at which it is a delightful feeling, and the stage at which it is sensible of deriving advantages from its object, and has arrived at the stage when it has to give everything, bearing burdens, practising self-denials for the sake of the person it loves. Cowper’s lines to Mary Unwin are a perfect example of such love. Have we a love to Christ which makes us slay besetting sins because He wills it, devise liberal things for His cause, confess Him fearlessly before men, and rejoice to suffer for His sake? (J. Stalker, M. A.)
Lovest thou Me?
1. The inquiry is not concerning his love to the kingdom or the people of God, but to the Son of God. It deals with a personal attachment to a personal Christ.
2. Our Saviour questioned Peter in plain set terms. There was no beating about the bush. As the physician feels his patient’s pulse to judge his heart, so Jesus tested at once the pulse of Peter’s soul.
3. This question was asked three times, as if to show that it is of the first, of the second, and of the third importance; as if it comprised all else. This nail was meant to be well fastened, for it is smitten on the head with blow after blow.
4. Jesus Himself asked the question, and He asked it until He grieved Peter. Had he not made his Master’s heart bleed, and was it not fit that he should feel heart-wounds himself?
I. LOVE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST MAY BE ABSENT FROM OUR BOSOMS. This inquiry is not rendered needless by
1. Outward religiousness. Do we enter very heartily into all the public exercises of God’s house? Yes, but there are hundreds of thousands who do that, and yet they do not love Christ! It will be vain to reverence the Sabbath if you forget the Lord of the Sabbath, vain to love the sanctuary and not the Great High Priest, vain to love the wedding-feast but not the Bridegroom.
2. Highest office. Peter was an apostle, and in some respects a foundation stone of the Church, and yet it was needful to say to him, “Lovest thou Me?” The name of Judas should sound the death knell of all presumptuous confidence in our official standing.
3. Enjoyment of the greatest Christian privileges. Peter was one of the most favoured apostles, who beheld Christ on the mount of transfiguration and in the garden of Gethsemane.
4. The greatest warmth of zeal. Peter was a redhot disciple. You are earnest in the Sunday school, or preach in the streets, or visit the poor, and are full of warmth in all things which concern the Redeemer’s cause; but for all that the question must be put. For there is a zeal which is fed by regard to the opinions of others, and sustained by a wish to be thought earnest and useful; which is rather the warmth of nature than the holy fire of grace, and which makes a man a mere tinkling cymbal, because he does not love Jesus Christ.
5. The greatest self-denial. Peter could say, “Lord, we have left all and followed Thee.”
6. The highest mental attainments. Peter went to college three years, with Christ for a tutor, and he learned a great deal; but after he had been through his course, his Master, before He sent him to his life-work, felt it needful to inquire, “Lovest thou Me?” It is, therefore, a healthy thing for the Lord to come into the study and close the book, and say to the student, “Sit still a while, and let Me ask thee, ‘Lovest thou Me?’”
II. WE MUST LOVE THE PERSON OF CHRIST, OR ALL OUR PAST PROFESSIONS HAVE BEEN A LIE. It is not possible for that man to be a Christian who does not love Christ. Take the heart away, and life is impossible.
1. Your first true hope of heaven came to you, if it ever did come at all, by Jesus Christ. You heard the Gospel, but the Gospel apart from Christ was never good news to you; you read the Bible, but the Bible apart from a personal Christ was never anything more than a dead letter to you. The first gleam of comfort that ever entered my heart flashed from the wounds of the Redeemer.
2. Nor do we merely begin with Him, for every covenant blessing we have received has been connected with His Person--pardon, righteousness, adoption, &c.
3. Every ordinance of the Christian Church has either been a mockery, or else we have loved Christ in it. Baptism--what is it but the mere washing away of the filth of the flesh unless we were buried with Christ in baptism unto death? The Lord’s Supper, what is it but a common meal unless Christ be there? And so it has been with every approach we have made towards God. Did you pray? You could not have done it except through Jesus the Mediator.
4. If you have made a profession of religion, how can it be a true and honest one unless your heart bums with attachment to the great Author of salvation.
5. You have great hopes, but what are you hoping for? Is not all your hope wrapped up in Him?
6. Since, then, everything that you have obtained comes to you direct from His pierced hand, it cannot be that you have received it unless you love Him. Now, when I put the question, recollect that upon your answer to it hangs this alternative--a hypocrite or a true man--“Lovest thou Me?”
III. WE MUST HAVE LOVE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST, OR NOTHING IS RIGHT FOR THE FUTURE.
1. For a true pastor the first qualification is love to Christ. Jesus does not inquire about Peter’s knowledge or gifts of utterance, but about his love. And what is true of a pastor is true of every useful worker for Christ.
