John 21 came to mind while writing an entirely different idea early morning a few days ago. Particularly Simon Peter's response when Jesus probed the depth of his love. After all, before leaving for Gethsemane, Simon had pledged, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.... Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you" Matthew 26:33, 35.
Now...on his third appearance to the seven disciples after his resurrection, Jesus interrogated that boast. Did Simon "truly love" Jesus more than the other ten, that is, with Agape love—the love of will, not emotion? In reply Simon admitted to having –friendship love for Jesus—of the emotion, not agape. This happened twice more, with the same interrogation—"love me agape", answered by, "love you as a friend". Then, the third time, Jesus asked, "Simon, are you sure you have friendship love for me"? At this point, Simon Peter found the humility that made him worthy of being an apostle. For he claimed only friendship love for Jesus. Gone the boasting of his "eternal loyalty to death" that characterized his earlier self. Now he claimed only that he loved Jesus as a learning disciple. Important point...we can claim MORE now than Simon claimed THEN only if we have experienced life-changing challenges to our Faith in Christ that proved we have deeper than friendship faith and love for Jesus. We may freely criticize Simon for previously boasting of love he thought he had, but didn't. We appreciate his honesty in claiming only the friendship love his denial of Jesus proved he had. Do we ever find ourselves thinking we love Jesus more only to discover that our response to problems, challenges, doubts and temptation prove we really love him less? I understand Simon from sometimes humiliating personal failures. These truths for sure come from this account. One, Simon Peter would never again boast except, with the apostle Paul, in the cross of Christ Galatians 6:14. Two, God will never condemn us for admitting, and asking forgiveness, for being sinful, failing him, falling miserably short of even our intentions, let alone of Christ's perfection. Three, God will never exonerate us if we claim a loyalty, commitment and perseverance to Christ's righteousness that we have no fixed intention of proving; and, if we have the intent, find our humanity overtaking even our best intentions.
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