John 21:15

We have here Christ's discourse with Peter after dinner, so much of it as relates to himself, in which,

I. He examines his love to him, and gives him a charge concerning his flock, Joh 21:15-17. Observe,

1. When Christ entered into this discourse with Peter. - It was after they had dined: they had all eaten, and were filled, and, it is probable, were entertained with such edifying discourse as our Lord Jesus used to make his table-talk. Christ foresaw that what he had to say to Peter would give him some uneasiness, and therefore would not say it till they had dined, because he would not spoil his dinner. Peter was conscious to himself that he had incurred his Master's displeasure, and could expect no other than to be upbraided with his treachery and ingratitude. "Was this thy kindness to thy friend? Did not I tell thee what a coward thou wouldest prove?" Nay, he might justly expect to be struck out of the roll of the disciples, and to be expelled the sacred college. Twice, if not thrice, he had seen his Master since his resurrection, and he said not a word to him of it. We may suppose Peter full of doubts upon what terms he stood with his Master; sometimes hoping the best, because he had received favour from him in common with the rest; yet not without some fears, lest the chiding would come at last that would pay for all. But now, at length, his Master put him out of his pain, said what he had to say to him, and confirmed him in his place as an apostle. He did not tell him of his fault hastily, but deferred it for some time; did not tell him of it unseasonably, to disturb the company at dinner, but when they had dined together, in token of reconciliation, then discoursed he with him about it, not as with a criminal, but as with a friend. Peter had reproached himself for it, and therefore Christ did not reproach him for it, nor tell him of it directly, but only by a tacit intimation; and, being satisfied in his sincerity, the offence was not only forgiven, but forgotten; and Christ let him know that he was as dear to him as ever. Herein he has given us an encouraging instance of his tenderness towards penitents, and has taught us, in like manner, to restore such as are fallen with a spirit of meekness.

2. What was the discourse itself. Here was the same question three times asked, the same answer three times returned, and the same reply three times given, with very little variation, and yet no vain repetition. The same thing was repeated by our Saviour, in speaking it, the more to affect Peter, and the other disciples that were present; it is repeated by the evangelist, in writing it, the more to affect us, and all that read it.

(1.) Three times Christ asks Peter whether he loves him or no. The first time the question is, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Observe,

[1.] How he calls him: Simon, son of Jonas. He speaks to him by name, the more to affect him, as Luk 22:31. Simon, Simon. He does not call him Cephas, nor Peter, the name he had given him (for he had lost the credit of his strength and stability, which those names signified), but his original name, Simon. Yet he gives him no hard language, does not call him out of his name, though he deserved it; but as he had called him when he pronounced him blessed, Simon Bar-jona, Mat 16:17. He calls him son of Jonas (or John or Johanan), to remind him of his extraction, how mean it was, and unworthy the honour to which he was advanced.

[2.] How he catechises him: Lovest thou me more than these?

First, Lovest thou me? If we would try whether we are Christ's disciples indeed, this must be the enquiry, Do we love him? But there was a special reason why Christ put in now to Peter. 1. His fall had given occasion to doubt of his love: "Peter, I have cause to suspect thy love; for if thou hadst loved me thou wouldst not have been ashamed and afraid to own me in my sufferings. How canst thou say thou lovest me, when thy heart was not with me?" Note, We must not reckon it an affront to have our sincerity questioned, when we ourselves have done that which makes it questionable; after a shaking fall, we must take heed of settling too soon, lest we settle upon a wrong bottom. The question is affecting; he does not ask, "Dost thou fear me? Dost thou honour me? Dost thou admire me?" but, "Dost thou love me? Give but proof of this, and the affront shall be passed by, and no more said of it." Peter had professed himself a penitent, witness his tears, and his return to the society of the disciples; he was now upon his probation as a penitent; but the question is not, "Simon, how much hast thou wept? how often hast thou fasted, and afflicted thy soul?" but, Dost thou love me? It is this that will make the other expressions of repentance acceptable. The great thing Christ eyes in penitents is their eyeing him in their repentance. Much is forgiven her, not because she wept much, but because she loved much. 2. His function would give occasion for the exercise of his love. Before Christ would commit his sheep to his care, he asked him, Lovest thou me? Christ has such a tender regard to his flock that he will not trust it with any but those that love him, and therefore will love all that are his for his sake. Those that do not truly love Christ will never truly love the souls of men, or will naturally care for their state as they should; nor will that minister love his work that does not love his Master. Nothing but the love of Christ will constrain ministers to go cheerfully through the difficulties and discouragements they meet with in their work, Co2 5:13, Co2 5:14. But this love will make their work easy, and them in good earnest in it.

Secondly, Lovest thou me more than these? pleion toutōn. 1. "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these, more than thou lovest these persons?" Dost thou love me more than thou dost James or John, thy intimate friends, or Andrew, thy own brother and companion: Those do not love Christ aright that do not love him better than the best friend they have in the world, and make it to appear whenever they stand in comparison or in competition. Or, "more than thou lovest these things, these boats and nets - more than all the pleasure of fishing, which some make a recreation of - more than the gain of fishing, which others make a calling of." Those only love Christ indeed that love him better than all the delights of sense and all the profits of this world. "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these occupations thou art now employed in? If so, leave them, to employ thyself wholly in feeding my flock." So Dr. Whitby. 2. "Lovest thou me more than these love me, more than any of the rest of the disciples love me?" And then the question is intended to upbraid him with his vain-glorious boast, Though all men should deny thee, yet will not I. "Art thou still of the same mind?" Or, to intimate to him that he had now more reason to love him than any of them had, for more had been forgiven to him than to any of them, as much as his sin in denying Christ was greater than theirs in forsaking him. Tell me therefore which of them will love him most? Luk 7:42. Note, We should all study to excel in our love to Christ. It is no breach of the peace to strive which shall love Christ best; nor any breach of good manners to go before others in this love.

Thirdly, The second and third time that Christ put this question, 1. He left out the comparison more than these, because Peter, in his answer, modestly left it out, not willing to compare himself with his brethren, much less to prefer himself before them. Though we cannot say, We love Christ more than others do, yet we shall be accepted if we can say, We love him indeed. 2. In the last he altered the word, as it is in the original. In the first two enquiries, the original word is Agapas me - Dost thou retain a kindness for me? In answer to which Peter uses another word, more emphatic, Philō se - I love thee dearly. In putting the question the last time, Christ uses that word: And dost thou indeed love me dearly?

(2.) Three times Peter returns the same answer to Christ: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Observe, [1.] Peter does not pretend to love Christ more than the rest of the disciples did. He is now ashamed of that rash word of his, Though all men deny thee, yet will not I; and he had reason to be ashamed of it. Note, Though we must aim to be better than others, yet we must, in lowliness of mind, esteem others better than ourselves; for we know more evil of ourselves than we do of any of our brethren. [2.] Yet he professes again and again that he loves Christ: "Yea, Lord, surely I love thee; I were unworthy to live if I did not." He had a high esteem and value for him, a grateful sense of his kindness, and was entirely devoted to his honour and interest; his desire was towards him, as one he was undone without; and his delight in him, as one he should be unspeakably happy in. This amounts to a profession of repentance for his sin, for it grieves us to have affronted one we love; and to a promise of adherence to him for the future Lord, I love thee, and will never leave thee. Christ prayed that his faith might not fail (Luk 22:32), and, because his faith did not fail, his love did not; for faith will work by love. Peter had forfeited his claim of relation to Christ. He was now to be re-admitted, upon his repentance. Christ puts his trial upon this issue: Dost thou love me? And Peter joins issue upon it: Lord, I love thee. Note, Those who can truly say, through grace, that they love Jesus Christ, may take the comfort of their interest in him, notwithstanding their daily infirmities. [3.] He appeals to Christ himself for the proof of it: Thou knowest that I love thee; and the third time yet more emphatically: Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. He does not vouch his fellow-disciples to witness for him - they might be deceived in him; nor does he think his own word might be taken - the credit of that was destroyed already; but he calls Christ himself to witness, First, Peter was sure that Christ knew all things, and particularly that he knew the heart, and was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of it, Joh 16:30. Secondly, Peter was satisfied of this, that Christ, who knew all things, knew the sincerity of his love to him, and would be ready to attest it in his favour. It is a terror to a hypocrite to think that Christ knows all things; for the divine omniscience will be a witness against him. But it is a comfort to a sincere Christian that he has that to appeal to: My witness is in heaven, my record is on high. Christ knows us better than we know ourselves. Though we know not our own uprightness, he knows it. [4.] He was grieved when Christ asked him the third time, Lovest thou me? Joh 21:17. First, Because it put him in mind of his threefold denial of Christ, and was plainly designed to do so; and when he thought thereon he wept. Every remembrance of past sins, even pardoned sins, renews the sorrow of a true penitent. Thou shalt be ashamed, when I am pacified towards thee. Secondly, Because it put him in fear lest his Master foresaw some further miscarriage of his, which would be as great a contradiction to this profession of love to him as the former was. "Surely," thinks Peter, "my Master would not thus put me upon the rack if he did not see some cause for it. What would become of me if I should be again tempted?" Godly sorrow works carefulness and fear, Co2 7:11.

(3.) Three times Christ committed the care of his flock to Peter: Feed my lambs; feed my sheep; feed my sheep. [1.] Those whom Christ committed to Peter's care were his lambs and his sheep. The church of Christ is his flock, which he hath purchased with his own blood (Act 20:28), and he is the chief shepherd of it. In this flock some are lambs, young and tender and weak, others are sheep, grown to some strength and maturity. The Shepherd here takes care of both, and of the lambs first, for upon all occasions he showed a particular tenderness for them. He gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries them in his bosom. Isa 40:11. [2.] The charge he gives him concerning them is to feed them. The word used in Joh 21:15, Joh 21:17, is boske, which strictly signifies to give them food; but the word used in Joh 21:16 is poimaine, which signifies more largely to do all the offices of a shepherd to them: "Feed the lambs with that which is proper for them, and the sheep likewise with food convenient. The lost sheep of the house of Israel, seek and feed them, and the other sheep also which are not of this fold." Note, It is the duty of all Christ's ministers to feed his lambs and sheep. Feed them, that is, teach them; for the doctrine of the gospel is spiritual food. Feed them, that is, "Lead them to the green pastures, presiding in their religious assemblies, and ministering all the ordinances to them. Feed them by personal application to their respective state and case; not only lay meat before them, but feed those with it that are wilful and will not, or weak and cannot feed themselves." When Christ ascended on high, he gave pastors, left his flock with those that loved him, and would take care of them for his sake. [3.] But why did he give this charge particularly to Peter? Ask the advocates for the pope's supremacy, and they will tell you that Christ hereby designed to give to Peter, and therefore to his successors, and therefore to the bishops of Rome, an absolute dominion and headship over the whole Christian church as if a charge to serve the sheep gave a power to lord it over all the shepherds; whereas, it is plain, Peter himself never claimed such a power, nor did the other disciples ever own it in him. This charge given to Peter to preach the gospel is by a strange artifice made to support the usurpation of his pretended successors, that fleece the sheep, and, instead of feeding them, feed upon them. But the particular application to Peter here was designed, First, To restore him to his apostleship, now that he repented of his abjuration of it, and to renew his commission, both for his own satisfaction, and for the satisfaction of his brethren. A commission given to one convicted of a crime is supposed to amount to a pardon; no doubt, this commission given to Peter was an evidence that Christ was reconciled to him else he would never have reposed such a confidence in him. Of some that have deceived us we say, "Though we forgive them, we will never trust them;" but Christ, when he forgave Peter, trusted him with the most valuable treasure he had on earth. Secondly, It was designed to quicken him to a diligent discharge of his office as an apostle. Peter was a man of a bold and zealous spirit, always forward to speak and act, and, lest he should be tempted to take upon him the directing of the shepherds, he is charged to feed the sheep, as he himself charges all the presbyters to do, and not to lord it over God's heritage, Pe1 5:2, Pe1 5:3. If he will be doing, let him do this, and pretend no further. Thirdly, What Christ said to him he said to all his disciples; he charged them all, not only to be fishers of men (though that was said to Peter, Luk 5:10), by the conversion of sinners, but feeders of the flock, by the edification of saints.

II. Christ, having thus appointed Peter his doing work, next appoints him his suffering work. Having confirmed to him the honour of an apostle, he now tells him of further preferment designed him - the honour of a martyr. Observe,

1. How his martyrdom is foretold (Joh 21:18): Thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, being compelled to it, and another shall gird thee (as a prisoner that is pinioned) and carry thee whither naturally thou wouldest not.

(1.) He prefaces the notice he gives to Peter of his sufferings with a solemn asseveration, Verily, verily, I say unto thee. It was not spoken of as a thing probable, which perhaps might happen, but as a thing certain, I say it to thee. "Others, perhaps, will say to thee, as thou didst to me, This shall not be unto thee; but I say it shall." As Christ foresaw all his own sufferings, so he foresaw the sufferings of all his followers, and foretold them, though not in particular, as to Peter, yet in general, that they must take up their cross. Having charged him to feed his sheep, he bids him not to expect ease and honour in it, but trouble and persecution, and to suffer ill for doing well.

(2.) He foretels particularly that he should die a violent death, by the hands of an executioner. The stretching out of his hands, some think, points at the manner of his death by crucifying; and the tradition of the ancients, if we may rely upon that, informs us that Peter was crucified at Rome under Nero, a.d. 68, or, as others say, 79. Others think it points at the bonds and imprisonments which those are hampered with that are sentenced to death. The pomp and solemnity of an execution add much to the terror of death, and to any eye of sense make it look doubly formidable. Death, in these horrid shapes, has often been the lot of Christ's faithful ones, who yet have overcome it by the blood of the Lamb. This prediction, though pointing chiefly at his death, was to have its accomplishment in his previous sufferings. It began to be fulfilled presently, when he was imprisoned, Act 6:3; Act 5:18; Act 12:4. No more is implied here in his being carried whither he would not than that it was a violent death that he should be carried to, such a death as even innocent nature could not think of without dread, nor approach without some reluctance. He that puts on the Christian does not put off the man. Christ himself prayed against the bitter cup. A natural aversion to pain and death is well reconcileable with a holy submission to the will of God in both. Blessed Paul, though longing to be unloaded, owns he cannot desire to be unclothed, Co2 5:4.

(3.) He compares this with his former liberty. "Time was when thou knewest not any of these hardships, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest." Where trouble comes we are apt to aggravate it with this, that it has been otherwise; and to fret the more at the grievances of restraint, sickness, and poverty, because we have known the sweets of liberty, health, and plenty, Job 29:2; Psa 42:4. But we may turn it the other way, and reason thus with ourselves: "How many years of prosperity have I enjoyed more than I deserved and improved? And, having received good, shall I not receive evil also?" See here, [1.] What a change may possibly be made with us, as to our condition in this world! Those that have girded themselves with strength and honour, and indulged themselves in the greatest liberties, perhaps levities, may be reduced to such circumstances as are the reverse of all this. See Sa1 2:5. [2.] What a change is presently made with those that leave all to follow Christ! They must no longer gird themselves, but he must gird them! and must no longer walk whither they will, but whither he will. [3.] What a change will certainly be made with us if we should live to be old! Those who, when they were young, had strength of body and vigour of mind, and could easily go through business and hardship, and take the pleasures they had a mind to, when they shall be old, will find their strength gone, like Samson, when his hair was cut and he could not shake himself as at other times.

(4.) Christ tells Peter he should suffer thus in his old age. [1.] Though he should be old, and in the course of nature not likely to live long, yet his enemies would hasten him out of the world violently when he was about to retire out of it peaceably, and would put out his candle when it was almost burned down to the socket. See Ch2 36:17. [2.] God would shelter him from the rage of his enemies till he should come to be old, that he might be made the fitter for sufferings, and the church might the longer enjoy his services.

2. The explication of this prediction (Joh 21:19), This spoke he to Peter, signifying by what death he should glorify God, when he had finished his course. Observe, (1.) That it is not only appointed to all once to die, but it is appointed to each what death he shall die, whether natural or violent, slow or sudden, easy or painful. When Paul speaks of so great a death, he intimates that there are degrees of death; there is one way into the world, but many ways out, and God has determined which way we should go. (2.) That it is the great concern of every good man, whatever death he dies, to glorify God in it; for what is our chief end but this, to die to the Lord, at the word of the Lord? When we die patiently, submitting to the will of God, - die cheerfully, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, - and die usefully, witnessing to the truth and goodness of religion and encouraging others, we glorify God in dying: and this is the earnest expectation and hope of all good Christians, as it was Paul's, that Christ may be magnified in them living and dying, Phi 1:20. (3.) That the death of the martyrs was in a special manner for the glorifying of God. The truths of God, which they died in the defence of, are hereby confirmed. The grace of God, which carried them with so much constancy through their sufferings, is hereby magnified. And the consolations of God, which have abounded towards them in their sufferings, and his promises, the springs of their consolations, have hereby been recommended to the faith and joy of all the saints. The blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the church, and the conversion and establishment of thousands. Precious therefore in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, as that which honours him; and those who thereby at such an expense honour him he will honour.

3. The word of command he gives him hereupon: When he had spoken thus, observing Peter perhaps to look blank upon it, he saith unto him, Follow me. Probably he rose from the place where he had sat at dinner, walked off a little, and bade Peter attend him. This word, Follow me, was (1.) A further confirmation of his restoration to his Master's favour, and to his apostleship; for Follow me was the first call. (2.) It was an explication of the prediction of his sufferings, which perhaps Peter at first did not fully understand, till Christ gave him that key to it, Follow me: "Expect to be treated as I have been, and to tread the same bloody path that I have trodden before thee; for the disciple is not greater than his Lord." (3.) It was to excite him to, and encourage him in, faithfulness and diligence in his work as an apostle. He had told him to feed his sheep, and let him set his Master before him as an example of pastoral care: "Do as I have done." Let the under-shepherds study to imitate the Chief Shepherd. They had followed Christ while he was here upon earth, and now that he was leaving them he till preached the same duty to them though to be performed in another way, Follow me; still they must follow the rules he had given them and the example he had set them. And what greater encouragement could they have than this, both in services and in sufferings? [1.] That herein they did follow him, and it was their present honour; who would be ashamed to follow such a leader? [2.] That hereafter they should follow him, and that would be their future happiness; and so it is a repetition of the promise Christ had given Peter (Joh 13:36), Thou shalt follow me afterwards. Those that faithfully follow Christ in grace shall certainly follow him to glory.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. Simon lovest thou me] Peter had thrice denied his Lord, and now Christ gives him an opportunity in some measure to repair his fault by a triple confession.

More than these?] This was a kind of reproach to Peter: he had professed a more affectionate attachment to Christ than the rest; he had been more forward in making professions of friendship and love than any of the others; and no one (Judas excepted) had treated his Lord so basely. As he had before intimated that his attachment to his Master was more than that of the rest, our Lord now puts the question to him, Dost thou love me more than these? To which Peter made the most modest reply - Thou knowest I love thee, but no longer dwells on the strength of his love, nor compares himself with even the meanest of his brethren. He had before cast the very unkind reflection on his brethren, Though all be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended, Mt 26:33. But he had now learned, by dreadful experience, that he who trusteth his own heart is a fool; and that a man's sufficiency for good is of the Lord alone.

The words, more than these, Bishop Pearce thinks refer to the provisions they were eating, or to their secular employments; for says he, "It does not seem probable that Jesus should put a question to Peter which he could not possibly answer; because he could only know his own degree of love for Jesus, not that of the other disciples." But it appears to me that our Lord refers to the profession made by Peter, which I have quoted above.

It is remarkable that in these three questions our Lord uses the verb αγαπαω, which signifies to love affectionately, ardently, supremely, perfectly - See Clarke on Mt 21:37; and that Peter always replies, using the verb φιλεω, which signifies to love, to like, to regard, to feel friendship for another. As if our Lord had said, "Peter, dost thou love me ardently and supremely?" To which he answers, "Lord, I feel an affection for thee-I do esteem thee-but dare, at present, say no more."

There is another remarkable change of terms in this place. In Joh 21:15; Joh 21:17, our Lord uses the verb βοσκδω, to feed, and in Joh 21:16 he uses the word ποιμαινω, which signifies to tend a flock, not only to feed, but to take care of, guide, govern, defend, c., by which he seems to intimate that it is not sufficient merely to offer the bread of life to the congregation of the Lord, but he must take care that the sheep be properly collected, attended to, regulated, guided, c. and it appears that Peter perfectly comprehended our Lord's meaning, and saw that it was a direction given not only to him, and to the rest of the disciples, but to all their successors in the Christian ministry for himself says, 1Jo 5:2: Feed the flock of God (ποιμανατε το ποιμνιον του Θεου) which is among you, taking the oversight (επισκοπουντες, acting as superintendents and guardians,) not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Every spiritual shepherd of Christ has a flock, composed of LAMBS-young converts, and SHEEP-experienced Christians, to feed, guide, regulate, and govern. To be properly qualified for this, his wisdom and holiness should always exceed those of his flock. Who is sufficient for these things? The man who lives in God, and God in him.

To the answer of Christ, in Joh 21:16, the later Syriac adds, If thou lovest me and esteemest me, feed my sheep.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Joh_21:15-17

So when they had dined, Jesus saith … Simon son of Judas, lovest thou Me more than these?

Peters restoration

I. THE LORDS 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 Christs 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 Christs own inquiry shows that the matter is not indifferent to Him. Despise His peoples 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 peoples 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 Christs 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 Gods holy Son would do it if He could!

II. THE DISCIPLES 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 Peters 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 Gods 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 Christs 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 LORDS 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Saviours 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. Peters 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 Christs 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. Loves 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. Cowpers 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 patients pulse to judge his heart, so Jesus tested at once the pulse of Peters 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 Masters 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 Gods 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 Redeemers 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 Lords 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 Peters 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 Names 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 Christs 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 mans 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Masters 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 Peters 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 Peters 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 Gods 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 Peters love

I. We gather from OUR LORDS 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 Lords heart is, in all sinless things, like ours. He found gratification there, not only in Peters 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 sinners affection, and such a claim as even a sinners 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 Peters 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 CHRISTS 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 hearts deepest love.

3. That love is the important thing. Christ did not catechise Peter as to his faith.

II. THE INFERENCES FROM PETERS 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.)

Peters 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 Gods 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 Christs 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. PETERS LOVE TO CHRIST.

1. There is a beautiful order in Christs 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 Peters 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 Peters 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 Peters 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 mens impatience and folly and self-deception. Sympathy is the way to self-knowledge; our own penitence deepens as we know a brothers sins.

4. They would serve, too, to deepen his love of Jesus; every brothers 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 creatures 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 Wesleys 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 Christs 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 mans 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 souls 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 Peters 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 mans 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 names 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 Christians love to Christ will prove itself. (D. S. Brunton.)

The Christians 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 learned his weakness by that ignominious fall which he had, and dares not say he loves Jesus more than others; he is not willing to repeat his former assertion, I will lay down my life for Thy sake; he can only say, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. The question being put the second time seems to have this import--Are you sure, Simon, son of Jonas, that you love Me; for, you remember, you once professed that attachment, and then belied your words. What bitter recollections of his former treachery must have rushed at that moment over Peters mind! No wonder Peter was grieved and humbled.

I. Concerning THE NATURE OF THE BELIEVERS LOVE TO CHRIST.

1. In the first place, it is of Divine origin. It is a truth which the Christian ought never to forget, that he is indebted to God for everything good that he possesses: for every emotion of penitence, for every ray of hope, for every exercise of faith, for every heavenly aspiration, for every throb of love. Man made man a sinner, but man never made man a saint. That belongs to God. I know there are some who maintain that natural man is not so bad after all. Some say that regeneration is not a new creation, but only the development of an old, inward germ, which was left after the fall. That may be the teaching of pride and reason, but it is not that of Scripture or of human experience. If we had no other argument to prove that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, that is sufficient--that man, in his natural state, hates Christ, and yet is brought sometimes to love Him. The power that can produce such a change must be Divine.

2. But, again, the believers love to Christ is unquenchable; the same power which creates it, sustains it in existence, just as those same forces in nature, warmth, and sunlight, and gentle showers, which cause the seed to burst, also nourish it, and carry it forward from bursting to budding, from budding to blossoming, and from that to the yielding of the golden fruit. I do not say the believers love is never feeble; in some instances, alas! it is never anything more. I do not say it is always in healthful exercise. Even Peter may deny his Lord. I do not say that it never grows dim, for, just as the ancient crown of Scotland once lay so long under ground that it lost its lustre, so all religious graces, by too much contact with sin and worldliness, lose their brightness. Are you mourning, because your love is faint? It is right for you to mourn, but not to despond, for, if the plant be genuine, it will not die, however much it may droop.

3. The Christians love for Christ, once more, is superlative. He loves Jesus more than anything else; he loves Him more than he loves all things else. What, then, shall we say of that man who manifestly loves the things of the world more than Christ? Do you call such a man a Christian? Why, he lacks the grandest element of Christianity, which is that love for Jesus which absorbs and controls every other love. Why, Brutus loved justice so much, that he would not spare his own son when he had forfeited his life. The Spartan mother loved bravery so much, that she said to her boys, as they went out to the wars, Bring back your shields, or be brought upon them; and shall the believer be unwilling to make a sacrifice for Christ, equally great? A man must love Him, so as to be willing to do that for Him which others can do from a worldly motive, before he can be a true Christian.

II. In the second place, let us notice SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THE BELIEVER LOVES CHRIST.

1. One good reason, I think, is because Christ loves him. Concerning His affection for His people, there can be no mistake; they are so dear to Him, so much a part of Him, that they are said to be the branches of which He is the vine.

2. Again, the Christian loves Christ by reason of His lovely character. The patriarchs and prophets were men of great virtues, but none of them could be said to be perfect. All suns have their spots, except that Sun of Righteousness; we shall find no blemish there. Have you never noticed how Scripture labours to set forth the beauties of Christs character; the fairest objects in nature are employed to symbolize it. There is the rose; other flowers are beautiful, but, after all, she is the queen. Could the most cunning workman contrive anything half so beautiful? Why, no artist can paint it, in all its fairness. What tender leaves! What exquisite colour! What variety of tint! What a wealth of fragrance! How it fills the air with perfumes, and fairly charms the senses! Christ is called the Rose of Sharon. Oh, what humility was His. This was His most prominent trait. He never did anything for display; He was not fond of shows. Man must have his jewels, and his glitter, and his trinkets, his gilded equipages, and triumphal processions. Not so with Christ; His palace was a cottage; His royal bed was a manger, His state carriage was an asss colt; His body-guard were poor fishermen. If man had been going to make a world, he would have had all the beauties visible to the naked eye. Not so with God. He has concealed much more than He has brought to light. The dew-drop perched upon the morning flower is a fine little gem, but what has it concealed from the naked eye? Put it under the microscope and see. In that single drop, a thousand million living creatures swarm, each one of them as much the object of Gods regard as the largest world that rolls in space. The human frame is wonderful to look at; dissect it, and you find such beauty and harmony in its mechanism, such skill and contrivance, as astonish the philosopher as well as the savage. Let a sunbeam be shot into a dark room, and if, just then, the eyes of a blind man could be opened, the sight of that golden ray of light would fill him with joy. What a beautiful thing! he would exclaim. A beautiful thing! So it is; but what do you suppose God has concealed in that sunbeam? Pass it through a prism, and lo! what revelations! Why, you get the seven colours of the rainbow! And thus is it generally in nature: the dross is on the surface; if there are any gems, humility conceals them. In the character of Christ how much is manifest, and yet how much more must be concealed! If His love, His humility, His meekness, His patience, His forbearance, His consistency were such as could call forth the admiration even of His enemies, how much must there be behind these to confirm and strengthen the affection of His friends! And yet we are told the time is coming when we shall see Him as He is. All the seraph tongues in heaven could not describe it, and eternity will not give us half time enough in which to admire and adore it.

3. The last reason why we should love Christ, is because of His sufferings and death, and the blessings procured thereby. And now, as the result of His mediatorial work, what do we have We, who believe, have justification, for one thing; and what does that mean? It means that the sinner is free from the curse of the law. And we have adoption, for another thing; and what does that mean? It means that we can cry, Abba, Father! and feel that God is our Father, and that we are HIS children. We have sanctification, for another thing; and what does that mean? It means that we are free from that which blasted Eden and the world, which ruined man and unchained the forked lightnings of Divine justice, which brought death into the world and every pang of woe. It means that we are dying to sin, and living unto righteousness. Such are some of the blessings procured by Christ for His people. It is not strange, then, that they love Him; but oh, sinner, it is the strangest thing in the world that you do not ]eve Him too.

III. Finally, THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THIS PRINCIPLE OF LOVE.

1. It will show itself, in the first place, by communion with Christ.

2. Love to Christ will manifest itself again, in a desire to be like Him. O that I were a Wellington, or a Bonaparte! says the warrior. O that I were a Praxiteles! says the sculptor. O that I were an Angelo, or a Correggio! says the painter. O that I were a Homer, or a Milton! says the poet. But what says the Christian? O that I could be very unlike myself, and very much like Christ! O that I could put off this old man, and put on the Lord Jesus!

3. Love to Christ will show itself in a disposition to serve Him.

4. Let me, then, say, in conclusion, that love to Christ will manifest itself in a willingness to suffer for Him. (H. D. Northrop.)

Love to Christ

I. ITS NATURE. It must be

1. Sincere, in opposition to that which is hypocritical, like Joabs or Judass. In many instances, where love to Christ is not feigned it may be only professional. There may be a respect for the religion of Christ where there is no love to its Divine Author.

2. Habitual, in opposition to occasional.

3. Supreme, in opposition to subordinate, and which may be lawfully exercised to the creature. Jesus is to be loved without a rival. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me (1Co_16:22).

II. THE CLAIMS WHICH CHRIST HAS UPON IT. Consider

1. The infinite dignity of His Person. He is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.

2. The work He has accomplished, and the sufferings He has endured, on the behalf of sinners.

3. The excellency and importance of the blessings which He has purchased for us.

4. The manner in which the Saviour employs His recovered life. He now pleads for those for whom He once suffered. In answer to His prevailing intercession, spiritual life is communicated unto and maintained in the souls of men.

III. HOW THIS LOVE SHOULD BE EXHIBITED. Show your love to Christ

1. By an entire surrender of yourselves, and all you have, into His hands.

2. By a public profession of His name and devout attendance on His ordinances.

3. By fervent and practical love to His people (1Jn_2:14-19).

4. By a patient endurance of opposition for His sake (1Pe_2:19-20).

5. By unwearied endeavours to advance His cause. (Congregational Remembrancer.)

Love to the Saviour

I. THE NATURE OF TRUE LOVE TO CHRIST. Love is an affection resulting from the perception of excellences in the persons beloved, causing us to desire the most intimate communion with them, and making us enjoy from an intercourse with them the sweetest pleasures. And hence it follows, that love to Christ is that grace whereby, upon a discovery of the Redeemers matchless excellences, the souls of believers are caused to thirst after a more intimate union with Him, and they esteem an intercourse with Him their chief joy.

1. What is the foundation of this love? In order that we should love any object, three things are requisite: this object must have certain excellences; these excellences must be perceived by us; and there must be a conformity between these excellences and the inclinations of our hearts.

(1) The Saviour has those excellences which render Him lovely. In Himself, He is the perfection of beauty. Every excellence is concentrated in Him in an infinite degree, so that the eternal Father always beholds Him with delight, and the splendid host of heaven gaze upon Him with wonder and love. He moreover has precisely those graces which fit Him to be the Saviour.

(2) But even these excellences, till they are presented to us, cannot be effectual in moving our love. The diamond may have a dazzling brightness, yet we shall not admire it till it is presented to our view. God has therefore been pleased in the Scriptures to unveil to us the beauties of Immanuel, that so we might perceive how deserving He is of all our love.

(3) Still, however, this is not sufficient to kindle the holy fire. However brightly the sun may shine, yet as long as the eye is distempered, its light will afford, not pleasure, but pain, because there is not a correspondence between these two objects. In like manner, as long as the soul is distempered by sin, the revelation of Christ will excite enmity, not love, because there is no correspondency between it and the corrupt inclinations of the sinners heart. It is evident, then, that a correspondency of heart is requisite to produce true love to Christ; and this correspondency can be produced only by the mighty operation of the Holy Ghost renewing our minds.

2. Its properties. It is

(1) Enlightened; it knows and delights in the real character of the Saviour.

(2) Ultimate. It terminates on this Saviour as its end, and does not regard Him merely as a means to further blessedness.

(3) Supreme, and predominates over every attachment to the objects of earth.

(4) Permanent. It is not like those streams in the desert, which sometimes rush forward in an impetuous torrent, and at others, entirely dry up; it resembles rather a mighty stream, steadily rolling its waves along, and growing deeper and wider, till it empties itself in heaven, the ocean of love.

3. Its effects.

(1) A cheerful, constant, and universal obedience to His commandments. If any man love Me, He will keep My words.

(2) A love to everything whereby Christ is displayed. If Christ be loved, the Holy Spirit who takes of the things of Christ, &c., will be loved also; and His scriptures, His ordinances, His children, His cause and interest.

(3) A longing for His presence.