2. If your heart is not true to Christ, you will not be able patiently to endure for His Name’s sake. Before long, the time came for Peter to glorify God by death. Love makes the hero. When the Spirit of God inflames love He inspires courage.
3. If we have no love for Christ’s Person our piety lacks the adhesive element, it fails in that which will help us to stick to the good old way to the end. Men often leave what they like, but never what they love.
4. Love is the great inspiriting force. In serving Christ you come across a difficulty far too great for judgment, for prudence, and unbelief weighs and calculates, but love laughs at the impossibility and accomplishes it for Jesus Christ.
5. Without love you are without the transforming force. Love to Christ is that which makes us like Him.
6. Without love to Christ we lack the perfecting element. We are to be with Him soon; but if we have not love to Jesus we shall not be where He is.
IV. IF WE DO LOVE HIM, WHAT THEN? Let us do something for Him directly, for He said, “Feed My sheep.” He knew from His own heart that wherever there is love there is a desire for activity. What are you doing? Attending the means of grace and getting a good feed. Well, that is doing something for yourself. Many people in the world are very busy at feeding, but I do not know that eating a man’s bread is any proof of love to him. A great many professing Christians give no proof of love to Christ, except that they enjoy sermons. But now, if you love Him as you say you do, prove it by doing good to others. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lovest thou Me?
I. THE PECULIAR FELLING OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN TOWARDS CHRIST--he loves Him.
1. A true Christian is not a mere baptized man or woman, a person who only goes, as a matter of form, to a church on Sundays; he is one whose religion is in his heart and life, and its great peculiarity is love. Hear what St. Paul says (1Co_16:22; Eph_6:24). Hear what
Christ says (Joh_8:42). Would you know the secret of this peculiar feeling (1Jn_4:19)?
2. A true Christian loves Christ
(1) For all He has done for him.
(2) For all that He is still doing.
3. This love to Christ is
(1) The inseparable companion of saving faith. A faith of devils, a mere intellectual faith, a man may have without love, but not that faith which saves.
(2) The mainspring of work for Christ. There is little done for His cause from sense of duty. The heart must be interested before the hands will move. The nurse in a hospital may do her duty, but there is a vast difference between that nurse and a wife.
(3) The point which we ought specially to dwell upon in teaching religion to children. Election, imputed righteousness, &c., are matters which only puzzle; but love to Jesus is within reach of their understanding Mat_21:16).
(4) The common meeting point of believers of every branch of Christ’s Church (Eph_6:24).
(5) The distinguishing mark of all saved souls in heaven. Old differences will be merged in one common feeling (Rev_1:5-6).
II. THE PECULIAR MARKS BY WHICH LOVE TO CHRIST MAKES ITSELF KNOWN. If we love a person, we like
1. To think about him. We do not need to be reminded of him. It is just so between the true Christian and Christ! Christ “dwells in his heart,” and is thought of more or less every day (Eph_3:17).
2. To hear about him. We find a pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. So the true Christian likes those sermons best which are full of Christ.
3. To read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother. So the true Christian delights to read the Scriptures, because they tell him about his beloved Saviour.
4. To please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions. In like manner the true Christian studies to please Christ by being holy both in body and spirit.
5. His friends. We are favourably inclined to them, even before we know them. And the true Christian regards all Christ’s friends as his. He is more at home with them in a few minutes, than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of several years.
6. To maintain his interests and his reputation. We regard the person who treats him ill as if he had ill-treated us. And the true Christian regards with a godly jealousy all efforts to disparage his Master’s Word, or name, or Church, or day.
7. To talk to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation, nor does the true Christian find any difficulty in speaking to his Saviour. Every day he has something to tell Him, and he is not happy unless he tells it.
8. To be always with him; and the heart of a true Christian longs for that blessed day when he will see his Master face to face and go out no more.
Conclusion:
1. Look the question in the face and try to answer it for yourself. It is no answer to say
(1) That you believe the truth of Christianity. The devils believe and tremble (Jam_2:19).
(2) That you disapprove of a religion of feelings. There can be no true religion without some feeling towards Christ. If you do not love Christ, your soul is in great danger.
2. If you do not love Christ, let me tell you what is the reason. You have no sense of debt to Him. There is but one remedy for this state of things--self knowledge and the teaching of the Holy Ghost.
(1) Perhaps you have never read your Bible at all, or only carelessly. Begin to read it, then, in earnest.
(2) Perhaps you have never known anything of real, hearty, business-like prayer. Begin the habit, then, at once. (Bp. Ryle.)
Lovest thou Me?
I A SOLEMN QUESTION, not for His own information, but for Peter’s examination, it is well, especially after a foul sin, that the Christian should well probe the wound. Note what this question was.
