Selfless vs Fondness

JOHN 21

Jesus, now resurrected, visits the disciples again in person, and they are doing what they know best, fishing. Luke, in his account we call Acts, tells us that the disciples were to stay in Jerusalem until Jesus sent the helper He promised. Some see a contradiction in Scripture, because they were told that, yet they were now in Galilee fishing. In Matthew 28, they are told that Jesus will appear to them in Galilee, and later in the same chapter they are told of their mission to spread the Gospel, with Him teaching them while in Galilee. Later, as Luke explains, just before Jesus ascension, He tells them to stay in Jerusalem, which they then do. OK, not really the main point here, but little tidbits like that kind of keep me going.

What I personally love about this last chapter in John is Jesus’ three-fold restoration of Peter. And forgive me for digging into the text a bit deeper, I trust it will not be too boring. It is easy to look over the passage and see the word “love”. Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, Peter says yes, I love you, and so on. We know how this goes. Taking a closer look, we can see that Jesus is making a specific point to Peter, and it carries on beyond their main discussion.

In verse 15, Jesus uses the word “agapas”, a form of the word agape meaning to selflessly give which would read, “Peter, are you giving all of yourself to Me?” In short, this word is literally “you are loving”; it is a continual action, and is uses the selfless giving word in the Greek.

Peter answers with the word “philo”, a form of the word phileo, which implies a brotherly love (Phila-delphia, city of brotherly love?), and put simply, Peter’s reply would be “Yes, Lord, I am being fond of you”. Also a continual action, yet showing the affectionate side of love.

Verse 16 repeats the same, and then in verse 17, when Jesus asks Peter a third time, Jesus uses the “philo” word, and Peter responds with the same. What follows then is very telling. Jesus basically lays out for Peter that he will die a martyr’s death, carried away and arms stretched out, a picture of execution, likely by crucifixion, and He makes the point that he wants and needs Peter to give all of himself for the cause of Christ, even to the point of death. It is good that Peter is fond of Jesus, and Jesus stresses the requirement to selflessly give, above all the emotional aspect of loving Him.

Finally, Peter questions why John might get to live a long life while he does not. Always impetuous, this Peter. Jesus is rather blunt, “what is that to you?” He asks. If I am Peter, I hope I am saying, ‘OK, good point, I’m fine now”. I call this “looking up, not around.”

We all, like Peter, like John, have work to do for Christ. And we can sit around and be so very fond of Jesus, we can love Him like Peter said he did, after fishing. After all, Peter was thrilled to see his friend. Or we can take the next step and give it all, as Peter then went on to do. I’m not looking for any of us to be martyred, and yet Jesus demands so much more than simply our affection. We need to never stop being thankful that He would save us, and then we need to put that emotion into real action. How does that look for me, or for you? It’s a great question to wrestle with.

John was there, he saw the life of Jesus unfold, and he wrote it down. I trust what he says he witnessed. John wants us to see how glorious Christ is, and then trust and worship Him, and Him alone.