II. SOME MOTIVES TO THIS LOVE. Love to Christ is

1. Reasonable.

(1) Because He has incomparably greater excellences. Accumulate, heap one upon one another all the qualities that can captivate a feeling heart, they are all perfectly combined in Him. On what article will you institute a comparison between these idols who possess your affection, and the mighty Saviour? On that of power? His arm upholds the universe; upon it universal nature fixedly hangs. On that of wisdom? His eye at one glance pervades all being, and runs through the past, the present, and the future. On that of permanence? From everlasting to everlasting He is God. On that of mercy? Angels confess that their faculties are too weak to comprehend His goodness, and their tongues too feeble worthily to celebrate it.

(2) Of what He has done for you in creation, providence and grace.

(3) Of what Christ can and will do, if you give Him your affections? Others can bestow only trifling gratifications whilst you are on earth. While Jesus alone affords a felicity commensurate with the faculties, coeval with the existence of the soul.

2. It is pleasant. In every situation of life the exercise of love to Christ affords the purest satisfaction; but its effects are more especially seen in those seasons when earthly loves can profit us little--in affliction, in death, in judgment. (E. Griffin, D. D.)

Love to Christ

I. LOVEST. The question cleaves down to the very core of Peters being. He does not ask after his speculative faith, his conscience, his profession: but, Is thy heart Mine? Is My kingdom enthroned in the soul as its central, governing power? Christ puts the same pointed, radical, searching question to every disciple. Nothing short of the supremacy of the heart will satisfy Him. He has loved us with an infinite love even unto death, and He demands our hearts best affections in return. The sum and essence of Christianity is love.

II. THOU. Not John, or Matthew, or the disciples collectively; but thou, Peter. Jesus eye fastens on him, and again and again, and yet again He presses the question. How the words searched and tested add grieved the disciple! There was no escape for him. It was as if he stood before the burning throne of judgment. So will it be with every disciple. Religion is pre-eminently a personal thing. The faith and virtue of others will save no man. Each for himself must heed, believe, obey, love our Lord Jesus Christ, or die in his sins. Thou! How the eye, and voice, and penetrating words of Jesus on the judgment throne will search and test every soul of us!

III. ME. Not My doctrines, only, but My Person, My character--Me, the Divine Son of God, the crucified and risen Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life of the world. A speculative faith, orthodoxy, the sacraments and ordinances, and church relations will not save Simon Peter or any other sinner; nothing but faith in and supreme love to a personal Saviour, such as is revealed and proffered to us in the gospel. (Homiletic Monthly.)

Of Zoning Jesus

I. A CHRISTIANS LOVE TO CHRIST OUGHT TO BE UNRIVALLED IN CREATION.

1. For closeness, because there is betwixt these twain such an intimacy that the one is everything to the other.

2. For tenderness, because this is not an equal love, but the love of the little for the Great, of the enemy disarmed and won over through the sacrifice of his wronged and offended Lord.

3. For strength. If there is strength in men at all, and love is, as people say, the strongest thing in mens hearts, then surely this must be the strongest of known loves. For it is the deepest. We love others with a part only, but Christ with the whole heart, &c. We are attached to others only surface-wise; but it is the very inner being which is given to Him in love.

II. BEING CHARACTERISTIC OF THE CHRISTIAN, THIS LOVE FORMS THE MOST DELICATE TEST OF EACH PERSONS RELATION TO JESUS.

1. Born with the birth of the new creature, it is one of the earliest graces to come to strength. Just as in a little child, long before trust becomes intelligent, or will is disciplined into obedience, or experience has taught patience or self-control, there rushes up the first-born virtue, even love for her who bare and nurseth it: so in very young Christians, we see the flush of first love kindle their early experience. Apply any other test. Their knowledge is rudimentary, their faith untried, their works not yet reduced to orderly holiness, their passions far from subdued. By any other test they seem to fail; but try them with our wise Lords own question, and you will see how the eye kindles and the voice deepens with the answer, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee!

2. Throughout a Christians life this continues to be the most sensitive test. In all, holiness is gradual; in many, slow; in some, fitful, broken by falls and declensions. But this test, if it could be fairly applied, never would fail. No unconverted man can answer that to satisfaction; there is no converted man who cannot. Hence Paul girdles the Church of God with: Grace be with them all that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. That shuts none out who should be in. Again, he fences off the Church with: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. That leaves none in who should be out.

III. A TEST SO PERFECT IS TO BE USED THE MORE DELICATELY IN PROPORTION TO THE DIFFICULTY OF USING IT AT ALL.

1. Outward conduct is tolerably patent to the eye of every outside observer; but this question is to be asked only by the Lord Himself, and only answered before his own truth-compelling presence. We must take care not to judge of ourselves in excited moments, or to depend on the satisfaction with which we turn to religious thoughts when the heart is sad. We must be scrupulously honest, and judge ourselves in solemn hours, when our sins are in our memory, and we feel Gods eye to be on us.

2. Even under such cautions one ought not to institute this examination often. Love is a shy thing, which thrives best when no one thinks about it. It grows up of its own sweet will. It never bears rough handling, and sometimes will bear none at all. Besides, the love that must be questioned cannot be very strong. No man could preserve a deep attachment for any friend who should be for ever taking his heart to pieces and curiously asking if he loved him. When Christs Spouse should have come to her perfect state of assured affection, she will hear no more the searching question.

3. Meanwhile, we are both feeble and faithless lovers. We do many unlovely and unloving things to grieve and wrong Him whom we call our Highest, Dearest, Best. It was after three denials that Jesus asked His first apostle three times over, Lovest thou Me? Each denial had cast fresh doubt on his oft-repeated protestation of peculiar and invincible affection. The suspected one had to be probed, and deeply, and often, for assurance sake, after such foul wrong done.

IV. FOR THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION, WE ARE SENT, EACH OF US, IN UPON HIMSELF.

1. It is true that, practically, this love works as the motive-power in Christian holiness; that deeds are to be the last test by which our love, like our faith, is to be tested. But our Lord questioned a disciple who had nothing to show but lies, and oaths, and treachery. It is possible, therefore, to know love, not by its doings, but by itself. Put a mother where she shall neither see her infant nor be able to do for it one office of motherly duty, will it be so hard for her to know she loves? Will not the power of her affection betray itself all the more by yearnings to be with her child? Bring her back her babe, and, after the first gush of endearment has spent itself, ask her as she looks down on its sleeping face in the blessed calm of absolute content, ask her if she loves! I know of loved ones who shall never more be seen on earth, whom wide seas have severed; yet love keeps its hold on the long-lost, unforgotten image, and feeds inwardly on itself, and cannot die.

2. Now, why should not a Christian man be as sure that he loves the Lord Jesus? Our feeling towards Him is quite as personal as to any other friend. We never saw Him, and shall not, perhaps, for a few years to come. But what of that? Some of our brothers have seen Him, and their accounts set Him before us in a lively way. We know what He has been and done for us. Besides, no Christian is without experience of Him.

V. OUGHT ONE NOT TO SHRINK FROM SO BOLD A DECLARATION?

1. There are people, and these not the worst, who are too conscious of the weakness of their love and of their falls to allow even within themselves that they love Christ at all. But suppose a man is conscious, to do himself justice, of still really loving Him, whom he grieves to have denied, and to whose blood he looks for pardon; is he not to say so? Must one stifle the hearts cry of affection, and do violence to ones own feelings, and deny with the lips what the soul affirms? Yet before we can get the length of saying that truly, there is one thing to be observed, Repentance must have wrought its perfect work. Peter wept bitterly on the night of the denial.

Through penitence is love purged. Spare not the sorrow, therefore. (J. O.Dykes, D. D.)

Love to Christ unique

Among men who are beloved? Among warriors? Is it Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne? Among sages? Aristotle or Plato? Name me one, a single man who has died and left love upon his tomb! Mohammed is venerated by Mussulmans, he is not loved. One man alone has gathered from all ages a love that never fails. Jesus is the sovereign Lord of hearts as He is of minds. (Lacordaire.)

Supreme love for Christ

A Karen woman offered herself for baptism. After the usual examination, I inquired whether she could give up her ornaments for Christ. It was an unexpected blow. I explained the spirit of the gospel; I appealed to her own consciousness of vanity; I read to her the apostles prohibition (1Ti_2:9). She looked again and again to her handsome necklace; and then, with an air of modest decision that would adorn beyond all ornaments any Christian in the land, she took it off, saying, I love Christ more than this. (D. Judson, D. D.)

Conscious love for Christ

Peter gave the best answer when he said, Thou knowest, &c. Mere professions of love and devotion amount to but little at any time. Peter had already overdone the business of professing his unfailing affection for Jesus. Yet he was sure that, in spite of his failure under peculiar trial, he was known of Jesus as at heart a loving disciple of Jesus; so he put himself back, as it were, into the care of Jesus, appealing to Jesus to recognize the love which was underneath all his surface-swaying of conduct. A loving heart is always its own best witness. It will speak as no words can speak in its own defence, when doubted. And when a loving heart is pained at being called in question because of some seeming failure, it cannot do better than to trust itself to the consciousness of the one toward it outreaches in love. If, indeed, every human friend should fail to recognize the love of anothers loving heart, Jesus never so fails. The Lord knoweth them that are His--whatever be their shortcomings. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

Conscious love for Jesus

When Dr. Waddell was preaching at Portsmouth, Va., a ship came into port of which the master and two of the men were Christians. Learning that the blind preacher was to conduct a service that night, they made their way to the place. The discourse was on these words of Christ to Peter. Towards the close the preacher appealed to the audience repeatedly, Who of you can say, Lord, Thou knowest all things, &c. The deepest silence prevailed; but the heart of one of the sailors was full; he could not restrain himself, and bursting out he exclaimed in thrilling tones, Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee. The congregation was melted to tears. (Dr. Thompson.)

The realm of love the sphere of religion

Some put religion

1. In the realm of sensuousness. The mere excitement of the senses, by paintings, sculpture, music, gorgeous rites, and tragic anecdotes, is regarded as piety; tears of mere animal sympathy are regarded as the expressions of godly sorrow, &c.

2. In the sphere of logic. It is in some system of human thought which men call orthodox, and nowhere else.

3. In the realm of external performances. If you attend your place of worship, pay your secular debts, subscribe to charities, you are a religious man. Now, the text suggests, what true reason and the whole Bible teach, that, in the deep moral love of the heart, religion has its seat. Note that this love

I. IS A SUPREME AFFECTION DIRECTED TO CHRIST.

1. Religion is a supreme affection. It is not an ordinary feeling, which flows in the regular current of emotions, and sometimes rises to fervour, and then passes away. It is the master-passion of the soul, or nothing.

2. Religion is supreme affection to Christ. Lovest thou--not merely My ideas, or works, or heaven, but Me. Why should Christ demand this? Because

(1) It is right in itself. Who ought to have the highest gratitude? The greatest Benefactor, who gave Himself for us. Who ought to have the highest esteem? The Most Perfect Excellence; Christ is the embodiment of infinite excellence.

(2) It is indispensable to man. Man must love something supremely, and his supreme affection makes him become like the object. If the object is imperfect, unhappy, degraded, he will sink into crime, dishonour, and misery. Hence the necessity of having one like Christ to love.

II. MUST BE A MATTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Both the question and answer indicate this. A man cannot be ignorant of the spring of his action, and the central fact of his experience. The object of supreme affection is ever

1. The chief thought in the intellect.

2. The chief theme in the conversation.

3. The chief end in the design.

4. The chief object in the desire. All the laws of mind must be reversed before it can be otherwise.

III. IS THE QUALIFICATION FOR OFFICE IN CHRISTS EMPIRE. After Peters confession--which was sincere, solemn, and thrice repeated--Christ gave Him a commission, which implied

1. That he would meet with the spiritually needy--hungry sheep, and feeble lambs. The world abounds with these young, inexperienced, undisciplined hungry souls.

2. That he would have at his disposal the suitable supplies for the needy--the doctrines he had received from Christ.

3. That he had the capacity so to present the supplies as to feed the needy. Nothing can qualify a man to help souls but love for Christ. Learning, genius, eloquence--all will not avail without this. This is the only true inspiration. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep

Feed My sheep

This was a sort of ordination of Peter to the pastorate. Note, then

I. THE EXAMINATION.

1. Christ does not admit any without examination, and this should encourage us to examine ourselves.

2. The examination touched the heart of the man and the very heart of religion, for if love be absent all is vain.

3. The examination dealt not with mental or spiritual qualifications, important as they were, but only that which is the supreme endow-merit of the pastor. It was necessary, because

(1) Love keeps us in Christs company, and so we work under His immediate supervision.

(2) Love to Christ kindles love for souls, and love gains almost absolute control over them.

(3) Love enables us to bear with the sheeps infirmities without discouragement. What is it that sustains the mother in her weary watchings?

(4) Feeding the sheep is a proof of love. Peter would have liked a more brilliant proof, and so should we; but this is the real test.

(5) Pastoral work is the craving of love. Loving Christ we want to do something for Him.

(6) It is also the stimulus of love. The more we do at it the more we are loved by Christ and man.

(7) It is a sphere of communion. If we go among Christs sheep we shall be with Him.

II. THE PERSON WHO WAS EXAMINED.

1. Christ examined Peter because he wanted re-ordination. Had He not done so doubt would have been cast on his apostleship in after years. What blindness has seized the Church of Rome, which thinks that Christ spoke to Peter because he was the greatest, whereas it is plain that he was the least. The others had not denied Him and therefore were not reordained.

2. Christ took Peter off what might have grown into morbid sorrow. Peter, My dear fellow, I know you are sincerely penitent; do not fret about it, but go and feed My sheep.

3. Then was not Peter in danger of getting too big? In the case of some men an early breakdown was the making of them. They began from that time self loathing, and the Master used them.

4. This feeding sheep would benefit Peter. You did not know what a fool you were till you had to deal with fools; how quick tempered till you deal with the quick tempered. It was by feeding Christs flock that the Peter of the judgment hall became the Peter of the Epistles.

5. Why Simon son of Jonas?

(1) The weak name was used to remind him of his weakness. If you cannot come as Peter, come as Simon.

(2) This was his name when he was converted. Nothing will help you to feed the flock of God like the memory of your conversion.

(3) This was the name that Jesus called him when he made his memorable confession. Recollect in addition to your conversion the seasons in which Christ has manifested Himself to you as He does not to the world.

III. THE WORK. Feed.

1. The middle word is shepherdize, but the first and last is feed. When you preach give a hearty meal: the sheep will put up with many defects if you only feed them. You may dress them, and lead them about, but this will not satisfy them. What a quantity the sheep eat in the clover field! They wont leave it and wander down the barren road. Gods people hunger and thirst after righteousness, and it is promised that they shall be filled, not have a nib and a bite. Never be afraid of giving them too much doctrine. Some want to drive them, but that wont do. You say you will lead them, but first feed them. Dont lead lean sheep. You want to govern them according to the middle word: but give two doses of feeding to one of governing. You have not to invent a new food. God has appointed the proper food; and though you might concoct a new food and get your name up, that is no business of yours. That great shepherd, the Pope, how much does he govern? how much does he feed? how much are the sheep nourished by his hallowed cursings?

2. The work begins with the little lambkins. Put the food, therefore, where they can get at it. Bless the Lord, said a farmer, after a sermon from a substitute for his minister, a very high, classical gentleman, the hay was put in a low crib. Some preach as though the Lord said, Feed My camelopards. Nothing but giraffes would be able to reach it from the lofty rack in which they place the food. Oh, say you, I want to get them to work. Feed them up to it, then. You cannot get much work out of a starving horse. And whatever you do, feed yourself. A lean preacher makes a lean people.

3. What does this involve?

(1) Watchfulness. No shepherd can afford to sleep at certain times. When you have a lambing time on--a blessed revival--you must keep your eyes open. And the devil goes about as a wolf, you must watch lest he devour the flock.

(2) Patience. The sheep are prone to wander. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The flock must be fed, not amused

From the deck of an Austrian gunboat we threw into the Lago Garda a succession of little pieces of bread, and presently small fishes came in shoals, till there seemed to be, as the old proverb puts it, more fish than water. They came to feed, and needed no music. Let the preacher give his people food, and they will flock around him, even if the sounding brass of rhetoric and the tinkling cymbals of oratory are silent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Shepherding

I. HOW DID THE APOSTLES GATHER THE SHEEP OF CHRIST? A man must gather a flock before he can feed it. And the apostles, we know, had a very small one at first (Act_1:15). All men are represented in the Word of God as sheep which have gone astray. Therefore the commission of our Lord to His apostles is, to seek out His sheep (Eze_34:1-31.). And our Lord tells us that His own mission was to seek and to save that which was lost. So His commission to His apostles is, Go ye into all the world, &c. Now the apostles fulfilled our Lords command by the free and full proclamation of the glorious gospel of Christ (Act_2:1-47.). Now look at Act_13:1-52. and you will see the same means used by Paul. Look again at Act_16:1-40. The apostles went to sinners, they proclaimed to them their guilt, and pardon through the blood of a crucified Saviour. You see the effect. Those who gladly received their word instantly became the disciples of the Lord, and joined themselves to the flock of Christ.

II. HOW THE APOSTLES FED THE SHEEP OF CHRIST when they had gathered them to the fold. They fed them with Christ Himself. I am the Bread of Life.

1. As proclaimed in His salvation.

2. As revealed in His Word. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

3. As exhibited in His ordinances.

4. As teaching in His commandments.

5. As coming in glory. (R. J. MGhee, M. A.)

Feed My lambs (A Sabbath-school Sermon):--Read the whole chapter, and observe the change of scene. First, they are on the lake fishing, and dragging to land a multitude of fishes. They have all come on shore, and their faces are turned to the pastures on the hillside. Herein lieth a parable. The first work of Christs servants is comprised in that commission, Go ye into all the world, &c.; or, parabolically, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. After this is done, souls converted, and brought up from the depths of sin, the scene changes: we see a flock, the Church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood. This shepherd work is so important that three times the Saviour bids us attend to it. We must never so evangelize the outside mass as to forget to fold and feed those within. Concerning this shepherdizing let us note

I. THE SPHERE. To whom does He refer?

1. To such as are little in grace. They have but a grain of mustard seed of faith as yet: their love is not a flame, but a spark apparently in danger of being suddenly blown out, and there-fore needing great care.

2. To the weak in grace. All such as are doubting, slenderly instructed, easily bewildered, cast down in spirit. If our kindness should neglect the strong it would be a sad pity, but it might not entail so much damage as if we neglect the weak. Comfort the feeble-minded; support the weak. I think the reason why the weak were committed to Simon Peter was because he had been very weak himself. He who is himself compassed with infirmities knows the heart of the weaklings.

3. To the young in grace. They may be old in years, and yet they may be mere babes as to the length of their spiritual life, and therefore they need to be under a good shepherd. As soon as a person is converted and added to the Church he should become the object of the care and kindness of his fellow members. Young converts are too timid to ask our help, and so our Lord introduces them to us with an emphatic command. This shall be our reward, Inasmuch as ye have done it, &c.

4. To those who have been converted while young in years. How much there is of brightness and trustfulness about children which is not seen in elder converts! Our Lord evidently felt deep sympathy with children, and he is but little like Christ who looks upon them as a trouble, and treats them as if they must needs be either little deceivers or simpletons.

5. These are to be fed because

(1) They need it. The second feed means exercise the office of a shepherd, but this means distinctly feed, and it directs teachers to the duty of instructing children in the faith. The lambs do not so much need keeping in order as we do who know so much, and yet know so little. Christian children mainly need to be taught the doctrine, precept, and life of the gospel. If there be any doctrine too difficult for a child, it is rather the fault of the teachers conception of it than of the childs power to receive it. A child has not only to live as you and I have, but also to grow; hence he has double need of food. Whether we teach young Christians truth or not, the devil will be sure to teach them error. The only way to keep chaff out of the childs little measure is to fill it brimful with good wheat.

(2) They are so likely to be overlooked. Our sermons often go over the heads of the younger folk. Blessed is he that can so speak as to be understanded of a child!

(3) This work is so profitable. Do what we may with persons converted late in life, we can never make much of them. Train up a child, and he may have fifty years of holy service before him. It is also most beneficial work to ourselves. It exercises our humility and trains our patience; let those who doubt this try it.

II. THE MAN. Not Peter only, but those who are like Peter. Christ selected him as

1. A leading man. He was one of the triumvirate that led the van. But though a leading man, he was to feed the lambs, for no man may think himself too great to care for the young. The best of the Church are none too good for this work.

2. A warmhearted man. Simon Peter was not a Welshman, but he had a great deal of what we know as Welsh fire. He was just the sort of man to interest the young. Children delight to gather round a fire, whether it be on the hearth or in the heart. Certain persons appear to be made of ice, and from these children speedily shrink away.

3. An experienced man. He had sinned much and had been much forgiven. We want experienced men and women to talk to children, and to tell them what have been their dangers, their sins, their sorrows, and their comforts. The young are glad to hear the story of those who have been further on the road than they have.

4. A greatly indebted man. He owed much to Jesus Christ, according to that rule of the kingdom--he loveth much to whom much hath been forgiven.

III. THE PREPARATION. Peter was prepared for feeding Christs lambs

1. By being fed himself. The Lord gave him a breakfast before giving him a commission. It is quite right for you to be teaching a great part of the Lords Day; but I think a teacher is very unwise who does not come to hear the gospel preached and get a meal for his own soul.

2. By being with his Master. I commend the study of instructive books, but above all the study of Christ. An hours communion with Jesus is the best preparation for teaching either the young or the old.

3. By self-examination. Lovest thou Me? Often the vessel wants scouring with self-examination before the Lord can fitly use it to convey the living water to thirsting ones. Mainly that examination should be exercised concerning our love; for the best preparation for teaching Christs lambs is love--love to Jesus and to them. We cannot be priests on their behalf unless like Aaron we wear their names upon our breasts. A shepherd that does not love his sheep is a hireling and not a shepherd. Our subject is the love of God in Christ Jesus. How can we teach this if we have no love ourselves?

IV. THE WORK. Every lesson should be a feeding lesson. It is of little use to thump the Bible and call out, Believe! when nobody knows what is to be believed. I see no use in fiddles and tambourines; neither lambs nor sheep can be fed upon brass bands. Feed the lambs; you need not pipe to them, nor put garlands round their necks; but do feed them. This feeding is

1. Humble, lowly, unostentatious work. Shepherds are generally quiet, unobtrusive people. They are never made knights or peers, albeit they do far more useful work than those who are floated into rank upon their own beer barrels. So in the ease of many a faithful teacher of young children; you hear but little about him, yet his Master knows all about him, and we shall hear of him in that day; perhaps not till then.

2. Careful work; for lambs cannot be fed on anything you please. You can soon half poison young believers with bad teaching. It is careful work the feeding of each lamb separately, and the teaching of each child by itself the truth which it is best able to receive.

3. Continuous work. Lambs could not live if the shepherd only fed them once a week; therefore good teachers of the young look after them on week days, and are careful about their souls with prayer and holy example when they are not teaching them by word of mouth.

4. Laborious work. Nothing so exhausts a man as the care of souls; so it is in measure with all who teach--they cannot do good without spending themselves. You must study the lesson, &c.

5. All this has to be done in a singularly choice spirit; the true shepherd spirit is an amalgam of many precious graces. He is hot with zeal, but not fiery with passion; gentle, and yet rules his class; loving, but does not wink at sin; he has power over the lambs, but he is not domineering or sharp; he has cheerfulness, but not levity; freedom, but not license; solemnity, but not gloom. He who cares for lambs should be a lamb himself; and there is a Lamb before the throne who cares for all of us, and does so the more effectually because He is in all things made like unto us.

V. THE MOTIVE.

1. The motive was to be his Masters self. Had Peter been the first Pope of Rome, surely Christ would have said to him, Feed your sheep. The work that you have to do is in no sense for yourselves. Your classes are not your children, but Christs.

2. Yet while this is a self-denying occupation, it is one of the noblest forms of service. How wonderful that Jesus should commit them to us! Jesus in effect says, I love you so that I trust you with that which I purchased with My hearts blood.

3. We are to feed Christs lambs out of love.

(1) As a proof of love. If ye love Me, feed My lambs.

(2) As an inflowing of love. If you love Christ a little when you begin to do good, you will soon love Him more. Love grows by active exercise.

(3) As an outflow of love. A person may go home and sit down and groan out, Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought, &c., but if he will rise up and work for Jesus, the point he longs to know will soon be settled. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Feed My lambs

I. WHY ARE CHILDREN COMPARED TO LAMBS?

1. The first idea suggested is that of innocence. There is something inexpressibly pure and inoffensive in these little creatures. Not in allusion to His sacrifice only, but to His character also, Jesus is described as the Lamb of God, a lamb without blemish and without spot. And little children are thus lamb-like. We do not forget the sad fact of mans degeneracy. But we are not to make our theology hideous by violating nature and common sense in regarding children as great sinners. Look at this new born infant. It has no power to exercise repentance, nor has it any guilt of which to repent. The attempt to induce remorse for imaginary faults renders more difficult the task in the ease of faults which are actual. And as regards these, we should treat little children in accordance with fact and not with theory. When they cease to be infants and actually do wrong, it should be borne in mind that they are still necessarily incapable of many kinds of sin. Comparatively they still are lambs. Let them not be induced to make confessions which in their lips are absurd; to sing hymns or say prayers which to them are untrue; to profess emotions which it is impossible for them to feel. Let us also keep them ignorant of sin as long as possible. Very injurious are many books, pictures and exhibitions which render children familiar with evil before the time. We should be cautious even in selecting their Bible lessons. Bather let us adapt our teaching to their innocence. Let us not tell them how attractive are the forbidden pastures, and run the risk of impressing them more with the charms than the perils of going astray. Rather let us show them the beauty of the pastures where the Shepherd is now leading them, the security of the fold, the happiness of the flock. Let the positive teaching of goodness fortify them against the evil when it comes.

2. This thought reminds us that they are errant. Lambs venture from their mothers side, and in playful troops wander hither and thither. However innocent at first, children have within them the seeds of evil which only need favouring circumstances to develop. Inclination within is responded to by opportunity without A roaring lion watches for the lambs. Look at these little children to whom robbery and adultery and murder are words without a meaning. Think now of the criminals in our gaols. They were once innocent as lambs. Alas! how thoughtless, or heartless, or both, are some parents. Young girls and boys of the poor rove through the streets as if no danger threatened them; and the children of the wealthier are often sent to schools without any caution respecting associates already old in sin.

3. Lambs are playful. What sight is more pleasant in the spring-time than the merry gambols of a young lamb. How kind is the Creator! He has made all things to be glad! Children, too, are joyous. How quickly they dry their tears! How little delights them! Religious teachers should cultivate this gladness. They will have sadness enough some day. Let them be merry while they can. Let not religion frown on their happiness. God made laughter as surely as He made tears. Joyfulness, too, should characterize their religion. Nature, Gods open book, is full of delight for them. The Bible is stored with amusement for them. Guide the lambs through the green and pleasant pastures, not up craggy rocks too steep for their tiny feet. Especially let Jesus, in all the loveliness of His human character, be the teachers constant theme. Let the hymns they sing be joyous like themselves, and let the tunes express their own gladness of heart. Let the public services to which they are taken not be so long and unsuitable to their comprehension as to link ideas of weariness with worship. And let Sunday be a day of special pleasure.

4. A lamb is an emblem of weakness and gentleness. The Good Shepherd was Himself brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and He is represented as gathering the lambs into His bosom. He gently leads those that need gentle treatment. Be gentle with the lambs. They cannot run far nor run long. They may be seriously injured if men should over-drive them one day. Some good people are not wise in this respect. They may be very conscientious in bringing up their children; but they are very strict. What wonder if such children have been repelled rather than attracted! It is so mysterious that they have gone wrong?

II. THESE LAMBS ARE CHRISTS.

1. The Word, who became flesh, created every little lamb. Their Maker who knows all their wants bids us care for them as His own.

2. They are Christs because He redeemed them. If Jesus died for the whole world who will venture to exclude those to whom He said, Of such is the kingdom of heaven? Born into a redeemed world, they are the purchased possession of its Lord.

3. Children are Christs peculiar treasure. A large proportion of His own life was spent in childhood. He often showed His love for children. Children loved Him, and sang hosannah to Him when Scribes and Pharisees insulted Him. He took their part and said, Have ye not read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise. He said to Peter, Feed My lambs. How richly has His grace been often poured forth on children! And in heaven children constitute the greatest portion of its multitude and the brightest jewel in the mediatorial crown. Let us treat them as such. They are not the devils, and must not be left to him.

III. CHRISTS LAMBS ARE TO BE FED.

1. They must be taken to the only true pasture. Jesus is the Bread of Life. They will starve on mere ceremonies and Church rules. Even doctrine, however scriptural, is not enough.

2. They are to be fed; not taken to the pasture merely that they may see it; nor driven to it and over it and then from it; but induced to lie down there and make it their home and the habitual nourishment and joy of their souls. They are to be fed, not crammed; but the truth is to be given them in such measure and at such times that they may digest it and grow thereby.

3. They must be fed while they are lambs. The first infant-class should be at home, and the mother the first teacher. The instructions of the church and the school are subsequent and auxiliary. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)

Christs sympathy with the lambs of His flock

I. THE OBJECTS OF THE SAVIOURS CARE--My lambs.

1. Young Christians. By these we mean all, in youth or riper years, who are young in Christianity. Are you such? Then you are wise to salvation, and walking in wisdoms ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace. Your knowledge, however, is not perfect, and your faith is not yet confirmed and steadfast.

2. Mourners in Zion. Penitent sinners seeking salvation, with hearts broken and contrite. The Good Shepherd loves you, seeks yea saves you. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

3. Little children. How great their number! How important their position! How perilous their circumstances! How lovely, lively, tender, erring, sinful! Think of

(1) Their hereditary guilt and depravity.

(2) Their capacity and need.

(3) Their position and influence.

(4) Their danger and

(5) duty. Their redemption and recover.

(6) Their destiny.

II. THE IMPORT OF THE SAVIOURS CHARGE

1. Food is provided and prepared. Are they ignorant, and in a state of intellectual destitution? This is met in the Bible. Are they condemned, and in a state of judicial destitution? This is met by the Atonement. Are they depraved, and in a state of spiritual destitution? This is met in the gift of the Spirit. Are they sinners, and in a state of moral destitution? This is met in the provision of the Gospel. Are they in a state of physical destitution?

This is met in the resurrection of life. Are they, in short, in a state of destitution which nothing less than Deity can satisfy? Here is food

(1) Suitable and sufficient.

(2) Exhaustless and free.

(3) Satisfying and sustaining.

(4) Near and necessary.

2. The food provided and prepared is to be given to lambs.

(1) Teach them the Holy Bible and all you can of its genuineness and inspiration; its doctrines, duties and institutions; its Author, origin, and end. Here is the School Book, the manual of children, the treasury of young men, and the profound text-book of fathers, the Encyclopedia of salvation. The Bible is the oldest, wisest, best book in the world.

(2) Train and tend them

(a) In the regular habit of reading, revering, believing, and loving the Bible.

(b) To believe, and trust, and rest in the atonement of the Saviour.

(c) To receive and obey, to follow and honour, the Spirit of Christ.

(d) In the duty of submission to the gospel law.

(e) To live in reference to the judgment.

3. But how is all this to be accomplished? We venture to propose the following system: Let it be

(1) Various in adaptation.

(2) Uniform in tendency.

(3) Kind, but firm, in application. (J. Mood.)

Tending the lambs

Many years ago, when taking my morning walk along the base of Schiehallion, one of our loftiest Highland mountains, I met a Shepherd, a regular attender at my sabbath meetings. He had his plaid closely wrapped round him, and had evidently something in it that he was carrying with unusual care. After a friendly salutation, I said, What is this, Malcolm, that you have in your plaid? He answered, It is a poor forsaken lamb. When I was going my rounds this morning, I found it lying on the cold ground, its mother had left it, and it would soon have died. And what do you intend to do with it? I will feed it, said the kind shepherd, and it will soon be one of the flock. He did so. The poor forsaken lamb, revived, grew, and become one of the liveliest and strongest of the fold, while it must have pined and died but for the compassion of the shepherd. (Union Magazine.)

The shepherding of the lambs

I. CHRIST THINKS OF THE CHILDREN AS LAMBS. Of all the flock the Iambs are most carefully kept within the fold. The sheep may be allowed to stray, but not the lambs. In such a land as Palestine a lamb outside the fold would soon fail a prey to wild beasts. Christ ever regarded children as a part of the kingdom. He might say to His disciples, I will make you fishers of men, but He never told them to be fishers of children, they were to be shepherds to the children, who were already in the fold. Now, that has a very deep meaning both for the lambs and the shepherds. To the lambs--it means that Christ loves you--that you are in His great fold--He is your Shepherd. If you only knew how much He loved you, you would say, I love Him because He first loved me. But it has a meaning for those who feed them. We must treat them as lambs. They are not yet on the dark mountains of unbelief, or in the far country of sin. We have not to bring them home, but to keep them at home. If we are to do this, we must always speak of God as their best friend. If thus they think of Him, then they will never desire to leave the blessed enclosure.