1. It was concerning Peter’s love. He did not say, “Fearest thou Me?” “Dost thou admire or adore Me?” Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. That is because love is the best evidence of piety. He that lacks love must lack every other grace in proportion. If love be little, fear and courage will be little.
2. He did not ask Peter anything about his doings. He did not say, “How much hast thou wept? How often hast thou on thy knees sought mercy?” Though works follow love, yet love excelleth the works, and works without love are not evidences worth having.
3. We have very much cause for asking ourselves this question. If our Saviour were no more than a man like ourselves, He might often doubt whether we love Him at all. Let me lust remind you of sundry things which give us very great cause to ask this question.
(1) Hast thou not sinned? “Is this thy kindness to thy Friend?”
(2) Does not thy worldliness make thee doubt? Thou hast been occupied with the shop, the exchange, the farmyard; and thou hast had little time to commune with Him!
(3) How cold thou hast been at the mercy-seat!
II. A DISCREET ANSWER. Jesus asked him, in the first place, whether he loved Him better than others. Simon would not say that: he had once been proud and thought he was better than the other disciples. There is no loving heart that will think it loves better than the least of God’s children. But Peter answered not as to the quantity but as to the quality of his love. Some of us would have answered foolishly. We should have said, “Lord, I have preached for Thee so many times; I have distributed to the poor; Thou hast given me grace to walk humbly, faithfully, and honestly, and therefore, Lord, I think I can say, I love Thee.” We should have brought forward our good works as being the evidences of our love. That would have been a very good answer if we had been questioned by our fellowman, but it would be foolish for us to tell the Master that. The Master might have said to Peter, had he appealed to his works, “I did not ask thee what are the evidences of thy love, I asked the fact of it.” Very likely some would have said, “Love Thee, Lord? Why, my heart is all on fire towards Thee; I feel as if I could go to prison and to death for Thee!” But that would have been very foolish, because although we may often rejoice in our own feelings, it would not do to plead them with our Lord. In such manner Peter had spoken before; but a sorry mess he made of it. But no, Peter was wise; he did not bring forward his feelings nor his evidences. But, as though he shall say, “Lord, I appeal to Thine Omniscience: Thou knowest that I love Thee.” Now, could we give such an answer? There is a test. If thou art a hypocrite, thou mightest say, “Lord, my minister, the deacons, the members, my friends think I love Thee, for they often hear me talk about Thee.” But thou couldst not say, “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee”; thine own heart is witness that thy secret works belie thy confession, for thou art without prayer in secret; thou art niggardly in giving to the cause of Christ; thou art an angry, petulant creature, &c. But thou, O sincere Christian, thou canst answer with holy fear and gracious confidence. Such a question was never lint to Judas. The response is recorded for thee, “Lord, Thou knowest,” &c.
III. A DEMONSTRATION REQUIRED. “Lovest thou Me?” Then one of the best evidences is
1. To feed My lambs. Have I two or three little children that love and fear My name? If thou wantest to do a deed, which shalt show that thou art a true lover, and not a proud pretender; go and feed them. In the ancient Churches there was what was called the catechism class--I believe there ought to be such a class now. The Sabbath school, I believe, is in the Scripture; and I think there ought to be on a Sabbath afternoon a class of the young people of this Church, who are members already, to be taught by some of the elder members.
2. But we cannot all do that; the lambs cannot feed the lambs; the sheep cannot feed the sheep exactly. Therefore allow me to say to some of you, that there are different kinds of proof you must give. “Lovest thou Me?” Then preserve that prayer-meeting; see to thy servants that they go to the house of God. Do something to prove thy love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The risen Jesus questioning Peter’s love
I. We gather from OUR LORD’S INQUIRY
1. That He takes pleasure in the love of His people towards Him and in their avowal of it. And herein He discovers His human nature. We are all conscious that whenever we have real affection towards any object, we desire the same affection towards ourselves, and are gratified by any manifestation of it. Jonathan shared in this feeling. Now our Lord’s heart is, in all sinless things, like ours. He found gratification there, not only in Peter’s love, but in these reiterated assurances.
2. That Christ has now a special claim on our love. Previously to His final sufferings and death, He does not appear to have ever put this question. But when for their sakes He had gone to Calvary He felt and acted like one who had now earned a claim on a sinner’s affection, and such a claim as even a sinner’s heart could not resist. Place the cross in whatever light we may, there is no exaggerating its importance or its power. As the basis of love nothing even in heaven is like it.
3. That real love for Christ is of the very utmost importance to us. Love is nothing more than a feeling. Its importance arises from the place it holds in the mind, and the influence it exercises over every other feeling, thought, and movement. No wonder, therefore, that when Christ brings a sinner to His feet, the first thing He asks him for is his heart; one of the first things He takes is his love. Love for Him is not an ornament; it is religion itself, its foundation, its spring, its strength, its perfection, its glory.
