September 6, 2024

Passage Read: John 21 - Acts 1
Meditation Verses: John 21:17-18

Thought

Jesus adjusts His question to meet Peter where he is. Jesus first asks if Peter loves Him with a sacrificial love, but after denying Jesus three times, Peter no longer dares claim such a love for Him. The best he can admit to is brotherly love. In Jesus's third question, He asks Peter if he loves Him with brotherly love. Of course, Peter for his part, in each response, says that Jesus knows better than him how much he loves Him. He is greatly mollified. Yet Jesus goes on to tell Peter of the kind of death with which he will glorify Jesus. Jesus tells Peter that he will attain to sacrificial love for Him.

Application

Jesus meets us where we're at, but He intends for us to grow beyond that. The biggest change in Peter comes from the arrival of the Holy Spirit, which is powerful assurance that Jesus indeed has not abandoned him. It is amazing to me that Jesus would choose someone like me, to belong to Him, but I need Jesus to do a greater work in me, to increase my faith and deepen my love from brotherly to sacrificial.