II. CHRIST SAYS THEY MUST BE FED. Do not think they are too young to be fed. They will soon be sheep. The flocks of the future will be largely determined by the treatment the lambs now receive. We see this clearly enough in other realms. If a child be stinted in food, he will suffer in body all his days. No after plenty will remedy the neglect. If a child be not taught the elements of knowledge, it will be difficult to acquire them afterwards. But we do not see so clearly (would that we did!) the immense importance of providing spiritual food. Neglect of this can never be remedied. Later in life the child may be brought to the knowledge of the truth, but even then the character will not be what it might have been if it had been in early days fed after the manner of Christ. You may take a tree which has grown for some years in one place or direction, and move it to another place or give it another direction; but it will never have the vigour or grace of a young tree planted in the right place, and trained from the first in the direction you wished. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God, &c. It is easy to see why it should be so. The bent of life is determined in early days, then habits are formed, and the general tone and character of the soul are fixed.

III. THEY MUST HAVE FOOD CONVENIENT FOR THEM. Hidden in the word is surely the idea that the food must be simple. Lambs will not thrive on the food of the sheep. They need the milk, and not the hard hay, the tender herb, and not the coarse roots. It is almost as bad to give them what they cannot digest as to give them nothing to digest at all. There is in this book an abundance of provision, but we must see to it that we make a right selection therefrom. Many parts of Holy Scripture are not suited to the capacity or calculated to meet the wants of a child. They will only puzzle and perplex. Our Lords words are best suited to the children. He so often spoke in parables that there is nearly always a picture for them to look upon as they read His words. Then, too, our Lord is ever telling of a Father, and His great love; ever revealing Him in words of tenderness and grace. Now, the main thing is for the child to be drawn to God--to know Him in Jesus Christ--to think of Him as the best Friend. If we can fix the young heart upon God, then our work is well-nigh done.

IV. THEY MUST BE FED BY THOSE WHO LOVE THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The naturalist must do his work by keen observation; the philosopher by the dry light of reason; the poets chief ally is imagination; but love is the supreme thing in the kingdom of God. Our Lords anxiety is all concerning Peters love. If his heart be right, Christ knew that all else would come right. (W.

G. Horder.)

Care for the children

President Harrison taught for several years in a Sabbath school on the banks of the Ohio, and the Sunday before he left home for Washington to assume the duties of chief magistrate of the nation, he met his Bible class as usual; and his last counsel on the subject to his gardener at Washington, it may be hoped, will never be forgotten by his country. When advised to keep a dog to protect his fruit, he replied, Rather set a Sunday-school teacher to take care of the boys. (W. Baxendale.)

Care for children

An Englishman, visiting Sweden, noticing the care taken in that country for educating children, who are rescued from the streets and placed in special schools, inquired if it was not costly. Yes, but not dear. We Swedes are not rich enough to let a child grow up in ignorance, misery, and crime, to become a scourge to society as well as a disgrace to himself. (Preachers Lantern.)

Ministering to children

It was beautifully said of one minister, With the youth he took great pains, and was a tree of knowledge, with fruit that the children could reach. (J. Houghton, D. D.)

Claims of children

Edmund Burke once was obliged to oppose in Parliament an unfortunate marriage law. He closed a passage of marvellous eloquence by these words: Why do I speak of parental feeling? The children are parties to be considered in this legislation. The mover of this Bill has no child. (Joseph Cook.)

The claims of children

Could I climb to the highest place in Athens, I would lift up my voice and proclaim, Fellow citizens, why do ye turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children, to whom you must one day relinquish it all. (Socrates.)

Children a trust from God

The son of a man very eminent in the legal profession was once standing in a felons dock awaiting a sentence of transportation. Said the judge, who knew his parentage and history, Do you remember your father? Perfectly, said the youth. Whenever I entered his presence he said, Run away, my lad, and dont trouble me. The great lawyer was thus enabled to complete his great work on The Law of Trusts; and his son in due time furnished a practical commentary on the way in which a father had discharged the most sacred of all trusts committed to him in the person of his own child. (Dr. Potter.)

Importance of children

A gentleman was walking over his farm with a friend, exhibiting his crops, herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, with all of which his friend was highly pleased, but with nothing so much as his splendid sheep. He had seen the same breed frequently before, but never such noble specimens, and with great earnestness he asked how he had succeeded in rearing such flocks. His simple answer was: I take care of my lambs, sir. (Family Treasury.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 21:15. When they had dined — On the kind provision wherewith Jesus had supplied them, and, it is likely, had been edified with such discourse as Jesus had generally used when eating with them; Jesus said to Simon Peter — Who, by his late denial of him, had given him great reason to call in question the sincerity of his love; Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? — He speaks to him by name, the more to affect him, as he did (Luk 22:31) when he warned him of a great approaching trial. He doth not call him Cephas, or Peter, a name signifying strength or stability, for he had lost the credit of that; but gives him his original name, Simon, adding, however, son of Jonas, as he had called him when he pronounced him blessed, Mat 16:17. And the question he asked him is, of all others, one of the most important, and on which we should frequently and especially ask ourselves: for, on the one hand, if any man love not the Lord Jesus he is anathema, that is, exposed to the wrath and curse of God, 1Co 16:22; whereas the grace and blessing of God is the portion of all those who love him in sincerity, Eph 6:24. Observe, reader, the question is not, Dost thou know me? Dost thou believe in me? Dost thou admire, honour, or fear me? but, Dost thou love me? Give me but proof of that, as if Jesus had said, and I will acknowledge that thy repentance is sincere; that thy backslidings are healed, and that thou art recovered from thy fall. Peter had professed himself a penitent, had wept bitterly for his sin, had returned to the society of the disciples, and had taken great interest in the death and resurrection of Christ; deeply mourning for the former, and greatly rejoicing at being assured of the latter: but still this is not sufficient: the question is, Lovest thou me? Nay, further, Lovest thou me more than these? — More than thou lovest these persons, James or John, thy intimate friends, or Andrew, thy own brother and companion? Those do not love Christ aright, who do not love him better than the best friend they have in the world, and make it appear so whenever there is a comparison or competition between these objects of their love. Or, more than thou lovest these things, these boats and nets, and the other implements of fishing, by which thou earnest a livelihood: that is, more than thou lovest thy occupation and the gains of it. So Dr. Whitby. And the question, thus interpreted, “is neither so cold nor so foreign,” says Dr. Campbell, “as some have represented it. This was probably the last time that Peter exercised his profession as a fisherman. Jesus was about to employ him as an apostle; but as he disdained all forced obedience, and would accept no service that did not spring from choice, and originate in love, he put this question to give Peter an opportunity of professing openly his love, (which his late transgression had rendered questionable,) and consequently his preference of the work in which Jesus was to employ him, with whatever difficulties and perils it might be accompanied, to any worldly occupation, however gainful.” The sense, however, in which the words are more commonly taken is, Lovest thou me more than these men [thy fellow-disciples] love me? Thus interpreted, the question must be considered as having a reference to the declaration formerly made by Peter, (Mat 26:33,) when he seemed to arrogate a superiority to the rest, in zeal for his Master and steadiness in his service; Though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. This gives a peculiar propriety to Peter’s reply here. “Convinced, at length, that his Master knew his heart better than he himself; conscious, at the same time, of the affection which he bore him, he dares make the declaration, [as to the sincerity of his love,] appealing to the infallible Judge, before whom he stood, as the voucher of his truth. But as to his fellow-disciples, he is now taught not to assume any thing. He dares not utter a single word which would lead to a comparison with those to whom he knew his woful defection had made him appear so much inferior.” He only says, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee — “And his silence on this part of the question speaks strongly the shame he had on recollecting his former presumption, in boasting superior zeal and firmness, and shows, that the lesson of humility and self-knowledge he had so lately received, had not been lost.”

He saith unto him, Feed my lambs — Manifest thy love to me in a way which will be peculiarly acceptable; administer spiritual food to my people, even to the weakest and feeblest of my flock; give milk to babes, explain the first principles of my doctrine to those who, having but lately believed in me, are not yet thoroughly instructed in the truths, or established in the grace of the gospel. It may be worth observing here, that the original word αρνια, being the diminutive of αρνα, signifies the least of my lambs; and if, says Dr. Doddridge, “we interpret it as an intimation of the care which Peter, as a minister of Christ, was to take of little children, it seems perfectly congruous to the wisdom and tenderness of the great Shepherd of the sheep, to give so particular an injunction concerning it.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE BREAKFAST CONVERSE—Restoration of Peter; intimation of his martyrdom; mysterious intimation regarding John, Joh_21:15-23.

Thus far Jesus performed miracle that is at the same time parable. Next will follow utterances which are prophecy in parable. We suppose that the following is uttered at the meal, until Jesus rises to depart, bidding Peter to follow him, at Joh_21:19.

15. Had dined—But still sat at the meal. Peter was likely to be upon one side and John upon the other of Jesus, at the head. Jesus, in allusion (though the allusion is disclosed gradually) to Peter’s thrice denying him, proceeds to ask him thrice, Lovest thou me? At each profession Jesus bids him, in increasing kindness, to return to his pastoral office.

Simon, son of Jonas—Jesus calls him not by his name of honour, Peter. He recurs rather to his origin as a natural man, son of Jonah. Lovest—There are two Greek words alike rendered love in our translation, but which have a different force. The love of this question, αγαπας signifies the love of will, of judgment or of moral feeling, nearly our English word to prize. The other is φιλεις, which is simply affectional love, springing from the natural sensibility. In his question Jesus uses the former word; in his answer Peter uses the latter. Simon, son of Jonas, prizest thou me?

More than these— More than the rest of the disciples at the meal love me. Peter had proudly boasted over them, “Though all should be offended in thee, yet will not I.” Our Lord tests him to see whether he still professes over the others. Thou knowest—He makes no vehement protestations, but appeals to the Lord’s own knowledge of his heart.

I love thee—Peter uses the affectional term for love:

I love thee tenderly from the heart. Feed my lambs—It is as if Peter’s first denial is now wiped out. Jesus bids him to return to the pastoral office in its humblest form.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh_21:15-17. Simon, son of Jonas (or John, with several of the best MSS.).—He is addressed thus to remind him that by his fall he had shown that he had not yet attained to be Peter—the rock (or stone, see I. 42, p. 16). It is interesting to remark that his call to active discipleship followed on the miraculous draught of fishes at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, and his reinstatement into the apostolic office here. Lovest.—Love is the foundation of all Christian service; love to Christ alone will inspire men truly to do His work (Joh_14:15, etc.). In Christ’s kingdom a correct creed, however necessary, can be no substitute for a loving heart. Jesus had used the word ἀγαπᾷς (see Joh_13:34; Joh_14:15); Peter in reply uses the verb φιλεῖν, meaning to love in the more ordinary sense of the term, and not that constant, deep affection, including something of reverence, denoted by the other word. Nor does he dare to say that he even cherishes the lesser affection more than his fellow-disciples. Nor is his yea full of the bold assurance of his former protestations of fidelity. Thou knowest, he says to Jesus. Again the question is asked, but on the second occasion the more than these is omitted by our Lord. He knows Peter’s trust in self alone is broken. Again the same answer is returned by Peter. A third time the question rings out, and now the Lord uses Peter’s own word, φιλεῖς με; Peter is grieved at this—doubly grieved, we may say—first that Jesus seems to admit that Peter is not yet able to accord to Him the higher love, and next because the thrice-repeated question brings pitifully to mind his threefold denial. Thoroughly humbled, the apostle even omits the yea, Lord, and casts himself in utter self-renunciation on the omniscience of Jesus: “Lord, Thou knowest all things,” etc. The thrice-repeated commission to the restored apostle shows an interesting gradation. Feed My little lambs (ἀρνία μου).—Care for and feed with word and doctrine the young of the flock, the children and young converts. The more simple duty of the pastor is here committed to Peter. Next comes the more difficult and onerous task, “Lead (rule, shepherd, ποίμαινε) My sheep,” direct and guide the Church as a whole; and, last, if the reading πρόβατα be accepted, “Feed My sheep” will mean to give them the spiritual nourishment fitted for them, or, if the reading προβάτιά μου (with A, B, C, etc.) be accepted, the reference is perhaps to providing the little children of Christ (τεκνία, Joh_13:33), advanced and matured Christians, with the finest of the wheat. No special primacy seems to have been conferred on Peter here; but Meyer justly observes that, when Peter was restored to his former position, this restoration embraced his former pre-eminence (see 1Pe_5:2-4).

Joh_21:18-19. Verily, verily.—Notice the familiar phrase. When thou wast younger (νεώτερος), etc.—Peter must have been at that time about middle life. The contrast is perhaps intended to refer, to Peter’s boast that he would follow Christ to death. Yes, the time would come when he should be constrained to follow his Master on the way of suffering—always a way repugnant to flesh and blood.

Joh_21:19. The martyrdom of St. Peter at Rome, probably circa A.D. 64, is attested by Clement of Rome. It took place apparently in the time of Nero. Tertullian asserts that he was crucified, and Origen says he was fixed on the cross with his head downward. His martyrdom must have been well known in the Church when this chapter was written. (See Smith’s Bible Dictionary, etc.)

Joh_21:21-23. Lord, and what shall this man do, etc.?—This question, although it might be dictated by love, was one which should not have been asked. To Peter it was given to know what manner of death he was to die, but it would not be good that this should be known in the case of every disciple or apostle. God keeps the future wisely in His own power. The answer of Jesus is hypothetical. Ἕως ἔρχομαι would be understood by many of the Parousia, the second appearing of our Lord; and it was to correct this erroneous idea, entertained apparently by many, that this incident was recorded by the Evangelist. The reference might quite legitimately be to Christ’s coming to John in death (Joh_14:3); but probably (Westcott) the coming referred to may be that coming of Christ in judgment which began at the destruction of Jerusalem, and will issue in the final judgment. John overlived this coming, which indeed he may refer to in Rev_22:12.

For Joh_21:24-25, see homilies and Homiletic notes.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_21:15-25

Joh_21:15-17. On the lake-shore. “Simon, son of Jonas.” (A communion address.)—What passed in converse at that lakeside table, what the Lord said to His disciples, what they said to Him, the disciple who has described the scene has not told us. It may be He had special things to say to this one and to that, to dispel their doubts and fears, to strengthen faith, to rekindle hope. Some word, perhaps, to say to him to whom had been said, “Son, behold thy mother.” Of these we know not. But this the Evangelist has told us, that, turning to Peter, the Lord said to him, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” “Simon, son of Jonas,” not the honoured name the Lord had given, to be worn by the disciple who was to be Cephas, Peter, firm as rock in his Master’s cause; but the common name he bore in his common fisher days, ere the Lord had called him!

I. Peter had fallen.—Fallen thrice; and by three steps, the thrice-put question, thrice answered, and the thrice-given commission to resume the work of the Saviour (feeding the lambs—feeding, folding, caring for, being a shepherd to the sheep), by these three steps the fallen disciple is reinstated, restored; and is once more, not “Simon, son of Jonas,” the fisherman, but Peter, the firm, faithful disciple, the commissioned servant! There are beautiful touches in the words, marked, in the telling of the interview, by the beloved historian. “More than these?” (these other disciples) was, perhaps, as a gentle reminding to Peter that the time had been when he used to think himself foremost in zeal, boldest in faith, truest in love, of them all. And Peter would seem to have felt the touch. He has had experience. He knows his own frailty now. He will say nothing of what He is, compared with others now! And when he invites the Lord to read his heart, and see its love, Peter, with sterling modesty, hesitates to use the same word which the Lord had used in putting the question; for Jesus had used a word which signifies a very strong and tender love, and the disciple used a word which implies a love of a kind more common, and not so exalted and refined. “Feed My lambs.” And oh! Peter’s heart was glad that he was to be blessed and honoured in putting hand to the simplest, lowliest work the Lord might give Him. He did not scorn the feeding of the lambs! The little ones, the weak, the ignorant, the erring! He read his Master’s meaning better. He who had his experience could not but know something of how to lead the weak and ignorant and erring to a Saviour whom his own experience had taught him to know as tender-hearted and forgiving, and Himself the source, the giver, of all true strength and guidance. Again, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” and again the selfsame answer, and the same modest, humble word, “Thou knowest.” Yes! the Saviour knew; and Peter, with this love in his heart, was to tell others of, to lead others to, to keep others in, the love of Jesus Christ. The third time it pained him. Did his Lord doubt him? No! but the Lord knew Peter’s heart; and this third question brought from that heart a fervent gush of the love that dwelt there, deeper, stronger, and more tender than Peter himself had known till that moment. “Thou knowest all things! Thou knowest that I love Thee.” And with love in his heart, strong and tender love, the restored disciple is sent to “shepherd” (the word is) the sheep, not merely feed, but be all to them (in loving care, in wise and patient guidance and watchfulness) that a shepherd is to his flock.

II. And now it needs but a word or two to take home this Gospel story to ourselves.—We come, in the communion feast, to tell the Lord Jesus Christ, in a solemn act of His own appointment, that we love Him as our Saviour. It will be well that we consider that our Lord is speaking to us in some such words as those in which He spoke to Peter. And if we think of that “Simon, son of Jonas,” it will perhaps enable us to feel as though the Saviour were addressing us, each one of us, by the very individual, homely name which we have borne all our days, the name associated in our minds with all our by-past life—the sins and errors of our youth, the sins, the worldliness, and selfishness, and unworthiness of our riper years. The name will recall all the longsuffering mercy of the Saviour, all the unmerited blessings, all the watchful care of His providence, and all the light, and peace, and strength, and hope that have come to us from the Saviour’s grace. And as, on a quiet, solemn day in God’s house, we thus look back on life, and into our own hearts and our own ways, may the grace of the Holy Spirit, from whom all good thoughts and desires come, help each one of us to see ourselves truly.—Rev. Thomas Hardy.

Joh_21:15. “Lovest thou Me?”—It was after the strange morning meal, eaten on the shore of the Galilean lake, had been finished, and when the company were moving about in little groups of two and three, that the conversation took place between Peter and the Redeemer. Peter had fallen from His apostolic office; it was necessary that he should be restored to it, in order that he might do his special work in spreading the gospel and founding the Church.

I. Our Lord’s method of dealing with His repentant follower.—

1. The severe trial and sifting to which Peter had been subjected tended to rectify much that was faulty in his nature, to disperse much of the chaff that was mingled with the genuine grain of his disposition. It had quite broken down his self-sufficiency; it had convinced him that he could not depend on himself alone. His answers to our Lord’s question showed that the forward, boastful Simon, son of Jonas, was a memory of the past, and that he had again become the rock, strong through faith in the Lord. After this incident his former self-assertiveness seldom appeared. Once only it seems to have led him into a false position, when it brought him into conflict with St. Paul. But he seems to have yielded in a true spirit of humility, and to have entertained nothing but a brotherly feeling for St. Paul, as his words concerning that apostle in his second Epistle testify. In his two Epistles we may trace all through evidences of the change that had taken place in him. His exhortations to humility, trust in the Lord’s strength, and steadfast resistance of evil, through faith in Christ, show that he had attained at last to the true spirit of a disciple.

2. At the repetition of our Lord’s first question, “Lovest thou Me more than these?” in a somewhat different form, we can believe that a feeling of sorrow and disappointment sprang up in the disciple’s heart. The inquiry now was, not whether he esteemed Jesus more than others did, but whether he really esteemed Him at all.

3. The question was put a third time, and this time our Lord used the apostle’s own word, “Lovest thou Me?”—not, Dost thou entertain for Me a lofty affection and regard? but, Have you even, as you assert, a genuine personal love for Me?

4. At this question the rising grief in Peter’s heart welled up and overflowed. To be looked at askance by one we love, to have to face one whom we esteem highly, but whom we have grievously wronged, must be a hard thing to bear, and must make the sorrow for what has been done more poignant and severe. And that was the case with this disciple. The question three times repeated brought home the memory of his denial, and showed him his sin in all its enormity.

5. Yet the question ministered hope, for he could answer it affirmatively. Still, he felt that it would be no longer safe to trust in himself alone. He would throw himself on the divine Omniscience; so his whole heart gushed out in the utterance, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” It was, indeed, the best answer he could have given. He who was so fatally self-deceived before, might be so again. But by coming to Christ, and bringing an open heart to Him, asking Him in His omniscience to judge whether there was love in it to Him or no, was the best course the repentant disciple could have adopted. He was thus brought to regard his own strength as weakness, his feelings with self-distrust, and to a frame of mind that would lead to simpler confidence in the strength of the Redeemer. Thus at the end of the Gospel narrative a very different man meets us from that forward, boastful, self-sufficient Simon Barjona, who meets us at its beginning. A vital change had taken place in his life and character; he had learned the secret of the true Christian life—to be humble, to conquer self by relying on Christ alone. As it was with Peter, so will it be in a greater or less degree with all true disciples. They will learn, sometimes through bitter failure, profoundly to distrust themselves, and to trust alone in Christ.

II. The disciple’s protestations of affection to his Lord.—

1. These words were not merely from the lip. The Lord, who knows all things, saw in them the expression of a great reality. Peter had a genuine love for his Master, and he was therefore restored to his apostolic office.

2. Our Lord in restoring the apostle seems to have committed three distinct charges to him—“Feed My lambs,” “Shepherd My sheep,” “Shepherd My tender sheep” (see “Explanatory Notes”).

3. We know how faithful St. Peter was to his charge in after-days. We can distinguish an echo of his Master’s words in one of his Epistles when he writes to his fellow-presbyters: “Feed the flock of God,” etc. (1Pe_5:2-4).

4. With this threefold charge came the command to follow Christ, even if to danger and death, to avoid the apparent imminence of which but lately he had denied his Lord. “Follow Me”: “I renew the first call to discipleship and apostleship given amid those same scenes, but which thou didst forfeit through thy sin. Let the love thou hast professed prompt thee to obey My voice.” “Follow Me” in submitting to what is hard to bear for My sake, as I submitted to My Father’s will for thy sake. “Follow Me” in imitating My spirit—in feeding the flock of God, in caring for the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and show the constancy of thy love by standing steadfast and being faithful—“even unto death.”

Applications.—

1. The question put by our Lord to St. Peter we may profitably put to ourselves. If the Redeemer were to appear to us, and come to us here with the inquiry, “Lovest thou Me?” what answer would He receive?

2. He is among us; His spiritual presence is near us; He can read every heart. Can each of us say, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee”?

3. The test of the genuineness of Peter’s love was the course of his after-life, his devotion to the charge given him by Christ. So the test of our love will be our devotion to the duty Christ has laid upon us. Religion can be no matter of secondary importance; it claims our first attention. It is the atmosphere in which our life should be lived. Its spirit should interpenetrate our every thought and word and deed. Love to Christ—and if ye love Me keep My commandments—that is the touchstone of genuine religion.

Joh_21:15. “Feed My lambs.” (Address to children.)—Children are among the lambs of the Saviour’s flock which He here so lovingly confides to the care of His Church. He loves little children (Mar_10:16)—died for them also. He feeds them through His under-shepherds in the Church. What then ought children to do in view of His tender care?

I. Love Him.—Love is the true adoration of the heart, and is specially pleasing to the Saviour. Children love those who are kind, gentle, etc., to them. And if it is true that Christ has done all for men that the gospel declares He has done, then love to Him should be the most natural feeling. “His is love beyond a brother’s.” And in Him they will love His true pastors—the under-shepherds—whom He has appointed over His flock, etc.

II. Obey Him.—Be loyal to Him, true and faithful. This will follow naturally on love to Him. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (Joh_14:15). And how reasonable it is to do so. His commands are not grievous, but are for the health of the soul. “I would rather obey than work miracles”; “do not found obedience on fear,” said a great man. And obedience to Him will mean also obedience to those whom He has appointed in the Church to be pastors and teachers (Heb_13:7; Heb_13:17). Christ has appointed them to feed His lambs, to lead them by green pastures, etc. Let them be honoured for their work’s sake.

III. Serve Him.—Work His works as He did His Father’s work. One of the first desires of those who give themselves to Him is, What shall I do for Him? Follow Him, is the answer, who as child, as man, in everything did the heavenly Father’s will. But St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians should be remembered, “Be ye followers of me,” etc. (1Co_11:1). The instructions and example of those appointed His shepherds by the Chief Shepherd, when they are sincere, should be followed. The ancients erected statues of great and good men in the Forum or other chief place in a city, so that the children might see and emulate their greatness. So should the pastors appointed by Christ ever point the lambs of the flock to Him as their example, and themselves seek ever to be more Christlike.

Joh_21:18-19. On the lake shore—“Follow Me.”—

I. Peter’s future—Peter was right when he said to his Lord, “Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I ‘LOVE’ Thee!” The Lord read Peter’s heart, and He knew the “love” that was, at that moment, in the disciple’s heart. But more, the Lord read Peter’s life in the unseen future—ay! to its very close. And He knew how His poor faithful follower would be true to Him—to the death. The love in Peter’s heart would lead him to the cross. And how touchingly and tenderly He tells it! “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, another shall gird thee, and carry thee—whither thou wouldest not.”

II. Peter’s question as to his fellow-disciple’s future.—“Follow Me,” the Master said, as He called Peter to listen to some words that were for his ear and his heart only. What these words were, we may not seek to know. But there was one a little way behind them on the shore path—one whose love to the Master, Peter probably acknowledged to be perhaps deeper than his own. John had not deserted or denied his Lord on that sad morning! And John was known to Peter, and to the rest, as the disciple whom Jesus—we may say—specially loved. To what trials—to what fate in the after-years—would “this man’s” love to Jesus lead him? And the Lord’s answer was one which gently, but clearly, taught Peter that the question was one which should not have been asked. And so ended this memorable scene on the shore of the lake.

III. The lessons of the scene on the lake shore.—Its lessons are well worth the gathering.

1. With our love for the Saviour, how many opportunities are within reach of all of us—for “feeding His lambs,” for “shepherding His sheep”! We don’t need any special ordination, or any special field of work. We shall find these opportunities—all of us—in

“The trivial round, the common task.”

Lovest thou Jesus? help some poor weakling lamb, guide some straying sheep of His.

2. Poor Simon Peter! His very errings and failings make him dear to us. To the very last, he seemed to need the kindly restraining hand of Jesus to keep him right. How apt are all of us, like him, to wish for a peep into that which is wisely hidden from us. Let us remember the voice that said—so gently, but with such force of meaning—“What is that to thee? follow Me.”

3. What a noble apostle Peter becomes, after Pentecost has put the cope-stone on the work of the Saviour’s life-training of him! It is but little fragments of his apostle-work we have. But we cannot fail to see what a power he was in the infant Christian Church. And through all his life of work, that scene on the lake shore would often be present to his mind. Ay! and when the time came, and the old disciple was being girded for the cross, the memory of the Lord’s words would help him to die the martyr death for the love he bore to Jesus.—Rev. T. Hardy.

Joh_21:18-19. The high prerogative of suffering.—In these words our Lord predicts the death of St. Peter. In his old age the apostle was to be crucified, made to stretch forth his hands upon the transverse beam of the cross, and girded (or lashed round the waist) to the instrument of torture by a cord. Tradition says that he was crucified, at his own request, with his head downwards; in that case, the girding, or tying tightly, to the cross would probably be necessary, by way of keeping the body of the sufferer in its right position. Putting aside the original and literal meaning of the words, and attending only to their secondary application, notice:—

I. Suffering, in all its forms, is, and should be looked upon as being, a vocation.—

1. There are many, and these real Christians, persons interested in God’s service, who regard suffering in a shallow, superficial point of view, as an interference with their vocations, and consequently miss all the golden opportunities of growth in grace and knowledge which it holds out.

2. The truth is, that God, in sending them the sickness or the accident, has been pleased in His wisdom and love to change their vocation, and, if minded to be really loyal to His will, they must accommodate and familiarise themselves to the idea, not that their occupation is gone, but simply that it is altered.

3. When our heavenly Father changes our whole plan of life by His providential despatches, and virtually sends us the order, “Lie still, and let another gird thee and carry thee, instead of thy girding thyself, and walking on Mine errands ‘whither thou wouldest,’ ” shall we venture even to remonstrate, when we are assured by the testimony of His word that both His wisdom and His care for us are unbounded, and when our own experience of life, brief as it has been, re-echoes this testimony?

4. Regard suffering, even in its slighter forms, as a vocation, having its special duties, and offering its special grace. Say secretly of it, “Here for the present lies thy allotted task, O my soul; consider how much may be made of this period—how largely it may be improved to God’s service and thy salvation.”

II. May we not say of suffering, that it is the highest of all vocations?—

1. Peter was God’s prime agent in the spread of the gospel among the people of the circumcision. Yet not one word is here said of the glorification of God, in connection with St. Peter’s active days. The Evangelist speaks of his crucifixion—when those limbs, once so full of vigour, so prompt to move in the Master’s service, were fettered, and when his body was bound fast to the accursed tree—as the period when God reaped from the apostle a great harvest of glory: “Thus spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify God.”

2. So in a holy death there is something specially acceptable, over and above that which there is in a holy life; and therefore with a marked emphasis it is written, “Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

2. The same law is observable in spiritual character, which rules the formation of the natural. How often in a smooth and easy life do men, who have something far better beneath, appear selfish, effeminate, and trifling! Suddenly they are thrown into some position of high trust, great responsibility, or serious danger; are called upon to face an enemy, or submit to the hardships of a campaign; and lo! the character shows a stuff and a fibre, ay, and a tenderness for others, which no one ever gave it credit for.

4. But the chief reason why suffering is the highest of all vocations, is, that in suffering, so close a conformity may be attained to Him who is the highest exemplification of human virtue. It was to conformity with Him in this high acquiescence that He called His disciple, St. Peter, when He said to him, “Follow Me.”

5. If the words “Follow Me” were addressed specifically to St. Peter, are there not words of precisely similar import addressed to all disciples to the end of time? Do we not read, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me”? Ah! there is the word of which we are in search, to express the agency of the sufferer in this matter—“take up his cross.”—Goulburn.

“O Lord, my God, do Thou Thy holy will!

I will lie still:

I will not stir, lest I forsake Thine arm.

And break the charm,

Which lulls me, clinging to my Father’s breast,

In perfect rest.”

Joh_21:19; Joh_21:22. Following Christ.—The way of Jesus in this world was one of sorrow. Only now and again was His path brightened as He saw of the travail of His soul in the faith of some. But from the beginning of His public ministry He was grieved at His rejection by those whom He came to redeem. At the close of His public ministry one of His disciples betrayed Him; the others “forsook Him,” etc. (Mar_14:50). But all this was to be expected. Christ the light must needs oppose, and be opposed by, the darkness; and all through His manifestation of Himself this conflict marked His path with sorrow, although the hour of seeming defeat was virtually the hour of His triumph.

I. Christ’s disciples must follow Him in this conflict.—

1. It is not wonderful that the disciple should be as the Lord. The same conflict between good and evil is still raging. As the dominant spirit of the world is in antagonism to the gospel, the disciples of Christ must expect to be opposed in following Him, as He Himself was.

2. But they are not to be troubled at these things, as though some strange thing has happened to them. Christ suffered contradiction of sinners, and His followers must meet it as He did, and as the apostle Peter learned to do in following his Master in after-years (1Pe_2:21-23).

3. And so it will be to the end of this dispensation. In all times earnest men who strive to work righteousness, and refuse to deflect from the straight path of duty, have to struggle in following Christ; whilst often the hypocrite, the time-server, the conventionalist, the sycophant, glide along through life easily. Recall in thought the bead-roll of men conspicuous for righteousness, fidelity to truth and duty. The time would fail to tell how many have had to endure hardness in following their heavenly Leader.

4. Nor are the foes who hinder all from without. The greatest hindrances to the Christian race are from within. The weights that impede, etc., are pride, self-will, desires chained to the dust, etc. But those who resolve to follow on in the Redeemer’s strength, even when apparently vanquished, will be in reality more than conquerors.

II. Christ’s disciples must follow Him without delay.—

1. There is danger lest in delaying they should be turned aside from the way of Christ. The influences prevalent in the present evil world leave their impress on the spiritual nature, if men dally within their sphere. They mould the soul into conformity with them if permitted to prevail, unite it to the perishable, and lead it away from the Life.

2. What would many a one give when nearing the end of life’s journey—a life spent in following evil—to gain a few years or even days to retrace their steps, and, if it might be, but enter on the way over which Christ trod and to which He calls! But it is not always easy to turn back. To the willing, longing heart it is possible by grace divine. But would there be any desire often? It is hard for one whose nature has been dwarfed and stunted in the ways of sin, and in following evil, even when awakened to a sense of danger, and with remorse dogging his steps, to turn and retrace his path, and the end of such a one is often the despair of a Judas (Mat_27:3), even though it does not result in his desperate Acts 3. There is nothing more awful than to see a human soul turning away from Christ! To follow Christ as did the penitent and restored apostle is to be in the path of safety, and leads to joy—even though, as in St. Peter’s case, it be through sorrow and suffering (1 Peter passim), in the end it will be well.

Joh_21:20-23. The Lord’s saying regarding the beloved disciple.—Probably one of the reasons why this concluding chapter, or epilogue, of the Gospel was written was that the erroneous opinions, which were held as to our Lord’s words concerning John on this occasion, might be corrected.