4. That our love for Christ is sometimes questionable and ought to be questioned.
II. THE ANSWER WHICH PETER GAVE TO THE INQUIRY. From this we infer at once that it is a question which maybe answered. Thrice said Christ to Peter, “Lovest thou Me?” and thrice Peter answered with promptitude and firmness that he did love Him. How then, under similar circumstances, may we come to a similar answer? We love Christ
1. When we mourn bitterly for our sins against Him. Nothing pains a feeling heart more than to offend causelessly a heart it loves. Forgiveness cannot wear our pain away, kindness cannot dissipate it; they sometimes rather aggravate than remove it.
2. When we are especially on our guard against a repetition of those sins wherewith we have dishonoured Him.
3. When no sin, no sorrow on account of sin, no state of mind whatsoever can keep us from His feet. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Jesus questioning Peter’s love
Christ never unnecessarily injured the feelings of any one; yet when necessary He did not hesitate to inflict pain. Jesus did not flatter and call Peter a rock now--“Simon, son of Jonas.”
I. THE INFERENCES FROM CHRIST’S QUESTION.
1. That Jesus, after the Resurrection, was desirous to be loved by man. Do not make the mistake that you must win His love; see that you love Him.
2. That Jesus wants an avowal of love. How the lover, although he has the love of his loved one, rejoices in the avowals of that love. Jonathan made David sware twice that he loved him. Christ did not ask this before the Crucifixion. But now He had given His life He had a right to expect the heart’s deepest love.
3. That love is the important thing. Christ did not catechise Peter as to his faith.
II. THE INFERENCES FROM PETER’S ANSWER. Peter was conscious of his love. What are the proofs that we love Christ?
1. We have a deep feeling of bitterness when we have come short of love.
2. True love will not allow us to commit the same sin twice over.
3. True love brings the sinner back to Christ.
III. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.
1. There is no religion without the love of Christ, and no heaven. Intellect, wealth, positions, friends cannot make up for the lack of it. Paul holds a man accursed without it.
2. By loving Christ we place ourselves where He can do us the most good. (C. J. Deems, D. D.)
Peter’s confession of love to Christ
There are times which reveal to us the mysterious identity of our ever-changing lives; when we read old letters, visit well-remembered scenes, grasp the hand of old friends, or indulge in the silent luxury of their presence. You know the subtle influence of such seasons; with what reality they recall the past. The coincidences of life are designed by God to reveal us to ourselves and to show what is God’s guidance of our life. These verses record such a period in the life of Peter. The past was with him; what were its memories for Peter? Of eager haste and painful failure; of love for Christ so true and yet so powerless; of self-confidence and of unfaithfulness. With chastened, bumble spirit he must have sat and pondered; feeling that not in his devotedness to Christ, but in Christ’s love to him, lay his hope that he might be faithful to his apostleship, if he should be reinstated in it. And to these, his thoughts, Christ at length gives expression: “Simon, son of Jonas,” the name by which Christ had first called him, and which He had so often used in tender solemnity, “lovest thou Me more than these?”
I. PETER’S LOVE TO CHRIST.
1. There is a beautiful order in Christ’s questions. There is a difference between the two Greek verbs translated “lovest.” It is not a difference in the warmth, but in the character of affection. The one signifies the love based upon appreciation of another; the other simple personal attachment. The one might be represented if we said, “I am thy friend;” the other if we said, “Thou art my friend.”
(1) It is the former of these words which Christ here uses: “Simon, son of Jonas, esteemest thou Me more, art thou more My friend than thy fellow disciples?” This was just what Peter had professed, “Though all should be offended,” &c. “I am ready to go with Thee, both in prison and to death; Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.”
(2) You can now understand Peter’s reply. Once he would have said, “I know that I am Thy friend;” he was sure he was to be trusted. But he has lost his self-confidence. He will not profess esteem for Jesus. He chooses the humbler, trustful word: “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”
(3) Again Christ asks him, “If not more than these, yet art Thou My friend at all?” And still the same humble, clinging answer comes from Peter.
(4) Now Christ takes Peter’s own word; let it be as Peter would have it, the trusting affection of the disciple. “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?” Surely Jesus cannot doubt that. Christ must know that He is all in all to Peter. “Thou knowest that under all my boasting, all my mistakes, there was love for Thee, and that it remains.” And this confession Christ accepts, and ever will accept.
2. Distinguish between the profession of love to Christ and the confession of it. In profession the person most prominent in our thoughts is “I who make it;” in confession, “He whose name I am confessing.” It is not in what we are to Christ, but in what Christ is to us, that our rest and security lie.