I. Peter’s question.—

1. The memorable interview with Peter had ended. The apostle at Jesus’ command was going after him, and turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved also following.

2. The question Peter put was prompted no doubt by love to John in the first place—probably a desire to know whether his fellow-disciple, who had not forsaken or denied the Lord, was to have the same bitter experience at the end of life, or whether a milder lot would be his. Peter had not yet learned, as he afterward did, the nobility of suffering for righteousness’ sake (1Pe_4:13-16).

3. But there was also a culpable spirit of curiosity, a breaking through for the moment of the old forward spirit so often manifested. His Lord had just graciously readmitted him into his office and apostleship. He should therefore have been humbly receptive, and not forward to ask what Jesus did not offer to communicate.

II. The Lord’s reply (Joh_21:22).—

1. There is conveyed in it a certain degree of reproof, as if the Lord had said, “Would it not be well for you to attend to what I have said—working on till you are called to ‘follow Me’ on the way of martyrdom—content to aid your brethren in their work, and not occupy your mind in speculating on their future?” God has reserved the future in His own power; it is not our part to pry into those “times and seasons” (Act_1:7). It is ours, having received power, to go forth to labour, leaving the future of ourselves and others dear to us in His hands, knowing that whatever it may be it can only bring good (Rom_8:28).

2. There is, it is true, a natural desire in our hearts to know that the future of those dear to us shall be prosperous, happy, etc. And frequently one of the bitterest pangs in the case of those dying, and leaving behind them helpless ones who have been depending on them, is the uncertainty which surrounds the future of those left. But the safe plan is so to follow Christ, and influence those dear to us to follow Him also, that everything can be restfully entrusted to Him.

3. The incident may teach also that there is a species of curiosity that cannot be praised, which may lead to ideas and opinions which, if cherished, may result in laxity and remissness even in the Christian life, and thus to turning away from, in place of following, the Redeemer.

III. The meaning of our Lord’s answer explained.—

1. The Lord had said “if I will that he tarry,” etc., thus bidding Peter remember that He is supreme; that He acts “according to His will,” etc. (Dan_4:35); that the lives of men are controlled and determined according to His wisdom and power. And thus those who are His, who are in unison with His divine purposes, know that eternal wisdom, love, and power are watching over them all through life to its end. His purposes, so far as His people are concerned, will issue in good.

2. No need then curiously to inquire or take thought for the morrow in regard to ourselves or our brethren in Him. As He wills we live, when He wills we depart; and whether that time be long or short, whether the issue be through cloud or through sunshine, it must be well. If, then, John should tarry till Christ came, should not go hence by a martyr’s death like Peter, of what consequence was it? In this he could follow Christ as well as Peter, who was to go hence by a rougher way.

3. But this saying of our Lord resulted in a misunderstanding among the brethren in the apostolic Church. It was commonly reported that John “should not die.” This misunderstanding arose from an erroneous interpretation of the words, “till I come.”

(1) Christ comes to His own at death (Joh_14:3);

(2) He came to His disciples spiritually, according to His promise (Joh_14:22-23, etc.; Mat_16:28);

(3) He was to come in judgment on Jerusalem (Mat_24:30; Luk_21:25-28);

(4) and, finally, He is coming to judge the quick and the dead.

4. Now, those who erroneously interpreted our Lord’s words thought these referred to the coming of Christ in final judgment, and therefore they conceived that the apostle would not die (1Th_4:17). Here lay their error. They forgot that the last two comings mentioned are so connected that they are practically one. These two events are the first and last link of a chain of Christ’s comings in judgment. They are closely connected by St. Matthew (Mat_24:29-30; Mat_24:36; Mat_24:42); and St. John in Revelation iterates and reiterates the Lord’s message to His Church: “I am coming quickly” (Rev_22:7, etc.).

5. John thus did remain till Christ came to him in these ways: Jerusalem fell; he still lived whilst many—most of his fellow-apostles had passed away. “On Patmos’ lonely isle” he saw in vision the Lord in glory; and still he tarried, commissioned to go and proclaim the Lord’s purposes with His Church. He saw the kingdom of God coming with power, spreading like the tree growing from the tiny mustard seed; and then His Lord came to take him to Himself (Joh_14:3), to await that hour when, in the body, His saints shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is (1Jn_3:2).

Joh_21:22. “Follow thou Me.”—To those who follow the Redeemer there is given a fourfold joy.

I. The joy of forgiveness.—The prisoner condemned to suffer, set at liberty; the sick man whose life was despaired of, restored to health; the debtor who felt the load intolerable, set free by another’s bounty—these are but inadequate types of the joy of deliverance from the load and burden, the misery and fear, of unforgiven sin, and a fearful looking for of judgment. Joy fills the heart and irradiates the life. “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (Psa_126:2).

II. The joy of free, unfettered obedience and service.—Sin has no more dominion over those who are Christ’s. Its bondage has been broken, and there is no longer the galling and vain attempt in their lives to keep the commandments as a means to gain the divine favour, but the willing obedience of sons of the heavenly Father, who, following their divine pattern, find it indeed to be their meat to do that Father’s will and finish His work; so that neither trial nor difficulty in the doing of it will detract from their joy. Like St. Paul, they can each say, “Yea, if I be offered (poured out) upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all” (Php_2:17).

III. The joy of assured hope.—What are the hopes of men to whom no revelation of divine love and grace hath come? Even to the best and noblest of the past, who amid the darkness have struggled toward the light, hope was but a dim and feeble ray, uncertain oft and oft extinguished; whilst the logical result of modern materialistic systems is the entire obliteration of hope for man beyond the brief and limited spheres of earth and time. All the comfort materialism can give us is “to meet with brave hearts” (Huxley) the awful unknown. But in following the Redeemer we are “begotten again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance … that fadeth not away” (1Pe_1:3-4). The present and future here blessed by His presence are radiant with hope, and from the eternal glory it scintillates and glows on the path of the believer here. A life without hope is a life of perpetual captivity. A life with hope is like the life of noble, generous youth, pressing eagerly forward into the future. And in following the Redeemer we lay hold of this element of perennial strength and vigour, a mark and characteristic of true pilgrims Zionward:—

“The beacon of life’s dreary sea,

The star of immortality.”

Swain.

IV. The joy of victory.—In following Christ we gain the victory over self. Man’s will and desire were formed not to be centred in himself, but in God. And so long as our will is opposed to God’s there can be no true joy in life. But as Christ, the perfect example in all things, acquiesced in the Father’s will, so Christ’s disciples say, Not my will, but Thine, be done. “In His will is our peace” (Dante). Victory over sin. There is no happiness in the slavery of sin, and therefore going after Christ brings freedom and joy. Last, victory over the fear of death and the hereafter. Christ’s followers behold the light of eternity shining through the Saviour’s empty tomb; and as their Redeemer-Shepherd is their judge, they look to meet Him with joy and not with grief. Theirs is the joy of final victory, even though the passage to it be through suffering, as Christ’s was.

“Sure the last end

Of the good man is peace! How calm his exit!

Night dews fell not more gently on the ground,

Nor weary, worn-out winds expire so soft.”

Blair.

Joh_21:25. The truth of the record.—

I. The impossibility of fully pourtraying Christ’s life.—This verse refers evidently to the entire life of the Saviour from His coming into the world to His leaving it. St. John is closing his narrative of that life; and the historian, as if with a sigh, tells us that he has only given a faint sketch or outline of that wonderful life, so filled, in all its days and nights, with acts of wondrous power and gracious mercy, and words of wisdom and of kindness. Is it strange that the historian should say this? Without for one moment doubting that he was heaven-prompted to give the world that plain, honest narrative of facts and words (words in his case especially) which presents to us our Saviour so beautifully, as described by the disciple whom He loved, cannot we imagine that disciple saying thus, as though to himself, that, Oh! there were thousands of things done and said by his Lord beyond those which he had been writing down? And as these things and sayings came crowding in on the loving memory of John, is it strange that he should thus exclaim that all the books in the world would not suffice to describe, in its full beauty and power and holiness, that wondrous life?

II. The writer’s hyperbole prophetic.—One would almost think the Evangelist’s words were prophetic. Think what a proportion of the literature, which for ages past has been pouring from the press for the world’s reading, grows out of, bears upon, that life and that teaching of which John (when he said this) had given the world a bare sketch or outline! And how such literature keeps pouring into the world still! It does look, indeed, in the present day, as if the world could not contain the books.

Application.—

1. St. John had so been with Jesus (perhaps also had of late held such communion with his risen Lord) that when he thought of Him he saw something far more distinct and definite and real than even the beautifully graphic picture he had been enabled to set before the world.

2. Let us know the living Saviour, our elder brother, the friend that sticketh closer than a brother—know Him in prayer, in holy thought, in daily life—and we shall be like John. We shall have a more vivid conception of what our Saviour is—how wise, how kind, how powerful to take care of us here and anywhere, now and for ever—a more real conception of Him than that which we can draw from even that grand, striking, wondrously impressive fourfold picture which the word of God holds out to us. Though bless God for that “four-ply” sketch! And may the Holy Spirit engrave it deeper and clearer, and in more loving lines and tones, on all our hearts, as we live! Amen.—Rev. Thomas Hardy.

HOMILETIC NOTES

Joh_21:17. Our Lord’s omniscience.—Indeed, our Lord’s knowledge embraced two districts, each of which really lies open only to the eye of the Most High. We will not dwell on His knowledge of the unsuspected future, a knowledge inherent in Him, as it was imparted to those prophets in whom His Spirit had dwelt. We will not insist on His knowledge of a strictly contingent futurity, such as is involved in His positive assertion that Tyre and Sidon would have repented of their sins, if they had enjoyed the opportunities of Chorazin and Bethsaida; although such knowledge as this, considering the vast survey of motives and circumstances which it implies, must be strictly proper to God alone. But He knew the secret heart of man, and He knew the hidden thought and purpose of the most high God. Such a “discerner” was He “of the thoughts and intents” of human hearts, so truly did His Apocalyptic title, the “Searcher of the reins and hearts,” belong to Him in the days of His historical manifestation, that “He needed not that any should testify,” etc. (Joh_2:25). This was not a result of His taking careful note of peculiarities of action and character manifested to the eye by those around Him, but of His “perceiving in His Spirit” and “knowing in Himself” the unuttered reasonings and volitions which were taking shape, moment by moment, within the secret souls of men, just as clearly as He saw physical facts not ordinarily appreciated except by sensuous perception. This was the conviction of His apostles. “We are sure,” they said, “that Thou knowest all things” (Joh_16:30). “Lord, Thou knowest,” etc., cries St. Peter (Joh_21:17). Yet more, in the eternal Father Jesus encounters no impenetrable mysteries; for Jesus no clouds and darkness are round about Him, nor is His way in the sea, nor His path in the deep waters, nor His footsteps unknown. On the contrary, our Lord reciprocates the Father’s knowledge of Himself by an equivalent knowledge of the Father. “As the Father,” etc. (Joh_10:15); “No man knoweth,” etc. (Luk_10:22). Even if our Lord should be speaking, in this passage, primarily at least, of His divine omniscience, He is also plainly speaking of a knowledge infused into and possessed by His human soul, and thus His words supply the true foil to His statement respecting the day of judgment. If that statement be construed literally, it manifestly describes, not the normal condition of His human intelligence, but an exceptional restriction. For the gospel history implies that the knowledge infused into the human soul of Jesus was ordinarily and practically equivalent to omniscience. “We may conjecture,” says Hooker, “how the powers of that soul are illuminated, which, being so inward unto God, cannot choose but be privy unto all things which God worketh, and must therefore of necessity be endued with knowledge so far forth universal, though not with infinite knowledge peculiar to Deity itself.” St. Paul’s assertion that “in Christ are hidden,” etc. (Col_2:3), may practically be understood of Christ’s earthly life, no less than of His life of glory. If then His human intellect, flooded as it was by the infusion of boundless light, streaming from His Deity, was denied, at a particular time, knowledge of the date of a particular future event, this may well be compared with that deprivation of the consolations of Deity, to which His human affections and will were exposed when He hung dying on the cross. If “the divine wisdom,” as Bishop Bull has said, “impressed its effects upon the human soul of Christ pro temporum ratione, in the degree required by particular occasions or emergencies,” this would be only one application of the principle recognised by St. Irenæus and Theodoret, and rendered familiar to many of us in the language of Hooker. “As the parts, degrees, and offices of that mystical administration did require, which He voluntarily undertook, the beams of Deity did in operation always accordingly restrain or enlarge themselves.” We may not attempt rashly to specify the exact motive which may have determined our Lord to deny to His human soul at one particular date the point of knowledge here in question; although we may presume generally that it was a part of that condescending love which led Him to become “in all things like unto His brethren.’ That He was ever completely ignorant of aught else, or that He was ignorant on this point at any other time, are inferences for which we have no warrant, and which we make at our peril.—H. P. Liddon.

Joh_21:24-25. The meaning of the epilogue.—Much ingenuity has been expended in the efforts to explain this appendix or epilogue to the Gospel. The opinion held generally at present among scholars is that the chapter as a whole is an appendix added by the apostle some time after the Gospel was published, and that Joh_21:24-25 form an addition by a later hand, or that Joh_21:25 at least was thus added. The style in which the chapter is written is John’s style. Any seeming peculiarities may be accounted for on the rational supposition that much of John’s Gospel was written long before it was given forth to the world (see Introd.). It seems better on the whole to conclude with Lange (and others) that chap. 21 is designed as an epilogue, and forms at the close of the Gospel the counterpart of the prologue at the beginning; that it represents “the post-historical operations of Christ in the world, in general, as an administration exercised by the Lord in heaven over the Church on earth, with a view to conduct her forward to the kingdom of glory in the world above” (Lange, Life of Christ). The incidents in the chapter become therefore symbolical of the course of the Church’s history, and of our Lord’s rule and dealings with His people during the course of that history. No doubt also the apostle, in writing the chapter, had in view the correction of the erroneous impression as to the meaning of our Lord’s words concerning him. There is no cogent reason also why Joh_21:24-25 should be ascribed to other hands than the writer of the Gospel. Surely Joh_21:23 would have been a most abrupt and unsuitable close of such a momentous record; and most unlike John, for the reference in that verse is mostly to himself. And whilst in Joh_20:30-31 the purpose of the Gospel is fully stated, here the conclusion of the whole naturally comes. Nor is Chrysostom’s explanation of οἴδαμεν, We know, of Joh_21:24 to be summarily rejected. It might well be written οἶδα μέν, I indeed know, in the sense of I testify, I asseverate or affirm. Chrysostom and Theophylact were not such bunglers or imperfect Greek scholars as to suggest an impossibility (but see Godet in loc.). The words of Joh_21:24 distinctly connect it with Joh_21:23, and are indeed most explicit. “This is the disciple who testifies” (present, ὁ μαρτυρῶν), “and who wrote” (past, γράψας); and in the “I know” (or, it οἴδαμεν be read, “I and those associated with me in the Church”) he solemnly affirms the truth of his testimony. The hyperbolic expression in Joh_21:25, which seems to many incompatible with the idea of the Johannine authorship of the verse, may not seem so much out of place when the life of Jesus is viewed in the light of the Prologue. The meaning of these verses may therefore be unfolded as follows:—

Joh_21:24-25. John’s final testimony to the truth of what he had written.—

I. The apostle affirms the truth of his Gospel.—

1. When he wrote he was still in the flesh, prepared to witness by his life or death to the truth of what he had seen and heard, which he thus gave to the world.

2. His Gospel is therefore to be included in that word of truth which is able to make men wise unto salvation, etc. (2Ti_3:15).

II. What is recorded is not a complete life of the Saviour, but is sufficient for the purpose described (Joh_20:30-31).—

1. The Gospel is but a fragmentary exhibition of the truth concerning Christ, but it is sufficient for its purpose.

2. Had every word of Jesus and every fact of His public ministry been recorded, the record would not have come within limits which would make it useful for all men, and easily disseminated throughout the world.

3. Nor would it have been possible to set forth in a limited space the fulness of Christ, which is infinite. What book, what world of books, could contain it?

4. Even on what has been recorded the mass of literature is enormous. This limitation is therefore a proof of divine wisdom.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joh_21:15. Feeding the lambs of the flock.—“Lovest thou Me more than these love Me?” It is an appeal to the oldest instinct of Peter’s nature, his desire to be first. The root of his whole being had been ambition. Even in his approach to his Lord there had been a consciousness of self, a thirst for superiority, a desire that his coming should be singled out from the approaches of all other men. “Bid me that I come to Thee on the waters”—that had been the motto of his life. What was he that he should be bidden more than John or James or Nathanael? But the instinct for superiority was in the man, and he could not help it. And now it is to this instinct that our Lord appeals, “Lovest thou Me more than these love Me?” Is there the old wish to be first? But observe the new revelation which the Lord makes to the old instinct, “Feed My lambs.” It is as if He said: Peter, thou bast been pursuing a wrong road to greatness; he that is least shall be greatest of all. Wouldst thou be spiritually the most conspicuous of the band? Then must thou be the least proud, the most self-forgetting. Thou must come down to feed the very lambs of the flock. Thou must descend into the lowliest valleys of the world. Thou must lose through the very power of thy love all sense of thine own power. Thou must forget thine interest in the interest of the lives beneath thee, thou must be oblivious of thy wants in feeling the hunger and the thirst of other souls, thou must take no thought for thyself through the pressure of one great thought—the burden of humanity, the bearing of My cross. O Thou that hast emptied Thyself of Thy glory, and by Thy humiliation hast conquered the world, help me to be great like Thee in Thee. Give me Thine own spirit of self-forgetfulness, that I may be inspired with the power of love. Teach me to lose self-will, that I may be strengthened by a higher will. Let my life be buried in the love of Thee, hid in the sense of Thy presence, absorbed and lost and overshadowed in Thine all-excelling glory. Then in Thy cross shall I reach Thy crown, and Calvary shall become my Olivet. My enthusiasm of self-forgetfulness shall be the greatness of my power, my loss shall be my gain, my death shall be the strength of my life. When I feel that I have nothing I shall indeed possess all things; when I am least conscious of myself I shall be Strongest of all. Teach me to feed Thy lambs.—Dr. Geo. Matheson.

Joh_21:22-23. Every man shall bear his own burden.—It is worth observing that the Evangelist says, “Then Peter, turning about, seeth,” etc. (Joh_21:20). Peter had to turn about in order to see John—had he simply followed Christ as he had been bidden, he would have seen nothing of John; and thus it is with us—we turn about when we look after our neighbours, we go straight forward when we look only to Christ. Remember, then, that “Every man shall bear his own burden.” Remember, that every man standeth or falleth to his own master. Exercise charity rather than curiosity—the charity which hopeth all things, rather than the curiosity which would pry into all things. Say not with Peter, “Lord, what shall this man do?” but with Paul, “Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?” You are quite safe in waiting till you are in heaven to know whether others shall be there too; but you may lose the path yourselves by “turning about” to see whether others are following or not. “If I will that he tarry,” etc. (Joh_21:23). If I will that he have fewer, or that he have heavier trials, what is that to thee? If I will that he linger long upon earth, or that he be speedily removed, what is that to thee? If I assign him extraordinary duties, or confer upon him extraordinary privileges, what is that to thee? “Follow thou Me.” I have given thee enough to do, and enough to bear: it diminishes not thy mercies that another has greater; it adds not to thy trouble that another has less; it would not make thy calling and election more sure to read another’s name in the Lamb’s Book of Life; neither would it invalidate thine own hope of glory to be told that another came short. “Follow thou Me.” O blessed Lord, give us Thy grace to enable us to obey Thy command! Teach us to look within, to busy ourselves with ourselves, to be severe on ourselves, gentle and charitable to others, to follow Thee too steadfastly and too intently to have time to turn about, or inclination for unprofitable questions as to our brethren. “Follow thou Me”—and whither now goeth our Lord? Indeed when He spoke to Peter He was about to pass to the right hand of God; but He had just before told this disciple that he must have fellowship with Him in His sufferings. Oh! let this truth be remembered by all: we must follow Thee, O Lord, to Thy cross, if ever we would follow Thee, O Lord, to Thy crown.—Henry Melvill.

Joh_21:23-24. St. John’s fitness as a witness to Christ.—After eating together, and after the gracious dealing with Peter that ensued, Jesus rises, and begins to walk away from the spot, saying to Peter, “Follow Me,” who does so. John also follows, unbidden and silently, as he had done once before when the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Peter, turning round and seeing him, asks, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” To whom the Lord replies, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me.” His future lies wholly in My will. The saying went abroad among the disciples that John was not to die; and a legend arose afterwards that he only slumbered, breathing in his grave, and that the turf was tremulous above him. “Yet Jesus said not He shall not die, but If 1 will that he tarry till I come.” This is the last glimpse we have of John’s companionship with Jesus on to the ascension into heaven, when He sat on the right hand of God. On the banks of the Jordan, in the beginning, he followed Jesus unbidden, and abode with Him that day; on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, after the resurrection, he begins to follow, again unbidden, in a course that runs down through eternity, neither death nor life able to separate him from his Lord and Saviour. It is … apparent that not only had John special qualifications both by nature and by grace for being a witness of the Lord’s life, but special opportunities of observation and intimate knowledge were afforded him; special disclosures of the Lord’s glory were opened up to him; and none of the twelve penetrated more deeply into the revelation, or treasured it up more faithfully and lovingly in his heart. “We beheld His glory,” he says in the beginning of his Gospel; and in his first Epistle he reports how he had heard, and seen with his eyes, and looked upon, and his hands handled, the manifested Word of Life. In view of what had been disclosed to him, he is overwhelmed by the impossibility of duly and worthily setting it forth, and thinks of all he has told in his Gospel as the merest nothing compared with what there was to tell. Looking upon his little slender manuscript, which is to us so profound and wonderful, he exclaims, I have shown you a part of His way; but the world itself could not contain the books that might be written, rehearsing the superb story. It is testimony to the fulness of knowledge, of insight, of understanding, of memory, of sacred joy, which he possessed; and to the impossibility of telling all he knew.—Dr. J. Culross, “John whom Jesus Loved.”

Joh_21:25. The Bible suited to men of all classes and circumstances.—The great practical lesson which we desire to draw from this subject is one which is applicable to every class of hearers. Whatever your position in life, whatever your occupation, we have to say to you all, we have to ask you all to bear away with you the truth that there is enough in the Bible for those who have most time at their command, and not too much for those who have least time at their command. There may be those of you whom God has so placed that they are not compelled to wear away their days and nights in providing means of subsistence for themselves and their families, but who are blessed with such a measure of sufficiency that they have leisure at their disposal for study and inquiry. And what is the lesson which our subject reads to such as these? Why, we press on these men, who are comparatively men of leisure, the duty of searching the Scriptures; of giving themselves, assiduously and prayerfully, to the searching of Scripture, assuring them that the more they explore, the more will the mine deepen; and thus will study be recompensed, not only by present discoveries, but by the certainty that there are yet greater to be made. But there are others amongst you who are quite differently circumstanced, who have hardly any time they can call their own; who must “rise early, and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness.” And what do we say to these? What lesson do we draw for these from our subject? Exactly what we said—exactly what we drew in the case of men who had much leisure at their disposal. We press alike upon those who are deeply engaged in business the duty of searching the Scriptures. We will take no apology from the extent of your occupations. Commentators may swell the Bible, but the Bible itself is but a small book; and if only a single chapter were read morning and evening, read with hearty, humble prayer, there would be rapidly acquired a great knowledge of Scripture; and men of business, if not profound theologians, would be well versed in the revelation made by God of Himself. It is a mercy for you that the Bible is not larger. You are thus deprived of a most specious excuse by which you might have striven to justify ignorance. If the divine writings, like the writing of divines, filled shelf upon shelf, and room upon room, we should have you asking the use of recommending the records of salvation to men who had but a few minutes every day which they could employ upon reading. But the minutes will suffice. Revelation has been gathered within so manageable a compass that no press of necessary occupation can incapacitate for gaining acquaintance with its statements. Revelation might have been so enlarged that its extent might perhaps have been pleaded at the judgment in extenuation of neglect, and if not at the judgment, it might certainly have been used during life for quieting conscience when it pleaded the great duty of searching the Scriptures. But as it is, the Bible being after all but a small book—small, as we have endeavoured to show you, not from lack of material for making it larger, but because the divine Author saw that, if larger, it would be too large for human comprehension,—this, we say, being the size of the Bible, why, if you refuse to acquaint yourselves with its contents, which are able to “make you wise unto salvation,” it will rise hereafter, like a cloud from the sea before the prophet’s servant, no larger in size than a man’s hand, the very diminutiveness ominous of ruin; and presently the whole firmament of the future shall be overcast with blackness; the rain shall descend, the floods shall come, and yourselves be borne away by the torrent of indignation. Once more, then, we say, “Search the Scriptures.” Search them with prayer, and you shall certainly search them with profit.—Henry Melvill.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

II

THE CONTINUING RULE OF CHRIST IN HIS CHURCH, REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTRY, WALK AND MARTYR–FATE OF PETER, OR THE DESTINY OF THE CHURCH IN RESPECT OF HER PREDOMINANTLY OFFICIAL AND EXTERNAL CHARACTER

Joh_21:15-19

15So when they had dined [breakfasted, or, taken their morning meal, ὴρίστησαν], Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas [John, Ἰωἀννου],12 lovest [ὰγαπᾶς] thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love [dearly love, φιλῶ]13 thee. He saith unto him, Feed [βὐσκε] my lambs [τὰ ἄρνία μου]. 16He saith to him again the [a] second time [δεύτερον], Simon, son of Jonas [John], lovest [ἀγαπᾶς] thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I [dearly] love [φιλῶ] thee. He saith unto him, Feed [keep, tend, ποίμαινε]14 my sheep [τὰ πρόβατἀ μου].15 17He saith unto him the third time [τὸ τρίτον], Simon, son of Jonas [John], lovest thou me [dearly, φιλεῖς με]? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? [dearly, φιλεῖς με;] And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee [dearly, φιλῶ σε]. Jesus saith unto him, Feed [βόσκε] my sheep [my little sheep, sheeplings, τὰ προβάτιά μου].16 18Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst [didst gird] thyself, and walkedst [and didst walk] whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 19 This spake he signifying by what [kind or manner of] death he should [was to] glorify God. And when he had spoken this [And having spoken this,] he saith unto him, Follow me.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

general remarks

The following transaction manifestly has reference to the three-fold denial of Peter, and takes the form of an apostolico-ethical trial, its object being the re-institution of that disciple.

[It is well to read the questions of our Lord, the answers of Peter, and the commands of Christ in parallel columns:

Questions.Answers.I.Ἀ γαπᾶ̣ς με πλεῖον τούτων;Ναί, Κύριε, σὺ οἶδας ὃτι φιλῶ σε.II.̓ Αγαπᾶ̣ς με;Ναί, Κύριε, σὺ οἶδαζό́τι φιλῶ σε.III.Φιλεῖς με;Κύριε, πάντασὺ οἶδας, σὺ γινώσκειζό́τι φιλῶ σε.Commands    I.Βόσκετὰἀρνίαμου.II.ΙΙοίμανετὰπρόβατάμου.III.Βόσκετὰπροβάτιάμου.—P.S.]The first consideration of significance is the three-fold inquiry of jesus together with the three replies of peter,—the counterpart of the three-fold temptation and denial. [This allusion (comp. Joh_13:38) is acknowledged by Augustine (“redditur negationi trinæ trina confessio, ne minus amori lingua serviat quam timori”), Wetstein (“ut illi occasionem præberet, triplicis abnegationis maculam triplici professione eluendi”), Bengel (who, in his brief, pointed way, remarks to τὸ τρίτον, Joh_21:17 : “numerus decretorius”), Meyer, Alford, Godet, and others. It is vainly denied by Hengstonberg, who strangely says (iii. 342), that there is, in this whole section, not the least reference to Peter’s denial, as this was completely done away with long before! This shows the disqualification of this harsh and angular, though learned and orthodox, divine to appreciate the nice and delicately fibred constitution of this Gospel.—P. S.]

Then the three-fold address, “simon, son of Jonas [John, see Text. Note.—P. S.]. Assuredly this is not simply an expression of solemnity and deeply stirred love (Meyer),—it is intended as a reminder of’ the natural descent and weakness of Peter which were productive of his fall; this meaning, results surely from the antithesis, Mat_16:17-18 : Simon, son of Jonas [John], and Peter, (see Comm. on Matthew, chap. 10 and chap. 16).

Farther the Shadings of the thrie-repeated Question:

(1) First, “lovest thou Me more than these love Me,”—with reference to the vow of Peter: “Though all should be offended in Thee,” etc., then the simple: “Lovest thou Me?” for the second and the third time.

(2) The change ἀγαπᾶ̣ς με; ἀγαπᾶ̣ς με; φιλεῖς με, i.e. “Lovest thou Me (ethically)?” “Art thou attached to Me as a friend (personally)?” The last question a searching entering into the twice-repeated assurance of Peter: φιλῶ σε.

Still farther the answers of Peter. After the first question, he avoids the danger of setting himself above his fellow-disciples, by evading the comparative in Jesus’ question; on the other hand he specializes the ἀγαπᾶ̣ς by replying: φιλῶ σε. It is a modification, in which he expresses himself partly with more humility, partly with more fervor, as if he meant to say: though I should be wanting in the divine measure of love that belongeth to Thee, I nevertheless am personally attched to Thee from the bottom of my heart. He answers the second question in the same manner. At the third question of Jesus, he is grieved that Jesus asks him for the third time: φιλεῖς με; and strengthens his former declarations, “Lord, Thou knowest it!” by the word: “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”

Of a very special significance, however, are the three Deliverances of the Lord in reply to the three answers of Peter: 1. βόσκε τὰἀρνία μου, 2. ποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατά μου, 3. βόσκε τὰ προβάτιά μου. The nice, and yet important gradations in the distinction between ἀρνία, lambs, and πρόβατα, full-grown sheep, and προβάτια [see the Text. Notes], full-grown sheep which are, nevertheless, to be treated tenderly like lambs; and the distinction between βόσκειν, to lead to pasture, to provide with food, and ποιμαίνειν, to guide and govern as a shepherd. The first and most necessary thing (intellectually it is also the easiest, though it presents peculiar difficulties to an imperious, high-soaring mind) is this: to provide for the lambs, i.e., those of tender age in the faith, with spiritual sustenance, to lead them to the spiritual pasture (the office of a catechist). It is more difficult to guard and guide the full-grown sheep,—mature Christians,—to make them seek the right pasture, find the true spiritual food; most difficult of all: to offer to these fullaged members appropriate spiritual food.

The Romish Peter has made a κατακυριεύειν17 of the βόσκειν and ποιμαίνειν; he has treated the προβάτια as ἀρνία, and has so thoroughly forgotten the instruction to provide spiritual nourishment for the πρόβατα, even as βόσκων, as to have, on the contrary, continually withdrawn such nourishment from them more and more, and forbidden it under various penalties.

Joh_21:15. Simon, son of John [Σίμων Ἰωάννου. Lange reads Jonas; but see my Text. Notes and Comm. on Mat_16:17, p. 295, footnote.—P. S.] The objections of Meyer and even Tholuck: “Yet not as though the apostolic name were refused him (De Wette, Stier),” are without proof. According to them, the thrice-repeated address: “Simon, son of Jonas,” [John], is merely expressive of solemnity. Solemnity, however, is always given with the momentous thought. [Godet agrees with Lange, who is right, that the address Simon, son of John, is intended to recall his natural character as distinct from that implied in his new and official name Simon Peter. So also Alford: “Σίμων ̓ Ιωάννου a reminiscence probably of his own name and parentage, as distinguished from his apostolic name of honor, Cephas, or Peter, see Joh_1:43. Thus we have Σ. Βαριωνᾶ, Mat_16:17, connected with the mention of his natural state of flesh and blood, which had not revealed to him the great truth just confessed—and Luk_22:31, ‘Simon, Simon,’ when he is reminded of his natural weakness. See also Mar_14:37, and Mat_17:25, where the significance is not so plain.”—P. S.]

Lovest thou Me more than these [ἀγαπᾶ̣ς με πλέον τούτων].—Strange interpretation: than these things, namely those appertaining to a fisher’s life, τούτων construed as neuter, Bolten. The reference of the expression to Peter’s setting up of himself above his fellow-Apostles, Mat_26:33, is groundlessly denied by Meyer. [Bengel: Antea Petrus se plus his prætiturum dixerat (Mat_26:33), nunc autem simpliciter dicit ‘amo te;’ non addit, ‘plus his.’ ” So also Godet.—P. S.]

Thou knowest that I love Thee [Ναὶ Κύριε, σὺ οἶδας ό́τι Φιλῶ σε].—Φιλῶσε—threefold expression of humility: 1. No making of comparisons. 2. Appeal to the knowledge of Christ. 3. Choice of the term of personal attachment.