3. Observe, too, the period of Peter’s life when this confession is made. It is not his earliest confession; he has been brought to it through painful self-knowledge; it is the utterance of a tried maturity. To set young converts on an estimate of their feeling towards the Saviour, instead of encouraging them to trust in Him, is full of peril. Christian discipleship sometimes begins with love to Christ; and singularly blessed are they with whom it does. But in other ways souls are drawn to Christ; the weary go to Him for rest, the guilty for pardon, the helpless for succour. Such will say, “I trust in Christ,” “I have found Christ,” “I am following Christ;” but the words, perhaps, halt on their lips, “I love Christ.” It is not for us to insist on their utterance. They are not for our ears, but for His. And He knows how, from the trusting, the obedient, and the earnest, to draw at length the full confession, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.”
II. THE PROOF AND MANIFESTATION OF LOVE TO CHRIST.
1. In giving Peter the charge, “Feed My lambs; feed My sheep,” Christ was guarding him against a danger to which he was at this moment liable; the danger of sinking down into an indulgence of sentiment. We feel in a self-assertive world, from the strife for mastery, the restlessness of ambition, how blessed to retire to self-abasement before the Lord; how sweetly then from lowly lips falls the confession, “Thou knowest that I love Thee.” To cherish this life alone is very dangerous. Hence comes the pride that apes humility. Christ sends Peter from confessing, as He sent Mary from adoring Him, to do His work. It was in separating himself from the other disciples, in supposing himself better than they, that Peter displayed the self-confidence which he now so bitterly repented. He was not free from the temptation even in his penitence. It is possible to separate ourselves from others in our very consciousness of self-distrust. One of the saddest sights is that of men whose humblest words are a vaunting of themselves, whose very lowliness is sentimental and insincere.
2. A higher work is now committed to Peter than when Christ said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The pastoral office is higher than that of preaching the gospel of the kingdom; to watch over the flock is higher than to add to its numbers.
3. Here, too, would Peter have an opportunity for the constant exercise of lowliness. He would grow meek and gentle as he fed the lambs and shepherded the sheep; he would be humbled by every lesson he learnt of men’s impatience and folly and self-deception. Sympathy is the way to self-knowledge; our own penitence deepens as we know a brother’s sins.
4. They would serve, too, to deepen his love of Jesus; every brother’s fall would remind him of his own restoration. There is nothing which so deepens our lore to Christ as the larger knowledge of His grace which we gain as we see souls saved by Him.
5. In this work which Christ assigns to Peter, Peter may see the meaning of the struggle of contrition through which he is made to pass. He will be better able to bear with the flock because he knows himself. The heart broken with penitence will scarcely harden itself against a sinful brother.
III. THE CROWN AND PERFECTING OF LOVE TO CHRIST IS THAT FULL SELFSURRENDER BY WHICH WE SHALL GLORIFY GOD (Joh_21:18).
1. When he was young he girded himself and walked whither he would. How often he wandered, how far astray his hasty will led him! But when he could no longer go whither he would, when another girded him and carried him whither he would not, he accepted the appointment and the surrender of himself was complete. In one way or other, this privilege that we glorify God is given to every one who loves Jesus. Not all need the struggle and the martyrdom. There are meek souls whose whole life is sacrifice, whose will is ever submissive. Others require a sharp discipline. Whatever is needed will be given. And death seems appointed as the completion of all; the chequered, troubled life is vindicated as a Christian life by the death that glorifies God.
2. “And when He had spoken this He saith unto him, Follow Me.” It was the first call again repeated. When Peter had first heard it he thought that to obey it would lead him near a throne; now he knows it will conduct him to a cross. Yet he draws not back; for meanwhile he has been with Jesus, and love of Him now fills his soul. What dreams possess us of the honour, and triumphs of the Christian life when first we rank ourselves as disciples of Christ! Rarely indeed are these hopes fulfilled; we grow wiser with sad self-sacrifice as we become holier men. The boundless prospect narrows before us; we are well content “to fill a little sphere, so He be glorified.” (A. Mackennal, D D.)
Christ loved from gratitude
You remember the tale of Androcles and the lion. The man was condemned to be torn to pieces by beasts; but a lion, to which he was cast, instead of devouring him, licked his feet, because at some former time Androcles had extracted a thorn from the grateful creature’s foot. We have heard of an eagle that so loved a boy with whom he had played that, when the child was sick, the eagle sickened to; and when the child slept, this wild, strange bird of the air would sleep, but only then; and when the child awoke, the eagle awoke. When the child died, the bird died too. You remember that there is a picture in which Napoleon is represented as riding over the battle-field, and he stops his horse, as he sees a slain man with his favourite dog lying upon his bosom doing what he can to defend his poor dead master. Even the great man-slayer paused at such a sight. There is gratitude among the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air. And, surely, if we receive favours from God, and do not feel love to Him in return, we are worse than brute beasts. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Love a good augury
When the heathen killed their sacrifices in order to prophesy future events from the entrails, the worst augury they ever got was when the priest, after searching into the victim, could not find a heart; or if that heart was small and shrivelled. The soothsayers always declared that this omen was the sure sign of calamity. All the signs were evil if the heart of the offering was absent or deficient. It is so in very deed with religion and with each religious person. He that searches us searches principally our hearts. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Love before its judge