[Observe that the Lord twice asks ἀγαπᾶ̣ς με, and once φιλεῖς με, while Peter three times assures the Lord φιλῶ σε. On the difference of the two terms, see the Text. Notes, and Dr. Lange’s preceding general remarks, to which I will add those of a few other commentators. Meyer: “Peter in his answer puts in the place of the ἀγαπᾶ̣ς (diligis) of the question, the expression of the personal heart-motion φιλῶ (amo, comp. Joh_11:3; Joh_11:5; Joh_20:2), injustice to his inmost feeling.” Alford: “The distinction between ἀγαπᾶν and φιλειν must not here be lost sight of, nor must we superficially say with Grotius, ‘Promiscuie hic usurpavit Johannes ἀγαπᾶν, et φιλειν ut mox βόσκειν et ποιμαίνειν (see below.). Neque hic quærendas sunt sublititates.” If so, why do the Lord’s two first questions contain ἀγαπᾶ̣ς while Peter’s answers have φιλῶ—whereas the third time the question and answer both have φιλεῖν? This does not look like accident. The distinction seems to be that ἀγαπᾶν is more used of that reverential love, grounded on high graces of character, which is borne towards God and man by the child of God;—whereas φιλεῖν expresses more the personal love of human affection. Peter therefore uses a less exalted word, and one implying a consciousness of his own weakness, but a persuasion and deep feeling of personal love. (Hence it will be seen that in the sublimest relations, where, all perfections existing, love can only be personal, φιλεῖν only can be used, see Joh_5:20). Then in the third question the Lord adopts the word of Peter’s answer, the closer to press the meaning of it home to him.” Godet: “Le terme ἀγαπᾶν indique l’ amour complet, profond, éternel, le mot φιλεῖν designe le simple attachement personnel, l’inclination affectueuse. Ce dernier sentiment, il (Pierre) se l’attribue sans hesiter.” Wordsworth: “Formerly Peter had professed ἀγαπᾶν, but it proved to be only a shortlived φιλεῖν. Now he only professes φιλεῖν, but Christ knows that it will be a long-lived ἀγαπᾶν, an ἀγἀπη in old age (Joh_21:18), an ἀγάπη stronger than death.”—P. S.]

Feed My little lambs. [Or lambkins (ἀρνἶον dimint. of ἀρήν), Βόσκε τὰ ἀρνί μου Pasce agnos meos. Christ speaks thus as the Arch-Shepherd (ἀρχιποιμήν (1Pe_5:4). Comp. here Joh_21:16 : ΙΙοίμανε (a more comprehensive term which includes βόσκειν) τὰ πρόβοτά μου, Custodi oves meas, Tend My sheep; and Joh_21:17 : Βόσκε τὰ προβάτιά μου, Pasce oviculas meas, Feed My sheeplings. See Text. Note. How Peter understood the Lord’s trust, he shows himself, 1Pe_5:2-3.—P. S.]—Love to Jesus, therefore, is the condition of the pastoral office to which he is now re-appointed. We may not, with Tholuck, obliterate the distinction of βόσκειν and ποιμαίνειν. ΙΙοιμαίνειν is undoubtedly akin to regere (Bellarmine and Corn a Lapide), but in an evangelical sense.—Τὰ ἀρνία, Rev_5:6; not synonymous with τὰ πρόβατα, as Tholuck is inclined to suppose. The distinctions of Bellarmine and other Roman Catholic exegetes, according to whom the lambs denote the laity, the sheep the clergy, must undoubtedly be rejected; that distinctions do exist, however, is proved even by Isa_40:11, and the distinction between immature and mature believers is obvious (Euthym. Zig., Wetstein and others); it suffers no diminution by the reading τὰ προβάτια in the third injunction, but only still further modification. Luthardt’s interpretation: The tending of individuals, care of the whole flock, training up of individuals for the whole flock, is etymologically unfounded.

[Alford likewise insists on the nice shadings of meaning in the terms here used (on which see Text. Note): “We can hardly with any deep insight into the text hold βόσκειν and ποιμαίνειν to be synonymous (Grot. above, Lücke, De Wette, Trench), or ἀρνία, πρόβατα, and προβάτια. The sayings of the Lord have not surely been so carelessly reported as this would assume. Every thing here speaks for a gradation of meaning. The variety of reading certainly makes it difficult to point out exactly the steps of that gradation, and unnecessary to follow the various interpreters in their assignment of them: but that there is such, may be seen from Isa_40:11 : 1Jn_2:12-13. Perhaps the feeding of the lambs was the furnishing the apostolic testimony of the resurrection and facts of the Lord’s life on earth to the first converts; The shepherding or ruling the sheep, the subsequent government of the Church as shown forth in the early part of the Acts; The feeding of the πορβάτια, the choicest, the loved of the flock, the furnishing the now maturer Church of Christ with the wholesome food of the doctrine contained in his Epistles. But those must strangely miss the whole sense, who dream of an exclusive primatial power here granted or confirmed to him. A sufficient refutation of this silly idea, if it needed any other than the ἐλυπήθη of this passage, is found in the συμπρεσβὐτεροι of 1Pe_5:1, where he refers apparently to this very charge: see note on Mat_16:17 ff.” Wordsworth: “The command βόσκε, pasce, is repeated: it stands first and last (Joh_21:15; Joh_21:17) with ποίμαινε between, Joh_21:16. To provide wholesome food for Christ’s sheep and lambs is the first and last thing: the love of the shepherd who tends, and leads, and guards, and lays down his life for the flock, is the central spring of all, which shows itself in outward acts.” Godet rightly refers βόσκειν to the feeding of the flock, ποιμαίνειν to the general direction. The diminutives ἀρνία, lambkins, and προβάτια, sheeplings, are expressive of the tender affection of the Arch-Shepherd for His flock; comp. the term τεκνία, Joh_13:33. See also Bengel on Joh_21:15-16, who refers ἀρνία, προβάτια and πρόβατα to the different stages in Peter’s public life, and in the history of the Church.—P. S.]

Joh_21:17. Lovest thou Me (dearly)?—Φιλεῖς με; The change of expression in the third question, Tholuck [like Grotius] groundlessly makes a matter of indifference, considering the variation of ἀγαπᾶν and φιλεῖν as unintentional. [See the remarks above.—P. S.]

Lord, Thou knowest all things [Κύριε, πάντα σὺ οὶδας, σὺ γινώσκεις ό́τι φιλῶ σε].—Comp. Joh_16:30; Act_1:24.

Joh_21:18. Verily, verily I say unto thee.—Upon the solemn re-institution of Peter, follows the revelation of Jesus concerning the manner of his life, and his exode. The words of Jesus give the prophecy of Peter’s future in a simple life-picture of the contrast between youth and old age. Peter is a vigorous man, in the middle years of life, occupying, therefore, a position betwixt youth and old age. The prophecy attaches itself to this fact, just as the contrast of youth and old age is frequently made a symbol in the Old Testament also (Isa_40:30-31; Ezekiel 16; Hos_11:1). The Lord employs the homeliest figure for the most mysterious disclosure. Yet allegorical traits mingle in the figure itself. That the young man girds himself, is agreeable to nature; it is likewise in accordance with nature that “a perfectly decrepid old man”18 stretches out his hands for help and lets himself be girded and led by another. But the traits: Thou didst walk, as a young man, whither thou wouldest, as an old man thou shalt be led whither thou wouldest not, in themselves point to the prophetic meaning.

John gives the interpretation of the saying in Joh_21:19; he refers it to the martyrdom of Peter. This is the centre of the dark, significant saying; a meaning, however, that was not fully disclosed until Peter’s martyrdom took place. It was, however, intended that this saying should primarily furnish Peter himself with a leading thought, and this thought is undoubtedly a word concerning the development and future of Peter’s spiritual man—presented under the figure of the natural life—connected with the intimation of a fate big with suffering. Tholuck justly remarks that if the simile be intended to refer solely to the martyrdom of Peter, the protasis, the clause treating of his youth, seems really idle; and also incongruous, inasmuch as it indicates a whole period of his life, while the apodosis touches upon a moment only. But if, finally, in accordance with our conception, the Epilogue present a more general life-picture of the Church of Christ in the contrast of the Petrine and the Johannean type, then the saying will have a further application to the Petrine form of the Church.

When thou wast younger [ό́τε ἦς νεώτερος]—Meyer adds: “than now.” The words however simply denote, doubtless, the younger man, characterizing him with the collateral idea of one youthfully strong, enterprising, self-willed. According to Meyer, the middle state of Peter is left uncharaeterized. Its character, however, is that of transition, of gradual transformation from youth to old age. If, indeed, we here find only the martyrdom predicted, neither does the figure of the younger man constitute a trait of character. It undoubtedly denotes, however, the youthful conduct of Peter in his discipleship; not his state before he came to Christ (Gerh., Luthardt); nor does it include his present time of life. He girded himself in the acts of self-will of which the evangelical history testifies; he finally in self-will trod the way of denial.

But when thou hast grown old [ὅταν δὲ γηράσης], literally, gray.—Indicative at once of the last stage of Christian development (1Jn_2:13) and of Peter’s life’s evening (2Pe_1:14).

Thou wilt stretch forth thy hands [ἐκτενεῖς τὰς χεῖράς σου].—An old man stretches out his hands for help foreign to himself. Accordingly, the outstretching of the hands is forthwith a symbol of submission to the power of another. The Christian grown gray in the faith resigns himself utterly to the leading of the Lord. (Act_20:22.—“When I am weak, then am I strong”). The aged Apostle carried out this submission by a submission to the power of Roman authority, in which God ruled over him. The term ἐκτνεῖς τὰς χεῖράς σου has, by the Church Fathers and some moderns, been referred to the extending of the hands on the cross (Maier, De Wette, Hilgenfeld, and others); similarly, the girding has been considered to mean the binding upon the cross (Tertullian19), or the girding of a cloth about the loins. This view is contradicted by the fact that the leading away does not occur until after the stretching forth of the hands. The effort has been made to meet this objection by the remark (Casaub., Wetst. and others) that cross-bearers, on being led forth, had their hands bound to the two sides of the cross. But this usage was not customary in the provinces. We need but hold fast this truth, namely, that the stretching forth of the hands, as a symbol of submission to another’s power, is once more significantly and plastically reflected in the outstretching of the hands of a crucified martyr. The whole occurrence is, in reality, a single life-picture.

And another [καὶ ἄλλος].—The other unqualified: it is the figure of the objective might of Divine Providence, ruling through human instruments (Joh_19:11).—Will gird thee [ζώσει σε].—Make thee ready for thy last journey;—in accordance with the figure of binding: he will fetter thee (the symbolical act Act_21:11 means also, it is probable: the girdle, as the symbol of free will, shall be changed into a fetter, as a symbol of the unfree will of a prisoner).—And will lead thee [καὶ οἵσει].—That objective, earnest guidance which puts an end to self-will; more closely defined, apparently the leading away to martyrdom. Is a leading to the death of the cross distinctly intended? (Calvin, Beza, and others). Meyer finds only a violent death symbolized. However, it was the word of the Master, whose violent death had just consisted in crucifixion, and who had now purposely selected the figure of the outstretching of the hands, in order to express submission to the extremest fate. And death upon the cross was just this (“Even the ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖράς μου, Isa_65:2, is referred by Barnabas, Ep. chap. 12; Justin, Dial. c. Tr. C. 97, to the crucifixion of Christ.” Tholuck). Whither thou wouldest not [ό́που οὐ θέλεις], i.e. not as regards thy inner life and new man, which latter has just been active in the stretching forth of the hands, but as regards the old, expiring self-will of the natural life; comp. the legend of Peter’s flight from prisoa at Rome. Calvin: Nunquam enim tam soluto affectu obsequimur deo, quin caro velut funiculis quibusdam in contrarium nos retrahat. Augustine: Hunc invenit exitum ille negator et amator; præsumendo elatus, negando prostratus, flendo purgatus, confitendo probatus, patiendo coronatus.—(The interpretation of the entire passage by Gurlitt and Paulus as a prophecy of actual senile weakness hardly needs mention).

Joh_21:19. Signifying by what manner of death [σημαίων ποίω̣ θανάτω̣]—A Johannean expression, comp. Joh_12:33; Joh_18:32. By what (a) death,—bringing to view not only the kind of death, as martyrdom, namely, but also the distinguished species of that death. According to Tertullian (Scorp. 15, De Præscr. 35, and Euseb. H. E. III.1), Peter was crucified. When John wrote, the crucifixion of Peter (67, or 68 A. D.) must already have been an event in ecclesiastical history well known in the Christian churches. Had Peter still been living, John would not thus have publicly interpreted the dark saying of Christ, even though he were himself perfectly cognizant of its meaning.—He was to glorify God [δοξάσει τὸνθεόν].—Martyrdom has a reflex lustre from the crucial death of Christ; it redounds in a peculiar degree to the glory of God. Hence the expression: δοξάζειν τὸν θεόν was later a customary term for martyrdom (Suicer, Thes. 1. p. 949). [To suffer for Christ is to glorify God; but there is a martyrdom of life as well as of death; by the former John, by the latter Peter and Paul glorified God.—P. S.].

Follow me. [Ἀκολούθει μοι. This, in a wider sense, is the sum and substance, the beginning and end of Christian life, as an imitation of the life of Christ in its sinless perfection, its divine-human character, its prophetic, priestly, and kingly office, and in its states of humiliation and exaltation from the cross to the crown.—P. S.] Comp. Joh_13:36. Different interpretations:

1. Follow me in doctrine and till death (Cyril, Theophylact);

2. In the death of the cross (Euthym.);

3. In a martyr’s death (Meyer);

4. As ecumenical bishop or teacher (Chrysostom);

5. Reference at once to the guidance of the Church and to martyrdom (Ewald);

6. The words are to be taken literally: the Redeemer leads the disciple aside in order to a confidential communication (Kuinoel, Paulus, Thol., and others). Meyer in objection to this view: The words would thereby be stripped of all significance.

The first question to be asked is, what they mean when considered in connection with the context; this done, the immediately subsequent: Peter turned himself about and saw, etc. following [ἐπιστραφεὶς ὁ ΙΙέτρος βλέπει τὸν μαθητὴν ο͂ν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀκολουθοῦντα, Joh_21:20] is decisive in favor of the primarily literal sense. It is to be considered, moreover, that Peter could not understand this saying of Jesus as distinctly referring to martyrdom, if he did not understand the previous saying as referring to the same. We suppose, however, the significance of this literal sense to have lain in the fact that Jesus retired to the background of the scene, as if for departure to the invisible world, and hence that the summons to Peter was a trial. The literal expression, therefore, has likewise a symbolical background. He must prepare himself for the possibility of the immediate decision of his fate; i.e. stand a test of absolute submission. (Leben Jesu, ii. pp. 17, 19. Luthardt). This assumption does not exclude the design of a further communication. On the contrary, such a communication was probably intended, since the imminent walk could not be a merely symbolical one. Had the communication, however, as strictly confidential, been designed to exclude John, that disciple would doubtless not have followed too.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The re-instatement of Peter in his ministry, a life-picture of the appointment of the ecclesiastical ministry in general, as the first ground-form through which Christ wills to be present in His Church in the world, and by means of which He chooses to rule in the Church.

a. Every calling and institution [ordination] is in reality a re-reception and re-instatement, no man having kept his gift of grace pure, and himself clean from denial.

b. Every calling pre-supposes a previous discipleship, experience of Christ, leading, humiliation, and refreshment.

c. Every calling takes place in an assembled apostolic congregation of believers.

d. No calling ensues without previous trial (Examen rigorosum.)

e. The main question is always the question of Christ: “Lovest thou Me?” with a forbearing recollection of the old nature (“Simon, son of Jonas”), its errors and dangers. Love to Christ is the decisive fundamental condition of the pastoral office.

f. To the ethical love for Christ, resting upon piety (ἀγαπᾶν), there must be added a personal love for Him, resting upon historically grounded knowledge (φιλεῖν).

g. The trial must lead the examinate to earnest self-examination, resulting in his confusion and sorrow; it must make him certain of his love for Christ and of his vocation, occasioning prayerful appeal on his part to Christ’s privity to the condition of his soul.

h. It must be proved from the first that, with all his certainty of his vocation, he renounces all self-upliftment above those who are called along with him (he consequently renounces pride, envy, rivalry, false human emulation). The examiner, however, must know that he is to act by order of, and in the spirit of, the Lord.

Finally, institution [the act of installation or investment] has, above all things, to give prominence to the feeding of the lambs, the catechising of those of tender age, the preliminary condition of which is the missionary halieutics [aptness to fish for men]. Only on this basis does it become an introduction into the real pastorate or presbyterial episcopate, or into the offiec of guiding the sheep, i.e. the adult Church. Neither can it stop at this, however; it finally becomes an installation in the evangelical Doctorate, the providing of the sheep, as adult sheeplings that need the spiritual nourishment of advanced knowledge, with strong meat, 1Co_3:2; Heb_5:12-13. See Ex. Note 1.

2. An ecclesiastical ministry that exalts itself above other ministries (“more than these”); that fails to hold fast the love of Christ as its fundamental condition, that pretends to regard Christ’s sheep (My lambs, My sheep, My sheeplings) as its own, that chooses to know of immature lambs only, not of mature sheep, and that desires but to lead (ποιμαίνειν) the whole flock, or rather to exercise lordship over it from on high (κατακυριεύειν), not to feed it (βόσκειν) in the green meadows of evangelical knowledge, does by these characteristics prove itself a sombre antitype or caricature of the Petrine ecclesiastical ministry.

3. The gradation of evangelical functions indicated by Christ, is not to be a gradation of hierarchical dignities; this is proved by the fact that Peter is forced to evade, as a temptation, the question: ‘Lovest thou Me more than these?’ But if anything ought to establish a hierarchical gradation, it would be the declaration, ‘I love Thee better than others;’ but not: ‘Thou hast granted me prerogatives above others,’ or, ‘The heathen world-city of Rome will give me these prerogatives,’ or, The reminiscence, called up by the ἀρνία of the old prerogatives of the levitic high-priests or the Roman pontifices. But who would dare declare unto the Lord: ‘I love Thee better than all others?’ Moreover, the institution of Peter is a re-instatement, of which, in this solemn form, only he, as the fallen one, had need, in order to a full restitution to the apostolic circle which, in general, had received the new sanction of the old calling on the very first Easter-evening (Joh_20:21).

Hence this formal explication of the Petrine ministry is likewise an explication of the ministry received by all the Apostles. It applies to all the officially called servants of Christ to the end of time.

4. The announcement of Peter’s destiny, which succeeded the sanction of his calling, was primarily a prophetic revelation, to the effect that he was called to follow Christ in His sufferings, and that he should be trained up by the guidance of God. It further proved to be a more decided announcement of his martyrdom. In accordance with the symbolical character of this Chapter, however, it is at the same time a life-picture of the leading which the Lord bestows upon every individual servant in his vocation; finally, in its most universal application it is also, we doubt not, a prophecy that the official Church will incur judgment previous to the coming of the Lord. See Mat_24:48; 2Th_2:4; Rev_12:1; Comp. Chap. 17; Joh_19:7; Chap, Joh_13:1. Comp. Joh_21:11.

5. Follow Me. One of the most mysterious moments in the whole resurrection-history. In a symbolical act, Peter must follow the Lord into the background of the scene, as if he were now to be translated with Him from the visible earth across the boundaries of the spirit-realm. Thus is the unconditional following, the readiness for death, of the servant of Christ, presented in a symbolical act. The type of martyrdom in the Church. See Exeg. Note in loc.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the Doct. Notes. The ecclesiastical ministry after Christ’s heart.—Apostolic ordination after Christ’s example.—How the Lord hath made Simon (son of) Jonas to be Simon Peter again.—The ministerial vocation in the Church conditioned by a holy examination: 1. By three questions in one. Infinite importance (always: Lovest thou Me?); 2. by one question in three. Perfect distinctness.—Love for Christ the decisive characteristic of His called servant: 1. As the condition of the recognition that His (His sheep) are His; 2. as the condition of true discrimination between lambs and sheep, as likewise of the sheep as sheep and as sheeplings (as adults and yet as having to be led further. Rightly dividing the word; ὀρθοτομεῖν 2Ti_2:15); 3. as the condition of true pastoral fidelity (in which a single ποιμαίνειν is accompanied by a twice-repeated βόσκειν).—The right examination of the official spirit must be to it an occasion of self-examination (and so of confusion, prayer, certitude of self).—Peter’s humility, the first token of his ripeness for the ministry,—his love for Jesus, the second,—his knowledge of Christ as the Trier of the heart, the third,—but, however, his love for Jesus, the one and all (as the root of his humility and of his knowledge).—Why no question is made of faith in this transaction. Because it must be present in a developed form: 1. In the form of humility, 2. of love, 3. of knowledge.

Verily, verily: On the ministry in respect of its youthful, and in respect of its matured, character (girding one’s self, choosing one’s own Ways, making great pretensions; denying one’s self, suffering one’s self to be led, submitting to the guidance of the Lord).—Christ the Master of His servants: 1. In the establishment of their vocation; 2. in the foresight of their fate.—How the right conduct of the ministry should approve itself a government in which Christ wills to be present with the Church: 1. Christ in His works; 2. Christ in His suffering.—How the whole business of a servant of Christ is comprehended in the business of following Christ.—How Christ will be present with the Church and the world in the following of His people [in His people’s imitation of Him].

Starke: Hedinger: But what shall a shepherd of the sheep do without love? such [as are without love] are thieves and murderers, who, like the wolves, spare not the flocks.—Osiander: The apostolic office consisteth not in worldly dominion, but in the feeding of the sheep and lambs, which thing, Peter, as well as the other apostles, was obliged to do, so that he consequently was devoid of superiority to them, 1Pe_5:2-3.—Zeisius: Christ having first recommended the lambs to Peter’s feeding, it results that Christian teachers should consider youth and simplicity as specially recommended to their care.—O how Jesus loves the souls of men, inasmuch as He will commit them to the feeding of none but those who first sincerely love Him.—Preachers should distinguish between lambs and sheep, i, e. children, youths and old persons, communicating to each his food: to the lambs, milk, to the adult in Christianity, strong meat, Heb_5:12 ff.—He that hath sinned much, ought often to examine his heart, as to whether it sincerely loves its God, or whether its repentance is nought but hypocrisy.—Zeisius: Jesus is the Searcher of the hearts and reins—comfort thyself therewith in every cross, temptation, and persecution: but beware lest thou follow sin in thy thoughts, words and works, for there is nothing hid before Him, nor doth ought remain unpunished, Rev_2:23.—Lange: The Lord Jesus, by connecting the question concerning love toward Him with the announcement of Peter’s imminent sufferings, indicates that by the willing assumption of sufferings inflicted for His name’s sake, the sincerity and faithfulness of love, and, consequently, also the steadfastness of faith, are to be proved.—Zeisius: To die for Christ’s sake, disgraceful as it may appear in the eyes of the world, is equally honorable and precious in the sight of God and all the faithful, for there by is God praised, Psa_116:15.—And sure, how can there be a death more glorious than one that is suffered for God’s and Christ’s sake, the King of all kings!—The cross which believers bear for love of their Saviour, hath a right fair name,—it is called the laud and praise, of God, Php_1:20.

Gerlach: It was easier for a man like Peter to act, dare, sacrifice, than to wait, suffer, passively stand still. Jesus therefore promises him a high place in His Church, in doing and suffering; but in a doing in which he had shown himself so unskilful by his denial, and in a suffering which was in the extreme repugnant to his nature.—Lisco: In youth, in the fulness of intellectual power, zealous (but also in many respects self-willed) activity for the Lord is shown; in old age, however, manifold hindrances (but also purifications) are at work, and the highest pitch of self-denial is death for Christ.

Braune: Living love to Christ impels to the most earnest participation in His work, and all the knowledge of the human heart, without love to Christ, leads to craftiness and makes a man a rogue. The Apostles are qualified only by their love for the Saviour.—Feed My lambs—feed My sheep, tender youth and vigorous age.—This, too, the Lord says three times with emphasis. Love makes the shepherd; Peter was to be a shepherd, like his Lord; the Lord elevates him to that office by this examination and humiliation.—When he was an old man, he wrote to the elders of his church (1Pe_5:2-3): Feed the flock of Christ, etc.—Peter bears this intimation in mind in his second epistle (Joh_1:14).—This kept Peter’s enthusiasm for the Risen One young till he himself was old, for he exclaims, 1Pe_1:3-4 : Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.—He knew that he should follow the Lord through shame to glory; to him the cross became a token of honor.—Vigorous souls are not terrified by a future full of dangers. beyond the stormy night, they see the glorious morning of eternity.—His life accords with his word, 1Pe_4:12; 1Pe_4:19.

Gossner: This question is easily answered with “yes;” but if we think again, many a consideration will present itself.—Just so much as we lack in simple love, we fail of in daily bliss.—If thou wouldst be a true pastor and shepherd, love for Me must bring the thing about—else is it impossible. For a large measure of love is needed to serve the bodies and souls of men, and often to incur, in so doing, much danger, and to experience the grossest ingratitude.—Hence it is the extreme of temerity to take upon one’s self, or to seek, the office and ministry of a shepherd in the Church of Christ, without feeling love toward Jesus and solicitude for His flock.—When a man is still young, God hath no very high opinion of his abilities; but when one hath been longer acquainted with Him, He maketh one a larger sharer in His sufferings.—What a doctrine! What a religion! The Lord prophesieth to His disciples torture and death, and inviteth them to follow Him, and they do follow Him! They prefer to lay down their lives rather than leave Him.

Heubner: The practice of Christ was entirely different from the subsequently invented church-penance, according to the canons of which, as Zinzendorf says, Peter would have been forced to kneel outside of the church-door for at least fifteen years.—The main thing is personal love, true, real love for the Person of Jesus. It is this very thing that many are horrified at; they cannot relish it at all; they scent directly I know not what manner of pietistic and mystical rubbish, and seek to dilute it and beat it down and circum-interpret it into a mere cold esteem, or keeping of His commandments.—The schoolmen apprehended the thrice-repeated feeding as feeding by doctrine, by example, by hospitality. The generality of men are concerned only about the unimportant worldly examination, but the passing of a heart-examination before Jesus does not enter into their heads.—How utterly distinct a character a man bears so long as he is bent upon being his own master; he follows his own self-will, the natural will; how different the man when his will has been taken away by grace and he belongs to God. Then the self-will of the flesh is entirely captive to the will of the Spirit.

[Craven: From Augustine: “Joh_21:15. Our Lord asked this, knowing it: He knew that Peter not only loved Him, but loved Him more than all the rest [?]. While our Lord was being condemned to death, Peter feared, and denied Him. But by His resurrection Christ implanted love in his heart, and drove away fear. Peter denied, because he feared to die: but when our Lord was risen from the dead, and by His death destroyed death, what should he fear?—Feed My lambs; As if there were no way of Peter’s showing his love for Him, but by being a faithful shepherd, under the Chief Shepherd.

Joh_21:17. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep; As if to say, Be it the office of love to feed the Lord’s flock, as it was the resolution of fear to deny the Shepherd.—They who feed Christ’s sheep as if they were their own, not Christ’s, show plainly that they love themselves, not Christ; that they are moved by lust of glory, power, gain, not by the love of obeying, ministering, pleasing God. Let us love therefore, not ourselves, but Him, and in feeding His sheep, seek not our own, but the things that are His.—If we call our sheep ours, as they [sectarists] call them theirs, Christ hath lost His sheep.

Joh_21:18-19. Whatever be the pain of death, it ought to be conquered by the strength of love for Him, who being our Life, voluntarily also underwent death for us.—If there is no pain in death, or very little, the glory of martyrdom would not be great.—He who denied and loved, died in perfect love for Him, for whom he had promised to die with wrong haste.—It was necessary that Christ should first die for Peter’s salvation, and then Peter die for Christ’s Gospel.

[From Chrysostom: Joh_21:15-17. If thou lovest Me, have rule over thy brethren [?], show forth that love which thou hast evidenced throughout, and that life which thou saidst thou wouldst lay down for Me, lay down for the sheep.

Joh_21:18. Christ reminds Peter of his former life, because whereas in worldly matters a young man has powers, an old man none; in spiritual things, on the contrary, virtue is brighter, manliness stronger, in old age; age is no hindrance to grace.—He says, Whither thou wouldest not, with reference to the natural reluctance of the soul to be separated from the body; an instinct implanted by God to prevent men putting an end to themselves.——From Alcuin: Joh_21:15-17. To feed the sheep is to support the believers in Christ from falling from the faith, to provide earthly sustenance for those under us, to preach and exemplify withal our preaching by our lives to resist adversaries, to correct wanderers.

[From Burkitt: Joh_21:15-17. Christ puts Peter upon a threefold profession of his love unto Him, answerable to his threefold denial of Him True repentance ought to be, and will be, as eminent, in the fruit and effects of it, as the saint’s fall hath been.—Ministers who are called to take charge of Christ’s flock, have need of much love to Jesus Christ.—The best evidence of a minister’s love to Jesus Christ, is his conscientious care to feed, i.e., teach, instruct and govern the whole flock of Christ; lambs and sheep, weak and strong; the feeblest in the fold were purchased by the great Shepherd.—Such as would be faithful in their ministerial charge, ought to look upon their people as committed to them by Christ Himself, as loved of Him, and committed to their care by Him.

Joh_21:15. Note the great modesty of Peter in his reply: once he vaunted Though all men, forsake Thee, yet will not I; but now his fall had taught him humility.—It is blessed thing, when we can and dare appeal to God’s knowledge.

Joh_21:18. The ministers of Jesus Christ, when they undertake the charge of His flock, must prepare for suffering work.—Whither thou wouldest not; Human nature in Christ’s ministers, as well as in other men, reluctates sufferings, has an antipathy against a violent death.—When thou shalt be old; he timing of the saints’ sufferings is in Christ hands.

Joh_21:19. The sufferings of the saints in general, and of the ministers of Christ in particular, do redound much to the glory of God.

[From M. Henry: Joh_21:15-17. Herein Christ has given us an encouraging instance of His tenderness towards penitents, and has taught us, in like manner, to restore such as are fallen with a spirit of meekness.—We must not reckon it an affront to have our sincerity questioned, when we ourselves have done that which makes it questionable.—Peter was now upon his probation as penitent; but the question is not, “Simon, how much hast thou wept? How often hast thou fasted and afflicted thy soul?” but, “Dost thou love Me? Much is forgiven her, not because she wept much, but because she loved much.—Nothing but the love of Christ will constrain ministers to go cheerfully through the difficulties and discouragements they meet with in their work, 2Co_5:13-14.

Joh_21:15 “Lovest thou Me more than thou lovest these, more than thou lovest these persons?” Those do not love Christ aright, that do not love Him better than the best friend they have in the world. Or, “more than thou lovest these things, these boats and nets;” those only love Christ indeed, that love Him better than all the delights of sense and all the profits of this world.—“Lovest thou Me more than thou lovest these occupations thou art now employed in? If so, leave them, to employ thyself wholly in feeding My flock.” (Whitby).—“Lovest thou Me more than these love Me, more than any of the rest of the disciples love Me?” We should all study to excel in our lore to Christ; it is no breach of the peace to strive which shall love Christ best; nor any breach of good manners, to go before others in this love.—Peter does not pretend to love Christ more than the rest of the disciples did.—Though we must aim to be better than others, yet we must, in lowliness of mind, esteem others better than ourselves; for we know more evil of ourselves than we do of any of our brethren.—Those who can truly say, through grace, that they love Jesus Christ, may take the comfort of their interest in Him, notwithstanding their daily infirmities.

Joh_21:17. It is a terror to a hypocrite, to think that Christ knows all things; but it is a comfort to a sincere Christian, that he has that to appeal to; My witness is in heaven, my record is on high. Christ knows us better than we know ourselves, though we know not our own uprightness, He does.—Peter was grieved, when Christ asked Him the third time, Lovest thou Me? Because it put him 1. In mind of his threefold denial of Christ; 2. In fear, lest his Master foresaw some further miscarriage of his.

Joh_21:15-17. The Church of Christ is His flock: in this flock some are lambs, young and tender and weak, others are sheep, grown to some strength and maturity; the shepherd here takes care of both, and of the lambs first.—It is the duty of all Christ’s ministers, to feed His lambs and sheep 1. Teach them; for the doctrine of the Gospel is spiritual food; 2. Lead them to the green pastures, presiding in their religious assemblies, and ministering all the ordinances to them; 3. By personal application to their respective state and case; not only lay meat before them, but feed them with it, that are wilful and will not, or weak and cannot, feed themselves.—When Christ ascended on high, He gave pastors; left His flock with them that loved Him, and would take care of them for His sake.—Simon Peter; a commission given to one convicted of a crime is supposed to amount to a pardon.

Joh_21:18. When trouble comes, we are apt to aggravate it with this, that it has been otherwise; and to fret the more at the grievances of restraint, sickness and poverty, because we have known the sweets of liberty, health, and plenty. But we may turn it the other way, and reason thus with ourselves: “How many years of prosperity have I enjoyed more than I deserved and improved!”

Joh_21:19. There is one way into the world, but many ways out, and God has determined which way we shall go.—It is the great concern of every good man, whatever death he dies, to glorify God in it.—When we die patiently, submitting to the will of God; cheerfully, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God; and usefully, witnessing to the truth and goodness of religion, and encouraging others, we glorify God in dying.—Follow Me; Expect to be treated as I have been, and to tread the same bloody path that I have trod before thee; for the disciple is not greater than his Lord.—They that faithfully follow Christ in grace shall certainly follow Him to glory.