I. THE HISTORY OF THE QUESTION.
1. The writer, in continuing his account of what was said and done, goes on to say: “Now, when they had broken their fast, Jesus saith,” &c. Here we have a most interesting note of time. It was delicately characteristic of Jesus to see that all were strengthened and quieted before the questioning. No one who had not been present would have shown the sense of mingled homeliness and solemnity which this verse shows. When we read, “When Jesus sat thus on the well,” we say these two lines are by the same writer.
2. This question is a question to a believer. Faith goes before love. It is impossible to love one whom you do not even trust. Perhaps Christians have put you wrong by their unscientific way of telling you that all you have to do is “to give your hearts to Christ”; but you have no heart to give to Him, until by faith you receive the heart He gives to you. Believing is receiving; and when the love of Christ is received, the recipient loves Him back again.
3. This question reminds us that the great test of faith is love. “Faith worketh by love.” Sometimes faith and love are practically so much alike that we can hardly distinguish them. Talk to that true teacher of theology, a Christian child, and, while perhaps she will not say a word about faith, she will be sure to tell you that she “loves Jesus.” “Wrong!” says a hard old doctrinist, “we are justified by faith.” “Right!” say we; “for in the consciousness of that little heart love and faith are one.” A man may be true to Christ, yet if Christ were to say, “Understandest thou Me?” or “Followest thou Me?” or, “Confessest thou Me?” he could not always establish the fact of his discipleship. There is, however, no Christian heart but quivers to the question, “Lovest thou Me?” We set our seal to Wesley’s words, “We may die content without the knowledge of many truths, but if we die without love, would the knowledge of many truths avail us? Just as much as it would the devil. I will not quarrel with you about your opinions … only see that you love the Lord Jesus Christ.”
4. This question was asked in the spirit of reproof. There was reproof
(1) In the very appellative, “Simon, son of Jonas,” and the sound of it must have struck upon him like a bolt of ice, making his burning soul suddenly freeze. On the day of his introduction to Christ, it was predicted that he should be called “Peter”--that is, a stone. This prophecy was fulfilled on the day of his memorable confession. It is written of a certain caliph, that he used to give each of his principal officers an honourable surname suited to his qualities; and that, when he wished to show dissatisfaction, he used to drop it, calling him by his original name, which caused great alarm. This helps us to enter into the meaning of the Simon, son of Jonas, here. The startled disciple might have thought that this was as much as to say, “Thou hast nothing in thee answering to the name ‘Rock’; a rock does not run away, and does not ebb and flow; thou art not worthy of thy new name; until thou art cleared in this court, give it up.”
(2) In the reference to the other disciples--“More than these.” But how did they prove their love? By language? No; for they were dumb. By obedience? No; for when the Master said, “Bring of the fish that ye have caught,” they stood stock still, gazing. By work? No; they could not even haul the net up the strand; Simon did it. While a thought of satisfaction in the comparison of himself with them might have shot across his mind, the question sternly broke in upon it, “Lovest thou Me more than these?”
(3) In the plain allusion to his boastful speech, “If all shall be offended,” &c. “Now, Simon, what do you say?”
5. In reference to his most recent action. On the night before the Crucifixion, Jesus had said, “Simon, Satan asked to have you … when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren.” Had he done so? Not if we have correctly interpreted the words, “I go a fishing; we also go with thee.” He did wrong, and by his super-abundant vitality and eager life drew the others along with him; and this was not to establish his brethren. It was “a threefold hammer-stroke,” and had reference to his threefold sin of denial.
6. Think of the question in connection with the greatness of the questioner. Love to God is set forth in the “first and greatest commandment.” Christ claims the very same, “He that loveth father and mother more than Me,” &c. What John thought of Christ’s greatness appears from the words at the opening of his Gospel, which pulse all through the succeeding narrative; the writer does not once forget this, nor must the reader, any more than the singer must forget his key-note, or the builder that which he builds upon.
7. Think of the question in connection with Christ’s love to the disciple to whom He puts it. His love is great, because He Himself is great. As the ocean holds more water than the tiny lakelet, has more force, carries more weight, and can be wrought up into a grander storm, so does the heart of God hold more than the heart of man.
8. Notice the personality of the question. He deals with us one by one lovingly, each soul with a distinct love; asking each soul for a distinct response; to each speaks personally as when He said, “Adam, where art thou?” “Abraham, Abraham!” “Samuel, Samuel!” “Martha, Martha!” “Saul, Saul!” “Simon, son of Jonas.” English names are on His lips as well as Jewish names; answer to your name--it is spoken now--silently to the ear, audibly to the soul--“Lovest thou Me?”