[From Scott: Joh_21:15-17. Our Lord will readily pardon the sins of His believing servants: but He will rebuke them, in one way or other; that they may be more sensible how greatly He abhors their offences, notwithstanding His mercy to their souls.—Those who “love the Lord Jesus in sincerity,” have a consciousness of it, notwithstanding all their defects.—Those who have been greatly tempted, and have had humiliating experience of their frailty and sinfulness, and who have had much forgiven them, generally prove the most tender and attentive pastors, and the best guides of young converts.—The Lord often leaves those whom He loves to pass through painful conflicts, as well as much experience of His compassion, in order to render them more gentle to their weak brethren, and the lambs of His flock.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh_21:15. Ἀγαπᾶς με; Lovest thou Me? “At this moment, when all the pulses in the heart of the now penitent Apostle are beating with an earnest affection toward his Lord, this word on that Lord’s lips sounds too cold. Besides the question itself, which grieves and hurts Peter, there is an additional pang in the form which the question takes, sounding as though it were intended to put him at a comparative distance from his Lord, and to keep him there; or at least, as not permitting him to approach so near to Him as he fain would. He therefore in His answer substitutes for it the word of a more personal love,—‘Thou knowest that I love Thee dearly.’ When Christ repeats the question in the same words as at the first, Peter in his reply again substitutes his ‘Hove Thee dearly’ for the ‘lovest thou’ of his Lord. And now at length he has conquered: for when his Master puts the question to him for the third time, He does it with the word which Peter feels will alone express all that is in his heart; and instead of the twice repeated ‘Lovest thou Me?’ His word is, ‘Dost thou love Me dearly?’ The question, grievous in itself to Peter, as seeming to imply a doubt in his love, is not any longer made more grievous still, by the peculiar shape which it assumes.” (Trench.)—Feed My lambs; The lambs are to be fed. Their daily portion of food (all that is needed for the soul’s health and strength, all that is included in that petition “Give us this day our daily bread,” is here especially spoken of.—Those “lambs,” saith “the great Shepherd of the sheep,” are “Mine.” O salutary thought for the pastor of souls, that the “sheep” and the “lambs” are not his but Christ’s! Not his;—therefore, like Jacob with the flock of Laban, he should be prepared to give account for all. Not his;—therefore must there be One above him, to whom they are a care as well as to himself; even “the Chief Shepherd,” who careth alike for him and for them.—“Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?” (Eze_34:2).

Joh_21:16. Before, it was “Peed;” now, it is “Tend” or “Shepherd,” i.e. “Perform all a shepherd’s duties” by them; “Feed the flock, like a shepherd;” do all that should be done by a “shepherd of the sheep.” Call thine own sheep by name, and lead them out; and when thou puttest forth thine own sheep, go before them, that the sheep (knowing thy voice) may follow thee. Consider St. Joh_10:3-4.

Joh_21:17. The Divine Speaker “seems to say that, in a Pastor, the first, the second, the third requisite, is love of Christ.” (Williams)—Feed My sheep; It is no longer “Tend,” or “Shepherd,” My sheep,—as in Joh_21:16; but “Feed” them,—the same word which was used above, in Joh_21:15, which was used above, in Joh_21:15, with reference to the little lambs. The same catechetical training, therefore,—the same careful attention to the soul’s natural cravings and acquired needs, which was enjoined on behalf of the “lambs” of the fold,—is here enjoined on behalf of the “sheep” also.—“Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” (1Pe_5:1-4.)

[From Barnes: Joh_21:15. Thou knowest that I love Thee; The expression of a humbled soul, a soul made sensible of its weakness and need of strength, yet with evidence of true attachment to the Saviour. It is not the most confident pretensions that constitute the highest proof of love to Christ.—Feed My lambs; It is not merely, therefore, the privilege,—it is the solemn duty of ministers of the gospel to countenance and patronize Sunday-schools.——From Jacobus: Joh_21:15-17. The test of ministerial love to Christ is a faithful care of the flock.—Thou knowest all things; The Divine Omniscience ought not to be a terror to the true Christian, but a comfort; for His all-searching eye can trace His own likeness wherever it is to be found, in the deepest depths of the soul.——From Owen: Joh_21:15-17. “There was no formal rebuke uttered, for the matter was already forgiven; this asking about his love was at farthest a most gentle and affectionate reproof.” (Stier.)—The gradation “1. Feed My lambs, i.e. help the weak; 2. Guide and guard My sheep, i.e. counsel the strong; 3. Feed My sheep, i.e. help the strong, for they too need feeding with the divine food of the word.” (Crosby.)—A descending gradation, the lambs, a term of endearment, being given first, and then in the repetition of the charge, the less emphatic term, sheep.” (Webster and Wilkinson.)—“Ministers ought to look upon Christ’s people as very seriously recommended to them, and therefore should very seriously mind their work about them; for there ore is this charge thrice laid on Peter, that he may mind it much.” (Hutcheson.)

Joh_21:18. The phrase thou wouldest not, refers to the shrinking back of weak humanity from a violent death, but not to the unwillingness of Peter to die for Jesus.]

Footnotes:

[12]Joh_21:15.—On the reading Ἰωάνα instead of Ἰωνᾶ, Joh_21:15-17, see Joh_1:42. [p. 91, Text. Note 7. Lachm., Tischend., Treg., Alf., Westc. and H., read Ἰωάννον or Ἰωάνον here and Joh_21:16-17, in accordance with א.a B. C.1 D. L. Vulg. (ioharnis), Jerome, Ambrose, etc. Ἰωνᾶ is from Mat_15:17. Lange adopts the latter, and translates Simon Jonas.—P. S.]

[13]Joh_21:15.—[The significant difference between ἀγαπᾶν and φιλεῖν which runs through this section, cannot well be rendered in English, unless we translate φιλῶ σε: I dearly love Thee. Lange translates ἀγαπᾶν lieben, φιλεῖν lieb haben. ἀγαπᾶν, diligere, is used of the higher, reverential, constant, unwavering love, such as we ought to have to God as welt as to man, and such as Christ had to John (Joh_21:20) and His church; φιλεῖν, amare, means personal, emotional love and friendship. The Vulgate renders the former always by diligere, the latter by amare and osculari. In the Hebrew and Syriac there are not the same shades of difference, but the Lord may have expressed it by an additional word or emphasis; at all events we have to account for the difference in the Greek of John. See more in the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]

[14]Joh_21:16.—[The difference between βόσκω (to feed, to pasture) and ποιμαίνω (from ποιμήν, to pasture, to tend, to provide for, to rule, a flock or herd), is obliterated in the E. V. βόσκω occurs nine times in the N. T., and is always translated to feed in the E. V., except Mat_8:33 (kept). ποιμαίνω occurs eleven times and is rendered to rule, or to feed. βόσκειν, βοσκή, βόσκημα, victus, has reference mainly to the feeding, nourishing care (“die erniährende Hütethätigkeit,” Meyer, p. 675), and applies therefore specially to the lambs, while ποιμαίνειν is more general, and covers the providing and governing activity (“die fursorglich regierende Thätigkeit,” Meyer); comp. Mat_2:6; Act_20:28; 1Pe_5:2; Rev_2:27; Rev_7:17; Rev_12:5; Rev_19:15. See. the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]

[15]Joh_21:16.—[ΙΙρόβατα, oves, sheep, is sustained in this verse by Codd. א. A. D . X. Γ. Δ. Π, and adopted by Lachmann, Tregelles, eyer and Lange. προβάτια, oviculae, little sheep, sheeplings, Schäflein, (which is the proper reading in Joh_21:17, see note 5) has the authority of B. C., and is adopted by Tischendorf, Alford and Westcott; the last, however, gives πρόβατα in the margin. The difference between ἀρνία, πρόβατα, προβάτια is significant; see the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]

[16]Joh_21:17.—ΙΙροβάτια, Tischendorf, in accordance with Codd. A. C. Lachmann reads πρόβατα, with א. D. X. text, rec, but Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford and Westcott adopt πρόβάτια with A. B. C, Syr.; comp. Ambrose (quoted by Tisch): pasce agniculos meos,pasce agnos meos, pasce oviculas meas). If πρόβάτια were better sustained in Joh_21:16, and πρόβατα in Joh_21:17, there would be a beautiful rising climax; little lambs, sheeplings, sheep.—P. S.]

[17][In the face of the expression of Peter to presbyters and bishops, not to lord it over God’s heritage, but to feed the flock and to be ensamples to it (1Pe_5:2-3).—P. S.]

[18](Meyer makes a note of interrogation at this expression, as if those who were not perfectly decrepid did also suffer themselves to be dressed and girded by others.)

[19][Scorp. John 15 : “Tunc Pelrus ab altera vincitur, cum cruci adstringitur.” Comp. the traditionary account of Peter’s Martyrdom in Euseb. II. 25; III. 1, and the notes of Heinichen.—P. S.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

‘LOVEST THOU ME?’

Joh 21:15.

Peter had already seen the risen Lord. There had been that interview on Easter morning, on which the seal of sacred secrecy was impressed; when, alone, the denier poured out his heart to his Lord, and was taken to the heart that he had wounded. Then there had been two interviews on the two successive Sundays in which the Apostle, in common with his brethren, had received, as one of the group, the Lord’s benediction, the Lord’s gift of the Spirit, and the Lord’s commission. But something more was needed; there had been public denial, there must be public confession. If he had slipped again into the circle of the disciples, with no special treatment or reference to his fall, it might have seemed a trivial fault to others, and even to himself. And so, after that strange meal on the beach, we have this exquisitely beautiful and deeply instructive incident of the special treatment needed by the denier before he could be publicly reinstated in his office.

The meal seems to have passed in silence. That awe which hung over the disciples in all their intercourse with Jesus during the forty days, lay heavy on them, and they sat there, huddled round the fire, eating silently the meal which Christ had provided, and no doubt gazing silently at the silent Lord. What a tension of expectation there must have been as to how the oppressive silence was to be broken! and how Peter’s heart must have throbbed, and the others’ ears been pricked up, when it was broken by ‘Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?’ We may listen with pricked-up ears too. For we have here, in Christ’s treatment of the Apostle, a revelation of how He behaves to a soul conscious of its fault; and in Peter’s demeanour an illustration of how a soul, conscious of its fault, should behave to Him.

There are three stages here: the threefold question, the threefold answer, and the threefold charge. Let us look at these.

I. The threefold question.

The reiteration in the interrogation did not express doubt as to the veracity of the answer, nor dissatisfaction with its terms; but it did express, and was meant, I suppose, to suggest to Peter and to the others, that the threefold denial needed to be obliterated by the threefold confession; and that every black mark that had been scored deep on the page by that denial needed to be covered over with the gilding or bright colouring of the triple acknowledgment. And so Peter thrice having said, ‘I know Him not!’ Jesus with a gracious violence forced him to say thrice, ‘Thou knowest that I love Thee.’ The same intention to compel Peter to go back upon his past comes out in two things besides the triple form of the question. The one is the designation by which he is addressed, ‘Simon, son of Jonas,’ which travels back, as it were, to the time before he was a disciple, and points a finger to his weak humanity before it had come under the influence of Jesus Christ. ‘Simon, son of Jonas,’ was the name that he bore in the days before his discipleship. It was the name by which Jesus had addressed him, therefore, on that never-to-be-forgotten turning-point of his life, when he was first brought to Him by his brother Andrew. It was the name by which Jesus had addressed him at the very climax of his past life when, high up, he had been able to see far, and in answer to the Lord’s question, had rung out the confession: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ So the name by which Jesus addresses him now says to him in effect: ‘Remember thy human weakness; remember how thou wert drawn to Me; remember the high-water mark of thy discipleship, when I was plain before thee as the Son of God, and remembering all these, answer Me-lovest thou Me?’

The same intention to drive Peter back to the wholesome remembrance of a stained past is obvious in the first form of the question. Our Lord mercifully does not persist in giving to it that form in the second and third instances: ‘Lovest thou Me more than these?’ More than these, what? I cannot for a moment believe that that question means something so trivial and irrelevant as ‘Lovest thou Me more than these nets, and boats, and the fishing?’ No; in accordance with the purpose that runs through the whole, of compelling Peter to retrospect, it says to him, ‘Do you remember what you said a dozen hours before you denied Me, “Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I”? Are you going to take that stand again? Lovest thou Me more than these that never discredited their boasting so shamefully?’

So, dear brethren! here we have Jesus Christ, in His treatment of this penitent and half-restored soul, forcing a man, with merciful compulsion, to look steadfastly and long at his past sin, and to retrace step by step, shameful stage by shameful stage, the road by which he had departed so far. Every foul place he is to stop and look at, and think about. Each detail he has to bring up before his mind. Was it not cruel of Jesus thus to take Peter by the neck, as it were, and hold him right down, close to the foul things that he had done, and say to him, ‘Look! look! look ever! and answer, Lovest thou Me?’ No; it was not cruel; it was true kindness. Peter had never been so abundantly and permanently penetrated by the sense of the sinfulness of his sin, as after he was sure, as he had been made sure in that great interview, that it was all forgiven. So long as a man is disturbed by the dread of consequences, so long as he is doubtful as to his relation to the forgiving Love, he is not in a position beneficially and sanely to consider his evil in its moral quality only. But when the conviction comes to a man, ‘God is pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done’; and when he can look at his own evil without the smallest disturbance rising from slavish fear of issues, then lie is in a position rightly to estimate its darkness and its depth. And there can be no better discipline for us all than to remember our faults, and penitently to travel back over the road of our sins, just because we are sure that God in Christ has forgotten them. The beginning of Christ’s merciful treatment of the forgiven man is to compel him to remember, that he may learn and be ashamed.

And then there is another point here, in this triple question. How significant and beautiful it is that the only thing that Jesus Christ cares to ask about is the sinner’s love! We might have expected: ‘Simon, son of Jonas, are you sorry for what you did? Simon, son of Jonas, will you promise never to do the like any more?’ No! These things will come if the other thing is there. ‘Lovest thou Me?’ Jesus Christ sues each of us, not for obedience primarily, not for repentance, not for vows, not for conduct, but for a heart; and that being given, all the rest will follow. That is the distinguishing characteristic of Christian morality, that Jesus seeks first for the surrender of the affections, and believes, and is warranted in the belief, that if these are surrendered, all else will follow; and love being given, loyalty and service and repentance and hatred of self-will and of self-seeking will follow in her train. All the graces of human character which Christ seeks, and is ready to impart, are, as it were, but the pages and ministers of the regal Love, who follow behind and swell the cortege of her servants.

Christ asks for love. Surely that indicates the depth of His own! In this commerce He is satisfied with nothing less, and can ask for nothing more; and He seeks for love because He is love, and has given love. Oh! to all hearts burdened, as all our hearts ought to be-unless the burden has been cast off in one way-by the consciousness of our own weakness and imperfection, surely, surely, it is a gospel that is contained in that one question addressed to a man who had gone far astray, ‘Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou?’

Here, again, we have Jesus Christ, in His dealing with the penitent, willing to trust discredited professions. We think that one of the signs of our being wise people is that experience shall have taught us ‘once’ being ‘bit, twice’ to be ‘shy,’ and if a man has once deceived us by flaming professions and ice-cold acts, never to trust him any more. And we think that is ‘worldly wisdom,’ and ‘the bitter fruit of earthly experience,’ and ‘sharpness,’ and ‘shrewdness,’ and so forth. Jesus Christ, even whilst reminding Peter, by that ‘more than these,’ of his utterly hollow and unreliable boasting, shows Himself ready to accept once again the words of one whose unveracity He had proved. ‘Charity hopeth all things, believeth all things,’ and Jesus Christ is ready to trust us when we say, ‘I love Thee,’ even though often in the past our professed love has been all disproved.

We have here, in this question, our Lord revealing Himself as willing to accept the imperfect love which a disciple can offer Him. Of course, many of you well know that there is a very remarkable play of expression here. In the two first questions the word which our Lord employs for ‘love’ is not the same as that which appears in Peter’s two first answers. Christ asks for one kind of love; Peter proffers another. I do not enter upon discussion as to the distinction between these two apparent synonyms. The kind of love which Christ asks for is higher, nobler, less emotional, and more associated with the whole mind and will. It is the inferior kind, the more warm, more sensuous, more passionate and emotional, which Peter brings. And then, in the third question, our Lord, as it were, surrenders and takes Peter’s own word, as if He had said, ‘Be it so! You shrink from professing the higher kind; I will take the lower; and I will educate and bring that up to the height that I desire you to stand at.’ Ah, brother! however stained and imperfect, however disproved by denials, however tainted by earthly associations, Jesus Christ will accept the poor stream of love, though it be but a trickle when it ought to be a torrent, which we can bring Him.

These are the lessons which it seems to me lie in this triple question. I have dealt with them at the greater length, because those which follow are largely dependent upon them. But let me turn now briefly, in the second place, to-

II. The triple answer.

‘Yea, Lord! Thou knowest that I love Thee.’ Is not that beautiful, that the man who by Christ’s Resurrection, as the last of the answers shows, had been led to the loftiest conception of Christ’s omniscience, and regarded Him as knowing the hearts of all men, should, in the face of all that Jesus Christ knew about his denial and his sin, have dared to appeal to Christ’s own knowledge? What a superb and all-conquering confidence in Christ’s depth of knowledge and forgivingness of knowledge that answer showed! He felt that Jesus could look beneath the surface of his sin, and see that below it there was, even in the midst of the denial, a heart that in its depths was true. It is a tremendous piece of confident appeal to the deeper knowledge, and therefore the larger love and more abundant forgiveness, of the righteous Lord-’Thou knowest that I love Thee.’

Brethren! a Christian man ought to be sure of his love to Jesus Christ. You do not study your conduct in order to infer from it your love to others. You do not study your conduct in order to infer from it your love to your wife, or your husband, or your parents, or your children, or your friend. Love is not a matter of inference; it is a matter of consciousness and intuition. And whilst self-examination is needful for us all for many reasons, a Christian man ought to be as sure that he loves Jesus Christ as he is sure that he loves his dearest upon earth.

It used to be the fashion long ago-this generation has not depth enough to keep up the fashion-for Christian people to talk as if it were a point they longed to know, whether they loved Jesus Christ or not. There is no reason why it should be a point we long to know. You know all about your love to one another, and you are sure about that. Why are you not sure about your love to Jesus Christ? ‘Oh! but,’ you say, ‘look at my sins and failures’; and if Peter had looked only at his sins, do you not think that his words would have stuck in his throat? He did look, but he looked in a very different way from that of trying to ascertain from his conduct whether he loved Jesus Christ or not. Brethren, any sin is inconsistent with Christian love to Christ. Thank God, we have no right to say of any sin that it is incompatible with that love! More than that; a great, gross, flagrant, sudden fall like Peter’s is a great deal less inconsistent with love to Christ than are the continuously unworthy, worldly, selfish, Christ-forgetting lives of hosts of complacent professing Christians to-day. White ants will eat up the carcase of a dead buffalo quicker than a lion will. And to have denied Christ once, twice, thrice, in the space of an hour, and under strong temptation, is not half so bad as to call Him ‘Master’ and ‘Lord,’ and day by day, week in, week out, in works to deny Him. The triple answer declares to us that in spite of a man’s sins he ought to be conscious of his love, and be ready to profess it when need is.

III. Lastly, we have here the triple commission.

I do not dwell upon it at any length, because in its original form it applies especially to the Apostolic office. But the general principles which underlie this threefold charge, to feed and to tend both ‘the sheep’ and ‘the lambs,’ may be put in a form that applies to each of us, and it is this-the best token of a Christian’s love to Jesus Christ is his service of man for Christ’s sake. ‘Lovest thou Me?’ ‘Yea! Lord.’ Thou hast said; go and do, ‘Feed My lambs; feed My sheep.’ We need the profession of words; we need, as Peter himself enjoined at a subsequent time, to be ready to ‘give to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope,’ and an acknowledgment of the love, that are in us. But if you want men to believe in your love, however Jesus Christ may know it, go and work in the Master’s vineyard. The service of man is the garb of the love of God. ‘He that loveth God will love his brother also.’ Do not confine that thought of service, and feeding, and tending, to what we call evangelistic and religious work. That is one of its forms, but it is only one of them. Everything in which Christian men can serve their fellows is to be taken by them as their worship of their Lord, and is taken by the world as the convincing proof of the reality of their love.

Love to Jesus Christ is the qualification for all such service. If we are knit to Him by true affection, which is based upon our consciousness of our own falls and evils, and our reception of His forgiving mercy, then we shall have the qualities that fit us, and the impulse that drives us, to serve and help our fellows. I do not say-God forbid!-that there is no philanthropy apart from Christian faith, but I do say that, on the wide scale, and in the long run, they who are knit to Jesus Christ by love will be those who render the greatest help to all that are ‘afflicted in mind, body, or estate’; and that the true basis and qualification for efficient service of our fellows is the utter surrender of our hearts to Him who is the Fountain of love, and from whom comes all our power to live in the world, as the images and embodiments of the love which has saved us that we might help to save others.

Brethren! let us all ask ourselves Christ’s question to the denier. Let us look our past evils full in the face, that we may learn to hate them, and that we may learn more the width and the sweep of the power of His pardoning mercy. God grant that we may all be able to say, ‘Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee!’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Section 6. (Joh 21:15-19.)

Peter; the shortened Jewish Ministry.

What follows now to the end of the Gospel takes a different turn. In it we may see, not obscurely, the foreshadow of the passing away of the ministry to the circumcision, Peter being still the representative of this, in contrast with John, who in his covers the whole interval until Christ’s return. This requires to be looked into, however, while upon the surface may be seen the instructive history of a soul exercised under the tender but searching eye of Christ, -the exemplification of that process of cleansing to have part with Him, which He Himself has depicted for us under the symbol of feet-washing. This is fully in the line of John’s special teaching, and its importance may well claim from us most earnest consideration.

The searching of Peter’s soul which comes now before us is not the first step by any means towards his recovery. Evident as this is, it needs to be emphasized because of a very general mistake that is made with regard to it. The Lord’s words to him in view of his sin, not yet committed, disclose, on the other hand, that which is the fundamental need of one who has fallen as he had. "I have prayed for thee," says He, "that thy faith fail not." With our hand in His, in the self-distrust which is the fruit of true self-knowledge, we should he surely guided and safely guarded. In Peter we see, at the very time when the Lord’s warning words are uttered, the indications of his danger: "Though all should be offended," he says, "yet will I never be offended. I am ready to go with Thee to prison and to death." This is a condition which not only exposes one to fall, but for which the fall itself may be the only remedy. We have to learn that when we are weak only are we strong; and that Christ’s strength is made perfect in weakness. Peter’s case is a typical one; and thus it is so valuable for us. The Lord Himself, in such a case as this, cannot pray that Peter may not fall, but that he may be "converted" by it, -turned from that dangerous self-confidence to consciousness of his inability to trust himself, even for a moment. Here Satan is foiled and made to serve the purpose of that grace which he hates and resists. He can overpower this self-sufficient Peter; but only to fling him for refuge upon his omnipotent Lord. Just as "the messenger of Satan to buffet" Paul works for what he in no wise desires, to repress the pride so ready to spring up in us, and which the lifting up to the third heaven might tend to foster. Here there had been no fall, and all was overruled for fullest blessing; in Peter’s case, on the other hand, Satan’s effort would be to assail the fallen disciple with suggestions of a sin too great to be forgiven, -or, at least, for restoration to that eminent place from which it would be torture to remember he had fallen. What he needed to meet this was faith; and this, therefore, the Lord prays might not fail with him.

How careful is He to revive and strengthen in the humbled man the practical confidence so needful! The knowledge of it all given him before-hand, -of the prayer made for him, -of the exhortation addressed to him when restored, to "strengthen his brethren," -all this would be balm indeed for his wounded soul; but even this was not enough for his compassionate Lord. The first message of His resurrection has to be addressed specially "to Peter," (Mar 16:7,) and "to Cephas" himself He appears, before the twelve (1Co 15:5). Thus he will not shrink back when they are all seen together. When we find him now at the sea of Tiberias, it is easy to realize that all this has done its work. Told that it is the Lord who is there upon the shore, he girds on his outer garment, and casts himself into the sea, impatient to meet his Lord. But now it is he is ready, only now, for that so necessary dealing with his conscience, when his heart is fully assured. On the shore a fire of coals is burning, the only other time when we read of such a thing beside being when he had warmed himself at a similar one at that time which he never will forget. Yet it would seem as if Christ had forgotten it. He adds no word, but makes him sit down there in company with Himself and it, -a silent preacher, not the less effectual.

They have dined, and now the living Voice begins. Where does it begin? where the preacher to his conscience left it? No; not a word of this. Nothing is said for a moment about this fall; there is no charge, -scarcely, one would say, a reminder -of what the preacher before had taken for his text. A quiet and a tender question it is now, and from One whose love has been more and more rising upon him, till now it is full day, brightness and warmth together. "Simon, son of Jonas," says the Voice now, with its familiar and yet ever growing fulness of meaning for him, "Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?"

One cannot help but see that the Lord is recalling to Peter, and yet not as if He would recall them, his fervent but boastful words, that, though all should be offended, yet he would not be. He will not charge him with them, but only let him himself recall them in the light of what deeper knowledge he has acquired, that he may now give judgment as to them. But Peter simply declines the comparison. He is content with affirming his love, though not in the terms of the question put: The Lord cannot allow it, therefore, to rest there, but repeats His question in a briefer and more pointed way. Peter again affirms, and again the Lord presses him upon his own chosen ground; and now Peter’s heart bursts out: "Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee." This threefold repetition connects Peter’s boastful affirmation with his repeated denials in the high priest’s palace. Root and fruit are connected together, so that he may the better trace that connection, and Peter’s answer testifies of the omniscience that has searched him out. "Lord," he says, "Thou knowest all things!" but that only deepens the conviction that while he had signally failed to manifest his love in outward act, yet He who knew all could read it in his heart.

The Lord’s questions vary, however, more than we have yet taken into account. In the first two He uses a different word for "love" from that which He uses the third time, but which is that which Peter uses throughout. The latter is the term for affection, ardent and heartfelt, but, it may be, unintelligent and unappreciative also. The former is a love guided and sanctioned by a deliberate judgment. Both terms are used in a bad sense as well as a good, and the more discriminating and deliberate love is, the worse it is, if set upon evil. Yet this intelligent love which can give a reason to itself is otherwise the higher quality. It is the love of the spirit, as Scripture would put it, as Peter’s word expresses that of the soul; and although the Father is said in both ways to love the Son, yet when it is said, "God is Love," the word used is necessarily the former.

The Lord then uses this higher term first, and descends afterwards to the lower, thus searching out Peter more and more. In the first place too, He adds, "more than these do," (the other disciples,) but then asks, "Dost thou love Me?" as if He would say, "at all?" And when Peter still urges his, "Thou knowest I have affection for Thee;" He at last takes him up even there, and asks, "Hast thou affection for Me?" Then the disciple’s heart gushes out. Even this slighter "affection," alas! might be questioned now: -for had not mere friend braved and done more for friend than he for his Lord and Saviour? Yes, but He who knew all things would not judge him as men might. He dares not now say that he loves more than others -dares profess nothing as to the quality of his love at all: let the Lord judge, who would not too severely; -who has not been driven from him by all that He has seen in him: yet, be it what it may, he has affection.

His self-judgment is complete. Searched out under the divine eye, he is found and owns himself, not better but worse than others, so self-ignorant that he cannot claim quality for his love at all; only something he is conscious of, which even so, in his utter failure to manifest it, omniscience alone might see.

The needed point is reached, the strong man converted to weakness is now fit to strengthen his brethren; and, as Peter descends step by step the ladder of humiliation, step by step the Lord follows him with assurance of the work for which he is destined. "Feed My lambs," He says, "tend My sheep," "feed My sheep." He, the faithful Shepherd, who could give His life for them, could yet confide these sheep, so dear to Him, into the hands of this humbled, ruined man. How sweet and assuring this grace to Simon Peter, as to us all! Now indeed he answers to his name: he is the "hearkener, son of the Dove," and is risen out of the ruin which will yet abide with him in cherished memory for ever. God, who is the God of resurrection, has performed this.

But the Lord does not even stop here. He goes back to that fervent protestation that Peter is ready to follow Him to prison and to death. He has missed his opportunity, but he shall retrieve it yet, and show what divine grace has indeed made Christ to be to him. Sealing it with His strong manner of affirmation, He declares, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not." "This spake He," says he who had been witness of it, "signifying by what death he should glorify God. And, when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, Follow Me."

In the strength of nature he had not been competent. Mere flesh and blood will ever fail in the battles of the Lord. Yet He who has enjoined upon us the taking forth the precious from the vile, knows how to discern amid whatever may be mingled with it that which is truly of Him. Peter shall regain his lost opportunity, and yet have the privilege accorded him of dying for his Saviour. As a veteran in such warfare, he shall die upon the battlefield, and follow Christ through the gateway by which He left the conflict for the eternal joy.

It is in the contrast with John which follows we are made to realize that Peter is here also the representative of that ministry to the circumcision which was, as we know, in a principal way committed to him. That ministry ended as a distinct thing with the scattering of the people when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Romans. The times of possible restoration held out to them by the reception of the Crucified One, lengthened out by the longsuffering mercy of God for many years, though more and more realized as hopeless, was then ended in terrible judgment. Henceforth to the end of the times of the Gentiles, as our Lord announced, Jerusalem would be trodden down by them. While it is, of course, true that the gospel goes out to men everywhere, without distinction of persons, and that only "blindness in part" is happened to Israel, the nation as such is for the present set aside. The testimony characteristic of the time of God’s longsuffering is therefore set aside also.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21:15-17 do you love me? The three questions and affirmations mirror Peter’s three denials (18:15-18, 25-27). Jesus invited Peter to reaffirm everything he had denied. • The Greek term translated love in Jesus’ first two questions (agapaō) is different from the word in his third question (phileō). In each case, Peter answered with the second word (phileō). Most Greek scholars view the two words as synonyms in this situation. The focus of Jesus’ exchange with Peter was not the quality of Peter’s love, but Peter’s commission to take care of Jesus’ flock. Peter might be meditating on these events in 1 Pet 5:2-4.

21:15 more than these? Or more than these others do? Jesus was reminding Peter of his insistence that he would be more faithful and courageous than the others (13:37; Matt 26:33; Mark 14:29). He was urging Peter to examine himself.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 21:15. Ὅτε, when) During their eating there had been more than usual silence. Silence at the beginning of a feast is not only the part of politeness, but even of modesty and self-control.—ὁ Ἰησοῦς) The Byz. and Lat. formerly omitted these words, as is evident from Augustine. Nor were they in the cod. Reutlingensis “manu primâ.”[404]—ἀγαπᾷς με, lovest [amas] thou Me?) Thrice the Lord asks a question: Lovest thou Me more than these? Lovest thou Me? φιλεῖς [diligis?], dost thou esteem Me? Thrice Peter answers, I do esteem Thee. Ἀγαπᾶν, amare, is the part of relationship and affection: φιλεῖν, diligere, is the act of the judgment. Others make this distinction, that ἀγαπᾶν is simply to love; φιλεῖν, to love in such a way as that we should evince our love by kissing one: and this is the distinction which Eustathius upholds; but Peter, to the question of the Lord ἀγαπᾷς με, does not seem to have been likely to answer ἐμφατικώτερον, more emphatically, than was the expression in the question, φιλῶ. Where the difference is not expressed, the one is included in the signification of the other.[405] Jesus, now that Peter’s faith was established, questions him about his love: and this is the distinguishing characteristic of the Shepherd. On this condition of love depend the things which are mentioned in Joh 21:15, etc., and Joh 21:18-19.—πλεῖον τούτων) more than these, viz. thy fellow-disciples. So οὗτος, this man, occurs in Joh 21:21. Previously Peter had said that he would show more fidelity than these (his fellow-disciples): Mat 26:33, “Though all[406] shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended:” but now he simply says, I love Thee: he does not add, more than these. Yet he had lately shown himself most eagerly desirous of the Lord, in Joh 21:7 [“He cast himself into the sea,” to reach Him the sooner].—σὺ οἶδας, Thou knowest) Peter had given a proof of the contrary by his late denial of Jesus: now, instead of argument, he makes his appeal to the knowledge and omniscience of Jesus.—βόσκε, feed) The words, more than these, serve to indicate that Peter is here restored to his place, which he had lost by his denial of Jesus; and at the same time that a something is assigned to him peculiarly, as compared with the other disciples, but nothing from which the others are to be excluded: for in truth they also loved Jesus, ch. Joh 16:27. Let the Pope, in the name of truth, cease, under the pretext of the succession to Peter, to claim violently this privilege to himself, and himself alone, seeing that he is one who does not either love or feed the sheep, but on the contrary feeds upon them. Rome can no more claim Peter as her own, than Jerusalem or Antioch, or any other place where Peter acted as an apostle: nay, Rome, as being the capital of the Gentiles, can least of all claim him. For Peter was one of the apostles of the circumcision. There is one feature peculiar to Rome, that the blood of the apostles, including even Peter, is to be ‘found’ in her: Rev 18:20; Rev 18:24.—τὰ ἀρνία μου, My lambs) Jesus is the Lord of the sheep and of the lambs. He loves His flock, and commits it to him that loves Him.