II. THE HISTORY OF THE ANSWER.
1. It was an answer given after deep searchings of heart.
(1) The Searcher of hearts had so ordered the process of questioning as to compel this. The first sentence of it slashed right through the conscience just where it had been last wounded, and where it was still on fire. “Lovest thou Me more than these?” What does he answer? does he simply say, “Yes I do”? No! for the word for love which Christ employs is beyond him. Does he say no? No! Does he take up the challenge of comparison? No! never again. He is now done for ever with heroics, comparisons, consequential airs. Does he say out from black despondency, “I have been a self-deceiver, and what I thought was love was not love”? No! Was he silent? No! speak he must. He therefore looks up, and, with tumultuous throbs, whispers, “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest Thou art dear to me.”
(2) The searching eye is still upon him; still using the same word for love which Simon had humbly put aside for a weaker word, and giving this word greater emphasis, the Judge repeats the question. Six months before, Simon would have been ready to say, “Lord, dost Thou doubt me? Love Thee? Only try me! See if I will not gladly die for Thee!” But now, not daring to own such a lofty love as Christ’s word indicates, he still says, “Thou art dear to me.”
(3) Then the King of Grace comes down to him, accepts the humble word that Simon had chosen, and asks, “Am I dear to thee?” In the lightning of that instant, he looked round for something to which he should make his appeal in proof of the sincerity with which he could say this; and to what could he make it? Poor man! he thought just then, that if he looked to himself for a proof of his love, he could find little better than lies, and oaths, and treachery. With tears in his heart, in his tones, if not in his eyes, he burst out, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that Thou art dear to me!” Could any of us settle this question by an appeal to ourselves? Have we been satisfactory disciples? For all that, many a man, who is forced to answer “No,” may add, “Jesus, I am sure that I love Thee. Oh, see Thyself if I do not!” How does your child prove his love to you? Does he not sometimes give you trouble? Does his face never redden with sullen temper or with passionate flash? And are not these signals contradictory of love? They may seem so, yet when the proud little heart seems to be full of rebellion, the young rebel wishes you could but see into it. He is quite unable to prove it from facts, but he knows that he loves you, and you know it. Sometimes we have no proofs to give in verification of our love to God. The love is in our heart, but it is possible to be known, not by its doings, but by itself; and the love itself only God can see.
2. The question had to be answered, not verbally alone, but practically. Where there is love, there will be the ministry of love. This ministry is work for souls before conversion and after it. The first is described under a metaphor taken from the vocation of a fisherman, the other from that of a shepherd. When souls are drawn out from the sea of spiritual death, and “captured for their life,” the metaphor of “fishing” breaks down: and the metaphor of “shepherding” is substituted.
3. Such an answer as that of Peter may include in its consequences much that will go against natural inclination (verse 18). This oracle darkly told of coming events that would strike at all his natural loves and likings. He liked the free, impetuous joy of living. He was to be “bound.” He liked to take the lead. He was to “be carried,” he liked to have his own will; he was to be carried “whither he would not.” He liked the glory of heroism: he was to die on a cross. He liked rapidity of movement: he was to plod on to old age without the promise of a brilliant career. Before a man’s life can fully answer the question, “Lovest thou Me?” he must be ready to give up his own choice as to the way of showing it, and passively accept or actively obey the will of God alone.
4. A disciple is to make the answer to this question the one great business of his life (verses 20, 21). A Christian may prosecute endless questions into the mysteries around him; and while he does so in season, with due regard to proportion and perspective, taking care to subordinate each to its own place in relation to the one great question. Christ will not say of any such thing, “What is that to thee?” There was, however, a reason why His rejoinder to this question should have in it something of the nature of a reprimand. Some sin, or dangerous infirmity, must have been waking up. Jesus, therefore, instead of answering him, said, “What is that to thee?” and repeated His charge, “Follow thou Me.” placing emphasis on the word thou. “Mind your own business; put all your soul into it; this is as much as you can do.” As it was with Peter then, so it may be with you now. You may be at a crisis and in a condition making it perilous to have your attention divided by, the most fascinating subject that lies outside the soul’s great business; and Christ may be saying, with reference to what is most exciting your speculative interest, “What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Love to Christ
At first sight this appears a singular question to Peter. You would expect expostulation and reproof. But Jesus had no need to ask Peter whether he had repented. He had “turned and looked upon Peter;” and Peter’s heart broke. He had seen the former affection of Peter to his Master return with a full tide. He who knew all things knew that Peter loved Him; and gave Peter an opportunity of thrice declaring it in the presence of his fellow-disciples. When our Lord asks a disciple three times whether he loves Him, he teaches us that to love Christ is essential to our discipleship. It is “the first and great commandment,” without it we are but as “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
I. THE REASONS ON WHICH OUR OBLIGATION TO LOVE CHRIST RESTS.
1. The supreme excellency of the object. We are under a kind of natural obligation to love that which is excellent. We are certainly under a moral one. In Christ all good meets; it exists in absolute perfection, and can have no addition.