[404] But ABDabc and best MSS. of Vulg. support the words.—E. and T.

[405] The Vulg. differs from Bengel, and rightly gives the reverse explanation to ἀγαπᾶς and φιλεῖς respectively; “diligis, diligis,” twice, to represent the twice repeated ἀγαπᾶς, the love of choice and judgment, esteem; and “amo, amo,” to represent φιλῶ, the love of affection and impulse. The word ἀγαπᾶς sounds too cold to the ear of Peter, who was now burning with love. He therefore substitutes in his answer the word of affection, φιλῶ. At the third time Peter has gained his point: for the Lord now, instead of ἀγαπᾶς, gratifies Peter by using φιλεῖς. See Trench, Syn. New Testament—E. and T.

[406] Viz. of the disciples: not “all men,” as Engl. Vers.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_21:15-17. The thrice-repeated question: ut illi occasionem praeberet, triplicis abnegationis maculam triplici professione eluendi, Wetstein, which Hengstenberg arbitrarily denies.

Σίμων Ἰωάννου] Thrice the same complete mention of the name with a certain solemnity of deeply-moved affection. In the use of the name Simon Joh. in itself, we are not to recognisesince certainly it is not at all susceptible of proof, that Jesus elsewhere addressed the apostle by the name Peter or Cephasanother and special purpose as in view, neither a reminiscence of the lost confidence (De Wette), nor of the human presupposition of the apostolical calling (Luthardt), nor a replacement into the natural condition for the purpose of an exaltation to the new dignity (Hengstenberg). The name of Peter is not refused to him (Hoelemann).

ἀγαπ.] He does not ask after his faith; for this had not become wavering, but the love proceeding from the faith had not been sufficiently strong.

τούτων] ἢ οὗτοι, than these my other disciples. They are still present; comp. on Joh_21:20. Peter had given expression, in his whole behaviour down to his fall, to so pre-eminent a love for Jesus (let Joh_6:68, let the washing of the feet, the sword-stroke, and Joh_13:37 be borne in mind), and in virtue of the distinction, of which Jesus had deemed him worthy (Joh_1:43), as well as by his post at the head of the apostles (comp. on Mat_16:18), into which he was not now for the first time to be introduced (Hengstenberg), so pre-eminent a love was to be expected from him, that there is sufficient occasion for the πλεῖον τούτων without requiring a special reference to Mat_26:33 (from which, in comparison with Joh_13:37, a conclusion has been drawn adverse to the Johannean authorship).

Peter in his answer places, instead of the ἀγαπ. (diligis) of the question, the expression of personal heart emotion, φιλῶ, amo (comp. Joh_11:3; Joh_11:5, Joh_20:2), by which he gives the most direct satisfaction to his inmost feeling; appeals, in so doing, in the consciousness of the want of personal warranty, to the Lords knowledge of the heart, but leaves the πλεῖον τούτων unanswered, because his fall has made him humble, for which reason Jesus also, in tender forbearance, is silent as to that πλεῖον τούτων in the questions that followvivid originality of the narrative, marked by such delicacy of feeling.

βόσκε τὰ ἀρνία μου] Restoration to the previous standing, which the rest of the apostles did not require, therefore containing the primacy of Peter only in so far as it already previously existed; see on Mat_16:18.

ἀρνία] Expression of tender emotion: little lambs, without obliteration of the diminutive signification also in Rev_5:6; Isa_40:11, Aq. The discourse becomes firmer in Joh_21:16, where πρόβατα, and again, more touched with emotion in Joh_21:17, where προβάτια, little sheep (see the critical notes), is found. By all three words, the ἀρχιποίμην[285] means His believing ones in general (1Pe_5:4), without making a separation between beginners and those who are matured (Euth. Zigabenus, Wetstein, Lange, and several others), or even between laity and clergy (Eusebius, Emiss, Bellarmine). Maldonatus aptly remarks: the distinction is non in re, sed in voce, where, notwithstanding, he, with other Catholic expositors, erroneously lays emphasis on the fact that precisely to Peter was the whole flock entrusted; the latter shared, in truth, with all the apostles, the same office of tending the entire flock.

πάλιν δεύτερον] See on Mat_26:42.

ποίμαινε] More universal and more expressive of carefully ruling activity in general (Act_20:28; 1Pe_5:2; Rev_2:27; Rev_7:17, and see Dissen, ad Pind. Ol. x. 9) than βόσκε, in which rather the special reference of nourishing protective activity is brought out (Hom. Od. μ. 97, ξ. 102, et al.; comp. βοσκή and βόσκημα, victus, and the compounds like γηροβοσκεῖν, et al.; see also Philo, deter. insid. pot. I. p. 197; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 312 f.). The latter, therefore, corresponds to the diminutive designations.

In His third question, Joh_21:17, Jesus takes up the φιλῶ σε of Peter, and cuts, by means of the thus altered question, still more deeply into his heart. Peter was troubled about this, that Jesus in this third question appeared to throw doubt even upon his φιλεῖν. Hence now his more earnest answer, with an appeal to his Lords unlimited knowledge of the heart: σὺ πάντα οἶδας, κ.τ.λ., which popular and deeply emotional expression is not to be interpreted of absolute omniscience (Baur), but according to the standard of Joh_16:30, Joh_2:25, Joh_4:19, Joh_6:64, Joh_1:49 f.

[285] To apply the sense of the thrice-uttered behest so differently: duty of individuals; care for the whole; leading in of individuals for the whole (Luthardt),is a separation of the idea which cannot be proved by the change of the words, and is entirely out of keeping with the mood of emotional feeling. In each of the three expressions lies the whole duty of the shepherd. Quam vocum vim optime se intellexisse Petrus demonstrat, 1Pe_5:2, Grotius.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 21:15-18 . Jesus evokes from Peter a confession of love, and commissions him as shepherd, of His sheep .

Joh 21:15 . Ὅτε οὖν ἠρίστησαν , “when, then, they had broken their fast,” a note of time essential to the conversation following. Peter had manifested the most ardent affection, by abandoning on the instant the net of fish for which he had been toiling all night, and by springing into the sea to greet his Lord. But was not that a mere impulsive demonstration, “the wholesome madness of an hour”? Therefore He lets Peter settle down, He lets him breakfast and then takes him at the coolest hour of the day, and, at last breaking silence, says, Σίμων Ἰωνᾶ [better, Ἰωάνου ] ἀγαπᾷς με πλεῖον [better, πλέον ] τούτων ; “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these?” So far as grammar goes, this may either mean “Lovest thou me more than the other disciples love me?” or “Lovest thou me more than this boat and net and your old life?” It may either refer to Peter’s saying, “Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I,” or to his sudden abandonment of the boat and fishing gear. If the former were intended, the second personal pronoun would almost necessarily be expressed; but, as the words stand, the contrast is not between “you” and “these,” but between “me” and “these”. Besides, would the characteristic tact and delicacy of Jesus have allowed Him to put a question involving a comparison of Peter with his fellow-disciples? The latter interpretation, although branded by Lücke as “eine geistlose lächerliche Frage,” commends itself. Difference of opinion also exists about the use of ἀγαπᾶς and φιλῶ , most interpreters believing that by the former a love based on esteem or judgment is indicated, by the latter the affection of the heart. The Vulgate distinguishes by using “diligis” and “amo”. Trench ( Synonyms , 38) uses this distinction for the interpretation of this passage, and maintains that Peter in his reply intentionally changes the colder ἀγαπᾶς into the warmer φιλῶ . It is very doubtful whether this is justifiable. The two words are used interchangeably to express the love of Jesus for John, see Joh 13:23 , and Joh 20:2 ; also for His love for Lazarus, Joh 11:3 ; Joh 11:5 ; Joh 11:36 . And that the distinction cannot be maintained at any rate in this conversation is obvious from Joh 21:17 ; for if the words differed in meaning, it could not be said that “Peter was grieved because Jesus a third time said, φιλεῖς με ”; because Jesus had not used these words three times. The words seem interchanged for euphony, as in Aelian, Var. Hist. , ix. 1, where Hiero is said to have lived with his three brothers, πάνυ σφόδρα ἀγαπήσας αὐτοὺς καὶ ὑπʼ αὐτῶν φιληθεὶς ἐν τῷ μέρει . In Peter’s answer there is no sense of any discrepancy between the kind of love demanded and the love felt. It comes with a ναί , Κύριε . Why need He ask? σὺ οἶδας .… In this appeal to Christ’s own knowledge there is probably, as Weiss suggests, a consciousness of his own liability to be deceived, as shown in his recent experience.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. ὅτε οὖν ἠρίστησαν, when the breakfast was over. Jn. is fond of these notes of time. See on 1:29.

Σίμων Ἰωάνου. This is the better reading (א*BCDLW), as against Σίμων Ἰωνᾶ of the rec. text; and so also at vv. 16, 17.

Note that we have here Σίμων Ἰωάνου three times, instead of Σίμων ὁ υἱὸς Ἰωάνου, as at 1:42.

Jesus addresses him by the personal name by which he was generally known, “Simon, son of John,” as He was accustomed to do. See on 1:42 for the designation Peter, which, it is to be observed, Jesus only uses once (Luk 22:34) in addressing the apostle. Cf. Mat 16:17, Luk 22:31.

Peter had thrice denied His Master, and the solemn questioning of him, in the company of his fellow-disciples, as the prelude to his restoration to the Master’s favour and the renewal of His confidence, was fittingly repeated thrice. As Augustine has it, he was questioned “donec trina voce amoris, solueret trinam uocem negationis.”1 The questioning has reference to one thing only, and that is Peter’s love for Jesus. He is not asked to renew his confession of faith (probably that had never quite left him, his Master having prayed that it should not fail, Luk 22:32), nor is he asked if he is sure that he will be more courageous in the future than in the past. The Lord does not remind him in words of his failure when the great test came. If he loves, that is enough. This is the one essential condition of the apostolic office and ministry.

Attention has often been directed to the use of the two verbs ἀγαπᾶν and φιλεῖν in these verses; Jesus asking ἀγαπᾷς με twice, Peter answering φιλῶ σε, and on the third occasion of His query, Jesus changing the verb and saying φιλεῖς με, taking up Peter’s own word. This distinction of verbs is not treated as significant by the ancient commentators, Syriac, Greek, or Latin (Ambrose in Lc. x. 176 being perhaps an exception); and, when the delight of Origen, e.g., in playing on words is remembered, this is sufficient to show that the patristic expositors did not venture sharply to differentiate ἀγαπᾶν from φιλεῖν. But in modern times, the exegesis of the passage has largely turned on the idea that whereas Peter will say φιλῶ σε, he does not presume to claim that he can say ἀγαπῶ σε, ἀγαπᾶν being the more lofty word.1 It is necessary, then, to examine the usage of ἀγαπᾶν and φιλεῖν more closely.

Additional Note on φιλεῖν and ἀγαπᾶν

Of these two words it may be said that φιλεῖν is the more comprehensive, and includes every degree and kind of love or liking, while ἀγαπᾶν is the more dignified and restrained. But even so vague a distinction cannot be pressed very far. Both verbs are used in classical Greek to express sexual love (cf. Lucian, Ver Hist. ii. 25, and Aristotle, Topica, i. 15 [106, b 2]).2 So, in like manner, in the LXX sexual love is indicated by ἀγάπη, ἀγαπᾶν, at 2Sa 13:4, Son 2:5, Son 7:6 etc., and by φιλία at Ecclus. 9:8, Pro 7:18 (in which latter passage Aquila and Theodotion give ἀγάπη.) In Xenophon (Memorabilia, 11. vii. §§ 9 and 12), φιλεῖν and ἀγαπᾶν are used interchangeably, both indicating in turn affection (not sexual) and esteem. Cf. Ælian, Var. Hist. ix. 4, where it is said of a man’s relations with his brothers, πάνυ σφόδρα ἀγαπήσας αὐτοὺς καὶ ὐπʼ αὐτῶν φιληθεὶς ἐν τῷ μέρει.

An analysis of the passages in which φιλεῖν and ἀγαπᾶν occur in Jn. shows that they are practically synonyms in the Fourth Gospel.

Both verbs are used of God’s love for man: ἀγαπᾶν at 3:16 (where see note) 14:23, 17:23, 1Jn 4:10, 1Jn 4:19, etc., but φιλεῖν at 16:27 (cf. Rev 3:19).

Both verbs are used of the Father’s love for the Son: ἀγαπᾶν at 3:35, 10:17, 15:9, 17:23, 24, 26 (cf. ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, Mar 9:7), but φιλεῖν at 5:20.

Both verbs are used of Jesus’ love for men: ἀγαπᾶν at 11:5, 13:1, 23, 34, 14:21, 15:9, 19:26, 21:7, 20, but φιλεῖν at 11:3, 36, 20:2. The last reference is specially noteworthy, as at 20:2 the beloved disciple is described as he ὃν ἐφίλει ὁ Ἰησοῦς, while we generally have ὃν ἠγάπα (13:23, 19:26).

Both verbs are used of the love of men for other men: ἀγαπᾶν at 13:34, 15:12, 17, 1Jn 2:10, 1Jn 2:3:10, 1Jn 2:14, 1Jn 2:23, 1Jn 2:4:7, 1Jn 2:20, but φιλεῖν at 15:19. The noun ἀγάπη is used for the love of men for each other at 13:35, 15:13, 1Jn 4:7; but the word that came to be specially appropriated to the brotherly love of Christian for Christian was not ἀγάπη but φιλαδελφία (see on 13:34, and cf. Tit 3:15).

Both verbs are used of the love of men for Jesus: ἀγαπᾶν at 8:42, 14:15, 21, 23, 24, 28, 21:15, 16, but φιλεῖν at 16:27, 21:15, 16, 17 (cf. Mat 10:37, 1Co 16:22).

The love of men for God is generally described in the LXX by ἀγαπᾶν (Exo 20:6) or ἀγάπη (Wisd. 3:9); but in Pro 8:17 we have φιλεῖν (ἐγὼ τοὺς ἐμὲ φιλοῦντας ἀγαπῶ1). In this sense we have ἀγάπη at 5:42, 1Jn 2:5, 1Jn 2:15, 1Jn 2:3:17, and ἀγαπᾶν at 1Jn 4:19, 1Jn 4:20, 1Jn 4:21, 1Jn 4:5:2 (not in the Gospel).

The love of Jesus for the Father is mentioned only once in the N.T., viz. at 14:31 (where see note), and there the verb is ἀγαπᾶν.

Having regard to these facts, it would be precarious to lay stress on the change of ἀγαπᾷς in vv. 15 and 16 to φιλεῖς in v. 17. And a closer examination gives further reason for treating them as synonymous here.

First, it is clear that the author uses them as synonymous. Jn. purports to give a translation in Greek of Aramaic words spoken by Jesus. He makes Jesus say ἀγαπᾷς με in vv. 15, 16, and φιλεῖς με in v. 17; but by prefixing τὸ τρίτον to φιλεῖς με in the latter passage (cf. δεύτερον in v. 16), he seems to make it plain that the verbs are to be taken as identical in meaning, and to exclude the idea that a new thought is introduced by the use of φιλεῖς.

Secondly, Peter is represented as saying “Yes” to the question ἀγαπᾷς με; ναί, φιλῶ σε is his answer. This is fatal to the idea that Peter will not claim that he loves Jesus with the higher form of love called ἀγάπη, but that he ventures only to say that he has φιλία for his Master. For why should he say “Yes,” if he means “No”?

Thirdly, the Syriac versions (both Old Syriac and Peshitta) use the same word to render ἀγαπᾷς and φιλεῖς in this passage, although two Syriac words were at their disposal. And this is the more remarkable because the Curetonian and Peshitta in rendering ἀγαπᾶν at 14:21, where it occurs 3 times, use both the available Syriac words without distinction.1

In this connexion it is significant that ἀγαπᾶν and φιλεῖν are indifferently used in the LXX to translate the Hebr. אָהֵב; this Hebrew root being nearly always behind ἀγαπᾶν, and always behind φιλεῖν except when φιλεῖν means “to kiss,” when it represents נָשַׁק.

The Vulgate Latin distinguishes ἀγαπᾷς and φιλεῖς by the respective renderings diligis and amas;2 but the O.L. texts a e have amas throughout, in this agreeing with the Syriac. No distinction is drawn between ἀγαπᾷς and φιλεῖς here in the Arabic version of Tatian’s Diatessaron.

We conclude that we must treat ἀγαπᾷς and φιλεῖς in vv 15-17 as synonymous, as all the patristic expositors do.

ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον τούτων; πλέον (אBCDL) must be preferred to the rec. πλεῖον.

What is the meaning of πλέον τούτων? It has been generally understood as meaning “more than your companions, the other apostles, love me”; and this yields a good sense. Peter had claimed that his loyalty surpassed that of the rest (Mar 14:29; and cf. 13:37). He had taken precedence of the others, in speech (6:68) and act (18:10), more than once. And the question of Jesus may mean, “Do you really love me more than the others do, as your forwardness in acting as their leader used to suggest?” But (a) if this be the meaning, the construction is elliptical and ambiguous. We should expect the personal pronoun σύ to be introduced before or after ἀγαπᾷς to mark the emphasis; (b) comparisons of this kind, sc. between the love which this or that disciple displays or entertains, seem out of place on the lips of Jesus. To ask Peter if his love for his Master exceeds the love which, e.g., the Beloved Disciple cherished for Him, would be a severe test; and the question would be one which Peter could never answer with confidence.

Does, then, ἀγαπᾷς με πλέον τούτων; mean “lovest thou me more than these things?” sc. the boat and the nets and the fishing, to which Peter had returned after the Passion and the Resurrection of his Master. This interpretation is, indeed, unattractive; but it may possibly be right, and it is free from some difficulties which beset the usual interpretation.

At any rate, Peter in his reply takes no notice of πλέον τούτων. If he had ever intended to claim that his affection for his Master was greater than that of his companions, he does so no longer. Nor does he rest his answer on his own feelings alone. His fall had taught him humility. “Yea, Lord, thou knowest (σὺ οἶδας) that I love thee” (φιλῶ σε, with which cf. 16:27). He rests his case on the Master’s insight into his heart.

The answer of Jesus accepts Peter’s assurance: “Feed my lambs.” The Lord “confides those whom He loves to the man who loves Him” (Luthardt). At the time of his call, the charge to Peter was that he was to be a “fisher” of men (Mat 4:19, Mar 1:17, Luk 5:10); and such was his work as an apostle, during the days of his Master’s visible presence and control. But that would not be sufficient for an apostolic ministry, when Jesus had departed. Henceforth the ministry consists not only of “catching” men, but of guiding and guarding them in their new spiritual environment. And so the image now used at Peter’s second “call” is not that of the fisher, but of the shepherd, whose tender devotion must take as its exemplar the life of the Good Shepherd of 10:11-16.

φιλῶ σε is all that Peter will say. But it is enough.

Βόσκε τὰ ἀρνία μου is the charge committed to him by the Chief Pastor in the first instance. The charge is repeated in varying forms in vv. 16, 17, and it is not easy either to determine the true text in each case or, having determined it, to decide whether the changes of verbs and nouns are significant for Jn.

In vv. 15, 17, the verb is βόσκε; in v. 16 it is ποίμαινε. In the Synoptists βόσκειν is always used of feeding swine; but it is regularly used in the LXX of feeding sheep (e.g. Gen 29:7, Gen 37:12), and in Eze 34:2 in a metaphorical sense (as here) of a pastor feeding his flock with spiritual food.

ποιμαίνειν is, etymologically, a verb of wider connotation, covering all duties that pertain to a ποιμήν or shepherd, guiding and guarding, as well as feeding the flock. It occurs again Luk 17:7, 1Co 9:7, in its literal sense, and in the spiritual sense of “shepherding” Act 20:28, 1Pe 5:2, Rev 2:27, Rev 7:17 etc. But it is doubtful if ποίμαινε of v. 16 should be understood as different from βόσκε of vv. 15, 17. ποιμαίνειν is used in the LXX of feeding sheep, exactly as βόσκειν is (e.g. Gen 30:31, Gen 37:2), and so too in its spiritual significance, e.g. Psa 23:1 ὁ κύριος ποιμαίνει με, and Eze 34:10 τοῦ μή ποιμαίνειν τά πρόβατα μου.

The Vulgate has in vv. 15, 16, 17, pasce … pasce … pasce, no attempt being made to distinguish the Greek verbs; and it would be rash to assume that different Aramaic words lie behind βόσκε and ποίμαινε respectively in the present passage, more particularly as in the LXX βόσκειν and ποιμαίνειν are used indifferently to translate רָעָה.

We now turn to the various words used to describe the flock who are to be tended, and here we have to do with conflicting readings:

In v. 15, ἀρνία is certainly right; C*D giving πρόβατα.

In v. 16, προβάτια is read by BC as against πρόβατα, which has the support of אADNΓΔ.

In v. 17, πρόβατα is read by אDNΓΔ, as against ABC, which have προβάτια.

A careful study of the Syriac versions by Burkitt leads him to the conclusion that ἀρνία … προβάτια … πρόβατα were probably the original Greek words behind the Syriac.1 With this, the Latin Vulgate agnos … agnos … oves agrees, for προβάτια as a diminutive may be very well represented by agnos. The O.L. versions, for the most part, do not distinguish, and give oves three times; but there are also traces of a reading oviculas in vv. 16, 17.

These variants indicate, as it seems, that two or three different Aramaic words lie behind the Greek, although such an inference is not certain, having regard to what has been said above in relation to ἀγαπᾶν—φιλεῖν and βόσκειν-ποιμαίνειν. And we incline to adopt the readings ἀρνία … προβάτια … πρόβατα in vv. 15, 16, 17 respectively, although the uncial evidence for προβάτια in v. 16 is not very strong. Hence the charge to Peter first entrusts to his care the lambs, then the young sheep, and lastly the whole flock, young and old.

With ἀρνία, προβάτια, may be compared τεκνία of 13:33. This use of diminutives indicates a tenderness in the speaker’s words. ἀρνίον occurs in the N.T. elsewhere only in the Apocalpyse, where it is used 29 times of the Lamb of God (see on 1:29): it is infrequent in the LXX. προβάτιον does not appear again in the Greek Bible.

Some commentators (who find in the delivery of the special charge “Feed my lambs, … my sheep” to Peter individually, an indication of his being entrusted with a higher commission than that of the other apostles) interpret the “lambs” the faithful laity, while the “sheep” whom Peter was to feed typify other pastors. This is anachronistic exegesis, but hardly more so than the interpretation which finds in this passage an anticipation of the primacy of the Roman See. Such thoughts were outside the purview of Christians at the time when the Fourth Gospel was published.1

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

II. Peter and John: Joh 21:15-23.

Peter: Joh 21:15-19 a. The following conversation completes the preceding scene by the express reinstallation of St. Peter not only in the apostolic office, but in the direction of the apostolic company and work. No doubt Jesus had announced to him the pardon of his sin in the special appearance which He had granted to him (Luk 24:34, 1Co 15:5). In the appearance to the disciples in general, Joh 20:21-23, He had already treated him as an apostle. But He had not yet restored to him the whole of his old position, of which his denial had deprived him—that of chief of the apostles. This is what He does in the first part of the following conversation (Joh 21:15-17).

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 15-23. In the words addressed to Peter there are two parts: first, those which bear upon his re-instatement in office, as it may be called; and, secondly, those which relate to his death.

1. The words which are found in Joh 21:15-17 introduce the matter of Peter’s re-instatement by calling attention to his former protestations of love, with respect to which he had so signally failed and fallen. The readiness of Jesus to forgive and to restore is thus more tenderly manifested here than anywhere else in the Gospel narrative. The passage exhibits Jesus, in this regard, in His relation to His own friends. Following upon the words which restore Peter to his place and position in the great work and kingdom, Jesus utters a word of prophecy, in which He proclaims, as it were, to the two friends among the apostles who stood nearest to Him in His love, and who were to continue in life for many years, as James was not, the future which they must expect. The testimony of Jesus to Himself, in His relation of love to the individual disciple, is thus brought out in this appended chapter, which by reason of this characteristic, as well as its many forms of expression, manifests a truly Johannean type.

2. That the word these (τούτων) in Joh 21:15 refers to the other disciples, and thus carries the thought back to Peter’s protestation in Joh 13:37, “I will lay down my life for thee,” and the similar protestation in Mar 14:29 (comp. Mat 26:33), “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I,” is generally admitted now by the best writers, and there can be but little doubt that this is the correct view.

3. As to the distinction between the words ἀγαπᾷν and φιλεῖν, it is undoubtedly intended to be a marked one in this place. Otherwise the use of the two words can hardly be satisfactorily accounted for. The former word has in it the moral element, and is more appropriate to express the relation of man towards God and Christ, while the latter is here used of the affection of friendship. Weiss, however, thinks that the occurrence of the latter word in the third question put by Jesus to Peter makes it doubtful whether any such distinction is intended

4. That the reference of the prophetic words of Jesus respecting Peter’s future is to the manner of his death, is affirmed by the evangelist, and there is nothing in the language used to make this reference in any way improbable. The language, however, only indicates death by violence, and is not sufficiently definite to show that Peter was to be crucified. The parallelisms of the expressions are such as to make it evident that the words thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee form as a whole the contrast to thou girdedst thyself. The stretching forth the hands, therefore, does not follow the girding or binding, but precedes it and is incidental to it;—it must accordingly refer to that forced submission which pertains to the prisoner or criminal who is bound and led out to execution.

5. The word ἔρχομαι in Joh 21:22-23 is one which presents some difficulty. That it cannot mean come for him at death is evident, because all men—Peter as well as John—tarry till this coming. It cannot refer to the coming in and through the Spirit, for both of the disciples alike were to live beyond that period. For the same reason, it cannot mean the return for the forty days. Both of these latter ovents, also, were so near at hand that no such expression would have been used respecting them. The ordinary reference of the word to the Parousia escapes these objections; but as Jesus appears to have been free from any idea that the Parousia was to take place in the near future, there seems to be a kind of extravagance in the expression, as thus explained, which bears with it a certain improbability. This last view is that which is pressed upon us by the usage of the word, and, if it is adopted, the explanation of the meaning suggested by the evangelist is the one which must be regarded as correct—namely, that the emphasis is on the if. Luthardt holds that the contrast which the evangelist makes, as he claims, between the dying of the disciple and his tarrying until Jesus should come, shows that, at the time of writing the words, Jesus had already come. The coming began, according to his view, with the judgment upon Israel and Jerusalem. Alford has substantially the same view. Weiss holds (see his notes on Joh 14:3, Joh 21:22) that Jesus is represented by John as having thought, like the apostles, that the Parousia would be in the near future.

Ver. 15. “When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou me more than these do? He says to him, Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He says to him, Feed my lambs.”

As there is a relation, which is perhaps not accidental, between the outward situation in which Peter had been called the first time to the ministry and that which has just been described, there is also a relation between the situation in which he had lost this office by his denial and the fire of coals near which he recovered it.

The title Simon, son of Jona, or, according to the reading of some Alexandrian authorities, Simon, son of John, is not unintentionally opposed to that of Simon Peter, of which the evangelist makes use in this same verse. It reminds Peter of his natural origin, and consequently of the state of sin from which the call of Jesus had drawn him, but into which he had sunk again by his fall. The allusion to the threefold denial of the apostle in the three following questions is not doubtful, whatever Hengstenberg may think. The threefold profession of his love for Jesus is to efface, in some sort, the threefold stain which he has brought upon himself. Jesus Himself is anxious to furnish him the occasion for it. By adding: more than these do, He certainly reminds Peter of the presumptuous superiority which he had attributed to himself when he said, Mat 26:33, Mar 14:29 :

“Even if all the rest shall be offended in thee, I will not be offended.” No doubt, John has not mentioned this saying; but his narrative is in constant relation to that of the Synoptics. One cites only as a remembered curiosity the interpretation which makes the word these the object of lovest thou, and which refers it to the fishing implements or to the fish: “Lovest thou me more than thou lovest thine old profession?” Peter, with a humility enjoined by the remembrance of his fall, at first in his answer rejects these last words: more than these; then he substitutes for the term ἀγαπᾶν, to love in the higher and spiritual sense of the word, love with the love of reverence, the term φιλεῖν,to cherish, love in the sense of personal attachment. He thinks that he can without presumption ascribe to himself this latter feeling; and yet he does not do it without expressing a certain distrust of himself and without seeking the guaranty of the testimony of his heart, to which he does not dare to trust any longer, in the infallible knowledge of the hearts of men, which he now attributes to his Master. The question here is not of omniscience in the absolute sense of the word. Comp. Joh 2:24-25. This appeal softens, as Luthardt says, the too decided character which a simple yes would have had.

Upon this answer, Jesus gives back to him the care of the flock. “He confides those whom He loves to the one who loves Him,” says Luthardt. The expression: the lambs, designates, according to some, a particular class of the members of the Church, the children and beginners; but the whole flock, at the point where things then were, was composed only of those who were beginning and weak. This saying reminds us of that which Jesus had addressed to Peter before his fall: “When thou shalt be restored, strengthen thy brethren” (Luk 22:32). The lambs are thus the whole flock of the faithful, apostles and simple believers. The term feed, βόσκειν, cause to feed, denotes the care of a flock from the point of view of nourishment. This function, in the spiritual sense, implies an inward sympathy which can only spring from love.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Peter by his triple confession is restored into his former degree from whence he fell by his triple denial: and therewithal is advertised, that he is indeed a pastor, which showeth his love to Christ in feeding his sheep.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

when they had dined, Jesus saith--Silence appears to have reigned during the meal; unbroken on His part, that by their mute observation of Him they might have their assurance of His identity the more confirmed; and on theirs, from reverential shrinking to speak till He did.

Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?--referring lovingly to those sad words of Peter, shortly before denying his Lord, "Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended" (Mat 26:33), and intending by this allusion to bring the whole scene vividly before his mind and put him to shame.

Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee--He adds not, "more than these," but prefixes a touching appeal to the Saviour's own omniscience for the truth of his protestation, which makes it a totally different kind of speech from his former.

He saith unto him, Feed my lambs--It is surely wrong to view this term as a mere diminutive of affection, and as meaning the same thing as "the sheep" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON]. It is much more according to usage to understand by the "lambs," young and tender disciples, whether in age or Christian standing (Isa 40:11; Jo1 2:12-13), and by the "sheep" the more mature. Shall we say (with many) that Peter was here reinstated in office? Not exactly, since he was not actually excluded from it. But after such conduct as his, the deep wound which the honor of Christ had received, the stain brought on his office, the damage done to his high standing among his brethren, and even his own comfort, in prospect of the great work before him, required some such renewal of his call and re-establishment of his position as this.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15. When, therefore, they had dined. The Evangelist now relates in what manner Peter was restored to that rank of honor from which he had fallen. That treacherous denial, which has been formerly described, had, undoubtedly, rendered him unworthy of the apostleship; for how could he be capable of instructing others in the faith, who had basely revolted from it? He had been made an Apostle, but it was along with Judas, and from the time when he had abandoned his post, he had likewise been deprived of the honor of apostle-ship. Now, therefore, the liberty, as well as the authority, of teaching is restored to him, both of which he had lost through his own fault. And that the disgrace of his apostacy might not stand in his way, Christ blots out and destroys the remembrance of it. Such a restoration was necessary, both for Peter and for his hearers; for Peter, that he might the more boldly execute his office, being assured of the calling with which Christ had again invested him; for his hearers, that the stain which attached to his person might not be the occasion of despising the Gospel. To us also, in the present day, it is of very great importance, that Peter comes forth to us as a new man, from whom the disgrace that might have lessened his authority has been removed.

Simon (son) of John lovest thou me? By these words Christ means that no man can faithfully serve the Church, and employ himself in feeding the flock, if he do not look higher than to men. First, the office of feeding is in itself laborious and troublesome; since nothing is more difficult than to keep men under the yoke of God, among whom there are many who are weak, others who are wanton and unsteady, others who are dull and sluggish, and others who are slow and unteachable. Satan now brings forward as many causes of offense as he can, that he may destroy or weaken the courage of a good pastor. In addition to this, we must take into account the ingratitude of many and other causes of disgust. No man, therefore, will steadily persevere in the discharge of this office, unless the love of Christ shall reign in his heart, in such a manner that, forgetful of himself and devoting himself entirely to Christ, he overcomes every obstacle. Thus Paul declares this to have been the state of his own feelings, when he says,

The love of Christ constraineth us, judging thus, that if one died for all, then all must have been dead, (2 Corinthians 5:14.)

For, though he means that love with which Christ hath loved us, and of which he hath given us a proof by his death, yet he connects with us that mutual love which springs from the conviction of having received so great a blessing. Ungodly and false teachers, on the other hand, are pointed out by him in another passage by this mark, that they do not love the Lord Jesus, (1 Corinthians 16:22.)