(1) Do the condescensions of superior wisdom attract us? In him we see the wisdom of God, speaking to man, in words clear as the light of the intelligence from which they proceeded.
(2) Are we affected by disinterested benevolence? Behold His life of labour, given freely without an exacted return.
(3) Does humility, connected with great virtues and great actions, command the homage of the heart? It was said of Him, “He shall not strive nor cry,” &c. He often said, “See thou tell no man.”
(4) Is there a charm in the noble passion of patriotism? For His country our Lord lived. His heart clings to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
(5) Does friendship move us? Think of the family of Bethany; the disciple whom Jesus loved; and his kind regards for the whole body of his disciples.
(6) All moral virtues were in Him. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled.” And all the stronger virtues of religion; such as meekness, patience, resignation, devotion.
2. The generous interposition of our Lord in the great work of our redemption (Rom_5:7-8; 1Jn_4:10).
3. The benefits which we are constantly receiving from His hands. Do we think of life? We owe it to His intercession. Of ordinary mercies? They are the fruits of His redemption; for we deserve nothing. Of the ordinances? They are visitations of His grace. Do we regard the future as well as the present? We expect His kingdom. Do we anticipate death? We have the victory by Him. Judgment? We have justification through His blood. Do we think of heaven? We view Him as the grand source of light, love, and joy. Should constant benefits excite love? Then surely our love ought to be constant. Should benefits of the highest kind excite the highest love? Then our love ought to be supreme. And are they never to cease? Then ought our love to be eternal.
II. THE GREAT OFFICE OF THIS GRACE IN EXPERIMENTAL AND PRACTICAL RELIGION.
1. It is this which gives the true character to evangelical obedience. None hut this is acceptable and rewardable. Man is in three states--unawakened, penitent, believing. In the first he can have no love to Christ, because he loves the world. In the second he has no love, because he has the “fear which hath torment.” In the third, only, he loves, because this “love is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him.” From this principle obedience derives its character. In unawakened man some acts of obedience may be apparent; but these may spring from natural temperament, from a respect to man’s opinion, or even from Pharisaism. In the penitent there is the obedience of the slave: in the believer obedience is filial; his love is the “fulfilling of the law; and God graciously accepts what is done for His name’s sake.
2. It is the great instrument of high and holy attainments. It produces trust, as that reciprocally produces love; it produces prayer, and so receives blessings from God; it produces the love of every thing that is like Christ. Holiness is the element of love; and it bears the soul into it.
3. It is the grand antagonist-principle of the love of the world (1Jn_2:15). They cannot co-exist.
4. It is the root and nutriment of charity to man (1Co_13:1-13.).
5. It removes terrors from futurity. Futurity discloses the world where Jesus is. That is the heaven of heavens to a Christian. (R. Watson.)
Love to Christ
Love to Christ is the commanding and crowning grace of a Christian. As all life, movement, force in man depend on the action of the central organ, the heart, so all graces, each one having its own function and power, have their spring and strength from the grace of love. Express it another way: All life, and growth, and power, and bloom in nature depend on the vital air. A plant grows indeed from its root; it lives by the air; it breathes and blossoms into beauty by the air. The plant of faith grows, the flower of faith blooms, the fruit of faith ripens in the genial atmosphere of love. Yes, love is the heavenly air in which all the graces of the Christian character “live and move and have their being.” Why love Christ? For what He is, and for what He has done, including under this last point the continuation of His work of love, its triumph in His atoning death being carried forward into the present, and to be consummated in the future. How should we love Christ? “Lovest thou Me?”
1. Evidently our love to Christ is personal.
2. Love to Christ should be positive. Simon Peter answered, “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”
3. For it will be practical. The Christian life springs at the heart, but it works, it must work, outwards. This, a necessity of its nature. If the blood be not pulsing even to the fingertips, I am dead or dying. We see the practical effect of such loves, as the love of gold, of fame, of pleasure. The Christian’s love to Christ will prove itself. (D. S. Brunton.)
The Christian’s love for Christ
And why should Christ ask that question? Did not He know whether Simon loved Him or not? Certainly He did, for He knew all things. Then what could be His object in thus catechising Peter? Evidently, He wished to teach him a lesson of some kind or other. He wished to remind him of his former denial, and admonish him never to do the like again. Mark the reply. Peter has lea