Those who are called to govern the Church ought, therefore, to remember that, if they are desirous to discharge their office properly and faithfully, they must begin with the love of Christ. Meanwhile, Christ openly testifies how highly he values our salvation, when he employs such earnest and striking language in recommending it to Pastors, and when he declares that, if the salvation of their flock be the object of their earnest solicitude, he will reckon it a proof of the ardor of their love to himself. And, indeed, nothing could have been spoken that was better fitted for encouraging the ministers of the Gospel, than to inform them that no service can be more agreeable to Christ than that which is bestowed on feeding his flock. All believers ought to draw from it no ordinary consolation, when they are taught that they are so dear and so precious in the sight of the Son of God, that he substitutes them, as it were, in his own room. But the same doctrine ought greatly to alarm false teachers, who corrupt and overturn the government of the Church; for Christ, who declares that he is insulted by them, will inflict on them dreadful punishment.

Feed my lambs. The word feed is metaphorically applied by Scripture to any kind of government; but as the present subject is the spiritual government of the Church, it is of importance to observe what are the parts of which the office of pastor or shepherd consists. No idle rank is here described to us, nor does Christ bestow on a mortal man any government to be exercised by him in a confused manner according to his own pleasure. In expounding the Tenth Chapter, we have seen that Christ is the only Pastor or Shepherd of the Church. We have seen also why he takes this name to himself. If, is, because he feeds, that is, he governs his sheep, because he is the only true food of the soul. But because he employs the agency of men in preaching doctrine, he conveys to them also his own name, or, at least, shares it with them. Those men, therefore, are reckoned to be Pastors in the sight of God, who govern the Church by the ministry of the word under Christ, who is their Head. Hence we may easily infer what is the burden which Christ lays on Peter, and on what condition he appoints him to govern his flock.

This enables us plainly to refute the wicked adherents of the Church of Rome, who torture this passage to support the tyranny of their Popery. “To Peter” they tell us, “in preference to others, it is said, Feed my sheep ” We have already explained the reason why it was said to him rather than to the others; namely, that being free from every disgraceful stain, he might boldly preach the Gospel; and the reason why Christ thrice appoints him to be a pastor is, that the three denials, by which Peter had brought on himself everlasting shame, may be set aside, and thus may form no barrier to his apostleship, as has been judiciously observed by Chrysostom, Augustine, and Cyril, and most of the other Commentators. Besides, nothing was given to Peter by these words, that is not also given to all the ministers of the Gospel.

In vain, therefore, do the Papists maintain that he holds the highest rank, because he alone is specially addressed; and, granting that some special honor was conferred on him, how, I ask, will they prove from this that he has been elevated to the primacy? Though he were the chief among the apostles, does it thence follow that he was the universal bishop of the whole world? To this it must be added, that all that Peter received does not belong to the Pope any more than to Mahomet; for on what ground does he claim to be Peter’s heir, and what man of sound understanding will admit that Christ here bestows on him any hereditary right? Yet he wishes to be reckoned Peter’s successor: I wish he were so. None of us hinders him from loving Christ, and from taking care to feed his flock; but to take no concern about loving Christ, and to throw aside the office of feeding, and then to boast of being Peter’s successor, is excessively foolish and absurd. Now, as Christ, in assigning to Peter the duty of teaching, did not intend to erect a throne for an idol or for a murderer of souls, that by means of it he might miserably oppress the Church, so he stated in a few words, what kind of government of the Church he approves. This removes the mask from all the mitred bishops, who, satisfied with a mere theatrical display and an empty title, claim for themselves the authority of bishops.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(15) Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas.—The better text here and in Joh_21:16-17, is, Simon, son of John. The contrast of the name by which the Evangelist denotes, and with that by which the Lord addresses Peter, at once strikes us as significant, and the more so because it comes in a context containing several significant verbal contrasts. Our Lord’s words would seem to address him as one who had fallen from the steadfastness of the Rock-man, and had been true rather to his natural than to his apostolic name. (Comp. Note on Joh_1:42, and Mat_16:17.)

Lovest thou me more than these?—i.e., than these disciples who are present here with thee. It seems unnecessary to add this explanation, but not a few English notes on this verse explain the word “these” of the fishes, or of the boats and nets, as though the question was, “Lovest thou Me more than thy worldly calling? Art thou willing to give up all for Me?” The obvious reference is to Peter’s own comparison of himself with others in the confidence of love which he thought could never fail. (Comp. Mat_26:33; Mar_14:29.)

The thrice-asked question has been generally understood to have special force in the restoration of him who had thrice denied his Lord, and now thrice declares his love for Him, and is thrice entrusted with a work for Him; and we feel that this interpretation gives a natural meaning to the emphasis of these verses. It may not be fanciful to trace significance, even in the external circumstances under which the question was asked. By the side of the lake after casting his net into the sea had Peter first been called to be a fisher of men (Mat_4:19). The lake, the very spot on the shore, the nets, the boat, would bring back to his mind in all their fulness the thoughts of the day which had been the turning-point of his life. By the side of the “fire of coals” (see Note on Joh_18:18, the only other place where the word occurs) he had denied his Lord. As the eye rests upon the “fire of coals” before him, and he is conscious of the presence of the Lord, who knows all things (Joh_21:17), burning thoughts of penitence and shame may have come to his mind, and these may have been the true preparation for the words which follow.

Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.—Peter uses a less strong expression for love than that which had been used by our Lord. The question seems to ask, “Dost thou in the full determination of the will, in profound reverence and devotion, love Me?” The answer seems to say, “Thou knowest me; I dare not now declare this fixed determination of the will, but in the fulness of personal affection I dare answer, and Thou knowest that even in my denials it was true, ‘I love Thee.’”

He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.—More exactly, little lambs.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15–19. The Commission to S. Peter and Prediction as to his death

15. dined] See on Joh_21:12.

saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas] For ‘Jonas’ read John here and in Joh_21:16-17, as in Joh_1:42. Note that the writer himself calls him Simon Peter, but represents the Lord as calling him ‘Simon son of John.’ This is not only in harmony with the rest of this Gospel, but with the Gospels as a whole. Although Jesus gave Simon the name of Peter, yet, with one remarkable exception (see on Luk_22:34), He never addresses him as Peter, but always as Simon. Mat_16:17; Mat_17:25; Mar_14:37; Luk_22:31. The Synoptists generally call him Simon, sometimes adding his surname. S. John always gives both names, excepting in Joh_1:41, where the surname just about to be given would be obviously out of place. Contrast in this chapter Joh_21:2-3; Joh_21:7; Joh_21:11 with 16, 17. Should we find this minute difference observed, if the writer were any other than S. John? [12] This being the general usage of our Lord, there is no reason to suppose that His calling him Simon rather than Peter on this occasion is a reproach, as implying that by denying his Master he had forfeited the name of Peter. That S. John should add the surname with much greater frequency than the Synoptists is natural. At the time when S. John wrote the surname had become the more familiar of the two. S. Paul never calls him Simon, but uses the Aramaic form of the surname, Cephas.

lovest thou me] The word for ‘love’ here and in the question in Joh_21:16 is agapân (see on Joh_11:5). S. Peter in all three answers uses philein, and our Lord uses philein in the third question (Joh_21:17). The change is not accidental; and once more we have evidence of the accuracy of the writer: he preserves distinctions which were actually made. S. Peter’s preference for philein is doubly intelligible: (1) it is the less exalted word; he is sure of the natural affection which it expresses; he will say nothing about the higher love implied in agapân; (2) it is the warmer word; there is a calm discrimination implied in agapân which to him seems cold. In the third question Christ takes him at his own standard; he adopts S. Peter’s own word, and thus presses the question more home.

more than these] ‘More than these, thy companions, love Me.’ The A. V. is ambiguous, and so also is the Greek, but there cannot be much doubt as to the meaning: ‘more than thou lovest these things’ gives a very inadequate signification to the question. At this stage in S. Peter’s career Christ would not be likely to ask him whether he preferred his boat and nets to Himself. S. Peter had professed to be ready to die for His Master (Joh_13:37) and had declared that though all the rest might deny Him, he would never do so (Mat_26:33). Jesus recalls this boast by asking him whether he now professes to have more loyalty and devotion than the rest.

Yea, Lord; thou knowest] “We have once more an exquisite touch of psychology. It is Peter’s modesty that speaks, and his sense of shame at his own short-comings … He has nothing to appeal to, and yet he is conscious that his affection is not unreal or insincere, and He trusts to Him who searches the hearts.” S. pp. 268, 9. Not only does he change the word for ‘love’ from agapân to philein, but he says nothing about ‘more than these:’ he will not venture any more to compare himself with others. Moreover he makes no professions as to the future; experience has taught him that the present is all that he can be sure of. The ‘Thou’ in ‘Thou knowest’ is emphatic. This time he will trust the Lord’s knowledge of him rather than his own estimate of himself. Can all these delicate touches be artistic fictions?

Feed my lambs] Not only is he not degraded on account of his fall, he receives a fresh charge and commission. The work of the fisher gives place to that of the shepherd: the souls that have been brought together and won need to be fed and tended. And this S. Peter must do.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So when they had dined,.... The Persic version adds,

Jesus turned his face to Simon Peter; he did not interrupt them whilst they were eating; but when they had comfortably refreshed themselves, he looked at Peter, and singled him out from the rest, and directed his discourse to him; and saith unto Simon Peter,

Simon, son of Jonas; not John, as the Vulgate Latin, and Nonnus, and some copies read; for this answers not to the Hebrew word Jochanan, but Jonah, the same name with the prophet. Some have observed, that Christ spoke to him particularly by his original name, and not by that which he himself had given him, with a view to his strong faith, as Cephas, or Peter; but it should be known that Christ calls him by this name of Simon bar Jonah, when he made the most ample profession of his faith in him, and was pronounced blessed by him, Mat 16:16

lovest thou me more than these? meaning, not than the fishes he had caught, nor the net and boat, or any worldly enjoyment, nor than he loved the disciples; but the question is, whether he loved Christ more than the rest of the disciples loved him: the reason of which was, because he had some time ago declared, though all the disciples were offended at Christ, and should deny him, he would not; and had just now thrown himself into the sea to come to him first, as if he loved him more than they did: which question is put, not out of ignorance, or as if Christ knew not whether he loved him or not, and what was the degree of his affection to him; but because the exercise of this grace, and the expressions of it, are very grateful to him; and that Peter also might have an opportunity of expressing it before others, who had so publicly denied him:

he saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee: not in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth; in sincerity, and without dissimulation, fervently and superlatively; for the truth of which he appeals to Christ himself; for he was so conscious to himself of the reality of his love, and the sincerity of his affection, that he chooses to make Christ himself judge of it, rather than say any more of it himself; though he modestly declines saying that he loved him more than the rest of the disciples did, having had an experience of his vanity and self-confidence. He was sure he loved Christ heartily; but whether he loved him more than the rest did, he chose not to say:

he saith unto him, feed my lambs; the younger and more tender part of the flock, weak believers, Christ's little children, newborn babes, the day of small things, which are not to be despised, the bruised reed that is not to be broken, and the smoking flax that is not to be quenched; but who are to be nourished, comforted, and strengthened, by feeding them with the milk of the Gospel, and by administering to them the ordinances and breasts of consolation. These Christ has an interest in, and therefore calls them "my lambs", being given him by the Father, and purchased by his blood, and for whom he has a tender concern and affection; and nothing he looks upon as a firmer and clearer proof and evidence of love to him, than to feed these lambs of his, and take care of them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

Ver. 15. Lovest thou me more than these?] As thou hast not spared to profess and promise (for when the rest said nothing, Peter said he would lay down his life for him), and as thou now pretendest, by casting thyself into the sea, to come first to me.

Thou knowest that I love thee] Being asked of the measure, he only answereth of the truth, q.d. for the quantity I can say little, but for the truth I dare affirm. The upright are perfect in God’s account. And Peter had now turned his crowing into crying.

Feed my lambs] These were his first care. The Syriac addeth, לי li, mihi, feed them for me. And Drusius reckons this among the eastern apothegms, Quicquid agas, propter Deum agas. Whatsoever thou doest, do it for God’s sake. Propter te Domino, propter te, was a godly man’s motto; it should be every minister’s especially.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lovest thou me more than these? - There is a slight ambiguity here in the original, as there is in our translation. The word these may be in the neuter gender, and refer to these things his boat, his fishing utensils, and his employments; or it may be in the masculine, and refer to the apostles. In the former sense it would mean, “Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these objects? Art thou now willing, from love to me, to forsake all these, and go and preach my gospel to the nations of the earth?” In the other sense, which is probably the true sense, it would mean, “Lovest thou me more than these other apostles love me?” In this question Jesus refers to the profession of superior attachment to him which Peter had made before his death Mat 26:33; “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” Compare Joh 13:37. Jesus here slightly reproves him for that confident assertion, reminds him of his sad and painful denial, and now puts this direct and pointed question to him to know what was the present state of his feelings. After all that Peter had had to humble him, the Saviour inquired of him what had been the effect on his mind, and whether it had tended to prepare him for the arduous toils in which he was about to engage. This question we should all put to ourselves. It is a matter of much importance that we should ourselves know what is the effect of the dealings of divine Providence on our hearts, and what is our present state of feeling toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thou knowest that I love thee - Peter now made no pretensions to love superior to his brethren. His sad denial had convinced him of the folly of that claim; but still he could appeal to the Searcher of the heart, and say that he knew that he loved him. Here is the expression of a humbled soul - soul made sensible of its weakness and need of strength, yet with evidence of true attachment to the Saviour. It is not the most confident pretensions that constitute the highest proof of love to Christ; and the happiest and best state of feeling is when we can with humility, yet with confidence, look to the Lord Jesus and say, “Thou knowest that I love thee.”

Feed my lambs - The word here rendered “feed” means the care afforded by furnishing nutriment for the flock. In the next verse there is a change in the Greek, and the word rendered feed denotes rather the care, guidance, and protection which a shepherd extends to his flock. By the use of both these words, it is supposed that our Saviour intended that a shepherd was both to offer the proper food for his flock and to govern it; or, as we express it, to exercise the office of a pastor. The expression is taken from the office of a shepherd, with which the office of a minister of the gospel is frequently compared. It means, as a good shepherd provides for the wants of his flock, so the pastor in the church is to furnish food for the soul, or so to exhibit truth that the faith of believers may be strengthened and their hope confirmed.

My lambs - The church is often compared to a flock. See John 10:1-16. Here the expression my lambs undoubtedly refers to the tender and the young in the Christian church; to those who are young in years and in Christian experience. The Lord Jesus saw, what has been confirmed in the experience of the church, that the success of the gospel among men depended on the care which the ministry would extend to those in early life. It is in obedience to this command that Sunday schools have been established, and no means of fulfilling this command of the Saviour have been found so effectual as to extend patronage to those schools. It is not merely, therefore, the privilege, it is the solemn duty of ministers of the gospel to countenance and patronize those schools.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? That is, more than any one of these love me. Christ puts this question thrice to St. Peter, that this triple protestation of love, says St. Augustine, might correspond to his triple denial. St. Peter did not answer that he loved him more than the rest did, which he could not know, but modestly said: yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee: and the third time, thou knowest all things, and the hearts of all men, thou knowest how much I love thee. At each protestation, Jesus answered, feed my lambs; and the third time, feed my sheep. To feed, in the style of the Scriptures, is to guide, rule, and govern. St. Ambrose and some others take notice, as if by the lambs, might be understood the people, and by the sheep, those placed over them, as bishops, priests, &c. but others make no such difference in this place, betwixt lambs and sheep, only as comprehending all the members of Christ’s Church, of what condition soever, even the rest of the apostles. For here it was that Christ gave to St. Peter that power which he had promised him, (Matthew xvi. 18.) that is, He now made St. Peter head[1] of his whole Church, as he had insinuated at the first meeting, when St. Andrew brought him to our Saviour, when he changed his name from Simon to Peter: again, when he chose him, and made him the first of his twelve apostles; but particularly, when he said, thou art Peter, (a rock) and upon this rock will I build my Church, &c. Upon this account the Catholic Church, from the very first ages, hath always reverenced, and acknowledged the supreme power of the successors of St. Peter, in spirituals, over all Christian Churches. This appears also by the writings of Tertullian, of St. Irenæus, of St. Cyprian, of the greatest doctors and bishops, both of the west and east, of St. Jerome, St. Augustine, of St. John Chrysostom, in several places, of the first general Councils, particularly of the great Council of Chalcedon, &c. (Witham) --- Simon (son) of John. The father’s name is here added, to discriminate him from Simon Thaddeus, that every one might know that the chief care of the universal Church was not given to any other apostle but Peter. This Simon of John is the same as Simon Bar-jona. See Matthew xvi. 17. (Menochius) --- St. Peter had three times renounced his master; and Jesus, to give him an opportunity of repairing his fault by a triple confession, three several times demanded of him, if he loved him more than these? That, as St. Augustine remarks, he who had thrice denied through fear might thrice confess through love. (Calmet)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

He made St. Peter head of his whole Church. See Tertullian, lib. de pudicitia, p. 556. Ed. Rig. where he calls the successor of St. Peter, Pontificem maximum, & Episcopum Episcoporum; St. Irenæus, lib. iii. chap. 3; St. Cyprian, ep. 55. p. 84, Ed. Rig. Navigare audent & ad Petri Cathedram, atque ad Ecclesiam principalem. See St. Jerome, epist. lvii. and lviii. p. 175. nov. Ed. St. Augustine. --- St. John Chrysostom on this place, hom. lxxxviii. p. 525. nov. Ed. Cur. aliis prætermissis (Petrum) alloquitur? he answers, Greek: ekkritos en ton Apostolon, kai stoma ton matheton, kai koruphe tou chorou, cœtus illius caput. ... fratrum præfecturam suscipe; Greek: egcheirizetai ten prostasian ton adelphon. And a little after, p. 527. putting the objection, why St. James, and not St. Peter, was made bishop of Jerusalem, he answers; because St. Peter was to be over the whole universe; Greek: tes oikoumenes echeirotonese, &c. The same St. John Chrysostom, lib. ii. de Sacerd. chap. 1. tom. 1. p. 372. nov. Ed. Ben. qua de causa ille sanguinem effudit suum? certe ut oves eas acquireret, quarum curam tum Petro, tum Petri Successoribus committebat. --- Conc. Chalced. Lab. tom. 4. p. 565. The Council thus writes to St. Leo; omnibus constitutus interpres, quibus tu quidem tanquam caput membris præeras, &c. Greek: pasin ermeneus kathestamenos, &c. And p. 368. Petrus per Leonem ita locutus est; Greek: Petros dia Leontos tauta exephonesen. See Annotation for Matthew xvi. ver. 18.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Lovest thou me more than these? More than the rest of my disciples love me? For so Peter had professed, when he told our Saviour, Mat 26:33, Though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Peter now having by his temptation learned more humility and modesty, doth not reply, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee more than these; he only avers the truth and sincerity, not the degree of his love. Christ replies,

Feed my lambs: by which he understands his people, his church; not the pastors of it, (as if Christ by this had made Peter the chief pastor over the rest of the apostles), but the community. The papists from this text argue for Peter’s primacy and authority over his fellow apostles, as well as over the members of the church. But Christ said not to Peter only, but to all the rest of the eleven, Mat 28:19; Mar 16:15, Go ye, preach the gospel to all nations; and it was to the rest as well as to Peter that he said, Joh 20:23, Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted. So as it is apparent, whether feeding only signifies instructing, or feeding by doctrine, or (as most judge) comprehends government, and signifies that universal charge which ministers have over the church, the same power which Peter had was also committed to the other disciples.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 15-19. (2) The revelations to be made in the services dictated by love and issuing in martyrdom. The confession made by Simon Peter, and the charge given to him.

When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus saith to Simon Peter. His full name and Christ-given appellation is in the mind of the evangelist; but he, with marked emphasis, shows that our Lord went back to his relations with Simon before the latter"s first introduction to him, (Joh_1:42, etc.) and recalls the attitude Christ had taken to Simon on more than one memorable occasion. (Mat_16:17 Luk_22:31) On two of these occasions the simple humanity of the apostle was the basis on which the Lord proceeded to confer upon him the high official designation. The grace of God, in the first instance, selected Simon of Jonah to be a rock. In the second, "not flesh and blood," but the Father"s grace, revealed the mystery of the Divine Sonship to him, and won the name of Peter. In the third, the utter weakness of Simon"s own flesh reveals the power of the prayer of Jesus for him, so that he might ultimately convert his brethren; and now "Simon" is reinstated after his fall into his apostolic office. Simon, son of Jona or, John (see Joh_1:42, note) lovest thou me more than these? i.e. more than these other disciples love me? Thou hast seen more of my compassion, farther into my heart, deeper into my Person, my position, and my work, than they have done; thou hast dared again and again to ask for higher service and more conspicuous distinction. Thou hast made louder protestations than any of these of thine unworthiness to serve me, and in the deep consciousness of humiliation thou hast been more emphatic than any of them in refusing grace which thou thoughtest it might dishonor me to give. Thou didst indeed say, "Though all men should be offended at me or should deny me," thou wouldst never be offended and never deny me. "Dost thou love me more than they do?" There is no positive reference to the denial and fall of Peter; but the implication and suggestion cannot be hidden, though Hengstenberg and others fail to appreciate it. The circumstance that Peter was "grieved" because the Lord put this question to him a third time makes the reference very little less than explicit. The real significance of the narrative is the reinstitution of Peter in the position of importance he had filled throughout, and an indication of the nature and quality of that service. In Simon"s reply, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee, three things are very noticeable.

(1) Peter says nothing of the superiority of his affection for his Lord over that of his colleagues. Had they not in outward act been more faithful than he? He could not arrogate any sweeter, dearer, more abounding affection than he was willing to believe that they felt for their Master. It is scarcely worth while to notice the miserable translation that some few commentators have suggested: "Lovest thou me more than (thou lovest) these fishing-smacks and this thriving business on the lake?" Observe

(2) Peter"s admission that the Lord knew his inmost heart, concedes, therefore, that the question was merely intended to test his faithfulness, and force him to a more salutary and binding acknowledgment. Notice

(3) Peter"s change of phraseology. The word used for "love" by the Lord is agapaw , but that which is used in response by the apostle is filw , the love of natural emotion, and even tender, intimate, personal affection. The Latin language, by rendering filw by amo rather than diligo , expresses the subtle shades of meaning between filein and agapan . There is, however, no English word but "love" for them both. The admirable remarks of Archbishop Trench ("Synonyms of New Testament," find special illustration in these verses. Many passages occur in which amo and filew seem to mean more and have deeper intensity than diligo and agapaw . Amari is the affection which a friend may desire from a friend, even more than diligi ; but the latter denotes choice, mental conviction, and self-recognition of the fact. Antony, in his funeral oration over Caesar (Dion Cassius, 41:48, quoted by Trench), says, Efilasate autora kai hgaphsate wv euergethn . Thus in the New Testament we are continually told of the agapan ton , but never of the filein ton . God is himself said to agapan and filein ton . When, therefore, the Lord here asks Simon, Agapav , "Dost thou esteem me worthy of thy love?" Simon, with a burst of personal affection, says, yet with a certain humility, "I love thee meaning, "Such love as I can lavish upon thee, such as I may dare in my humility to offer thee, O my Master, Brother, Friend!" This being the case, Jesus saith, Feed my lambs. Love to Christ is the first, high, main condition of faithful service. The chief of the apostles will have this as his prime, chief, and most laudable service. Each of the terms of the commission, in its threefold repetition, resembles the other; and Meyer says the whole duty of the pastor of souls and earthly shepherd of the flock is involved in each of the three expressions. Our Lord commences, however, with providing true food, seasonable nourishment, for the "lambs" of the flock. The tender emotion involved in the term cannot be excluded, but it is a comprehensive and suggestive one, and embraces the young converts, the first believers, those who with impetuosity and gladness receive the Word; the little children who will literally crowd into the Church become the highest and sacredest care of the chiefest apostles and most honored of pastors. The first, the main thing they need, is the milk of the Word, and the sweetest pastures. This consideration of the next generation, and gracious care for the children and the childlike of every successive age, is one of the sacred signs of Divine revelation. Our Lord is represented in the synopties as "suffering the little children" to "come to" him, as "blessing them," and rejoicing in their hosannas. St. John preserves and glorifies the whole conception by recording this commission of the risen Lord to the greatest of the apostles. If the babes and sucklings had "held their peace, the stones would have cried out," is the pathetic approval of the rejected Lord. "Feed my lambs" is the gracious, unexpected summons of the triumphant Christ and Lord of all.

Vers. 15-17. The restoration of Peter.

Though the Lord had already appeared to his disciple, (Luk_24:34 1Co_15:5) he had not yet formally restored him to the place he had forfeited by his three denials.

I THE SOLEMN QUESTION OF OUR LORD TO PETER. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?

1. The question is thrice repeated, that it may elicit a threefold confession answerable to the threefold denial of our Lord.

2. The question in its first form seems to remind the apostle of the presumptuous superiority he had claimed for himself above all the disciples. "Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I" "Lovest thou me more than these? these other disciples. It is a suggestive fact that Peter"s assertion of extreme devotion had occurred in immediate connection with the promise of our Lord to meet his disciples in Galilee.

3. The question is concerning the higher love of veneration and confidence which is the sitting of the Christian life (agapan); not the feeling of mere natural affection or simple personal attachment ( filein).

4. The question makes an appeal to personal experience.

(1) It is not an appeal to faith, but to love; for love is a far more practical test than faith.

(2) It is implied that love is that of which a man may be conscious. It may be known by itself, and not merely by its doings.

(3) It is that feeling which first to come, last to go tells most surely the heart"s relation to Christ. Hence the Apostle Paul girdles the whole Church with this girdle when he utters the catholic blessing, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Hence also he fences off the Church from the world by the terrible anathema, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

II PETER"S THREE ANSWERS TO OUR LORD"S THREEFOLD QUESTION.

1. The first answer is, "Yea, Lord; thou, knowest that I love thee.

(1) He appeals to our Lord"s omniscience. Experience had taught him to distrust his own judgment in a matter so personal and so solemn.

(2) There is deep humility in the answer.

(a) He does not now boast of his superiority to the other apostles, as if to say, "I love thee above them all;" he now merely ranks himself with true lovers of Christ.

(b) He does not adopt the higher term (agapan) used in the question, but contents himself with the mere term of simple and friendly relationship (filein).

2. The second answer is, "Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.

(1) The Lord had dropped the words, "more than these," from his second question, because the answer to the first showed that the words in question had done their work.

(2) The apostle repeats his appeal to the Lord"s omniscience.

(3) He still shrinks from using the higher word (agapan).

3. The third answer. "Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.

(1) The grief of the apostle was excited by the remembrance that his past conduct might well suggest a doubt of his present love.

(2) Our Lord drops the higher term and adopts the lower (filein), as if to test the truth of the feeling now twice expressed by the apostle. The change of term must have touched Peter to the quick.

(3) The answer is, accordingly, a passionate appeal to our Lord"s absolute omniscience, in which is included his special knowledge of Peter"s heart. The variety of the terms employed is very significant: "Thou knowest all things oidav , with the knowledge of Divine intuition; "thou knowest that I love thee ginwskeiv , with the knowledge of direct observation.

III THE SOLEMN CHARGES GIVEN TO PETER BY OUR LORD. They imply that our Lord accepted the apostle"s answers in all their deep and touching sincerity.

1. First charge. "Feed my lambs." This is shepherd"s work.

(1) The young members of the flock are to be cared for. They prepare the generations following.

(2) They need to be fed with "the sincere milk of the Word", (1Pe_2:2) as well as guarded against false seductions and kept from wandering.

2. Second charge. "Lead my sheep.

(1) The more mature Christians are to be cared for.

(2) They need watchful guidance.

3. Third charge. "Feed my sheep.

(1) Our Lord returns to the word "feed," as if to emphasize the importance of instructing the whole flock in the pure Word of God.

(2) We hear the echo of our Lord"s charge in the voice of this under-shepherd long after: "Feed the flock of God which is among you". (1Pe_5:2)

"Lovest thou me?

To comprehend this interview and dialogue, it is necessary to look at preceding circumstances. In a conversation which took place before our Lord"s betrayal, Peter had made the most ardent professions of attachment and devotion to his Master. Though all should forsake Jesus, yet would not he! He was willing even to die with him! But the events of the awful night of the Lord"s apprehension and mock trial before the Jewish council, had made evident the moral weakness of spiritual fiber which was hidden by his impetuous fervor. Peter"s faith had failed, and he had been led by timidity to deny the Lord he loved. That he repented of his cowardice, and that with bitter tears, was known to the Master whom he had wronged. These circumstances account for the language of Jesus when he met his disciple by the lake of Galilee. Jesus elicited from his follower the thrice-repeated expression of his love, and, having done this, treated Peter as one restored and reconciled, imparted to him his apostolic commission, and predicted his future of service and of martyrdom. Turning from the special incident which called for the question and the answer here recorded, we direct attention to what is practical and of universal application.

I A POINTED QUESTION. "Lovest thou me?

1. This question implies that Christ has a claim upon our love. This claim is founded upon:

(1) His supreme worthiness to be loved. Who, in himself, in character, in moral excellence, can be compared with Jesus, as the Object of human affection? He was admired and loved on earth; but since his ascension he has been more intensely and far more widely admired and loved by those whom he has left behind him. In a word, he deserves love; and we "needs must love the worthiest.

(2) His love to us. Christ"s is no cold, elevated dignity and excellence. He is a Being of benevolence, compassion, and tenderness; and these qualities he has displayed towards us. His love and kindness to men are simply the expression of his holy, gracious nature. He first loved us; and, if we love him not, we prove our insensibility and moral debasement. There is nothing meanly interested and unworthy in the love Christ"s people bear him.

(3) Especially upon his sacrifice and death. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends;" and this proof of Divine affection Jesus gave. His was the love which is "stronger than death." "Which of all our friends, to save us. Could or would have shed his blood? But Immanuel died to have us Reconciled in him to God. This was boundless love indeed: Jesus is a Friend in need.

2. This question implies that Christ is solicitous and desirous of our love.

Men often seek the friendship of those who are above them in abilities, in station, in character, in power. Jesus does just the contrary when he condescends to ask our love. It is a proof of his disinterested and benevolent affection, that Jesus should deign to address to each hearer of His Word the question, "Lovest thou me?

3. This question implies that in Christ"s view our love towards himself is of vast importance to us. To love him, as he knows full well, is to man the spring of the truly religious life. It is the surest means of becoming like him. Nay, to love Christ is to be in the way of loving everything that is good. It must not be supposed that such affection is the merely sentimental side of religion; it is closely connected with practice, for love is the divinely ordered motive to duty and service. How different is Christianity from other and merely human religions! These teach men to fear God, to propitiate God, but never to love God. Jesus draws our love towards himself, and thus leads us into love to God as the element of our higher life.

II As ARDENT RESPONSE. In the case of Peter, the reply to our Lord"s pointed question was most satisfactory. It may well be pondered as an example for us, as Christians, to imitate. It was:

1. An affirmative answer, inconsistent with coldness, indifference, and mere respect.

2. A modest and not a boastful answer. Peter had endured a bitter experience of the mischief of self-confidence and boastfulness; into this sin he was not likely again to fall.

3. A cordial and sincere answer, opposed to merely formal and verbal profession.

4. An open and public answer, such as should ever be given to the rightful Lord and holy Friend of man.

5. A consistent answer one supported by a lit e of loving devotion.

6. An acceptable and accepted answer. When Jesus asks our heart, and we yield it, never need we fear lest he should reject what we offer. T.

HOMILIES BY B. THOMAS Vers. 15-17. The pastoral office.

Notice

I THE LOVE REQUIRED.

1. In some of its leading features.

(1) It is the highest order of love. "Lovest (agapav) thou," etc.? Love varies in its quality, from the common love of man to man up to the most spiritual and Divine love of the soul to God. The love required of the shepherd is the latter, although the former is by no means to be despised, but is advantageous.

(2) It is the highest order of love to Christ. "Lovest thou me?" This high honor, devotion, and attachment must be felt towards Jesus-his Person, his character, his cause, and grand purposes of salvation. Christ in his Person and character demands the highest devotions of the heart and soul.

(3) It is the highest order of personal love to Christ. "Lovest thou," etc.? It must not be merely historical, but experimental. Not the love of some one else, but that of the individual himself the fire of his own heart, the glow of his own affections, the enthusiasm of his own soul, and the warm devotion of his own feelings. There is much that is borrowed and second hand in religious experience and Christian love. Christ requires the really experienced love of the individual.

(4) It is the highest order of love to Christ in the greatest degree. "More than these more than the other disciples love me. This doubtless has a retrospective reference to Peter"s profession of love, and serves as a rebuke; but it has a prospective reference to the fulfillment of personal love in the future, and serves as a guide and inspiration. Love to him is not only to be of the best quality, but also of the greatest quantity. It should strive to excel. Christ is to be supreme in the heart, and occupy the throne without a successful competitor.

2. In its supreme importance.

(1) It is important to the disciple himself.

(a) As the test of his Christian character. The possession or non-possession of love decides at once his relationship to Christ. Without love he is none of his; with it he is Christ"s disciple.

(b) As the sum of his Christian being. What a man"s love is, he is to Christ. Love only weighs in the Christian balance. A man may be all things, but without love he is nothing; in the absence of love every excellence goes for nothing. It is the sum and soul of our Christian being.

(c) As the essential qualification for Christian service. It is the only basis, inspiration, and support of Christian work and usefulness. Great faith may make a great hero, great intellect may make a great scientist; but great love alone can make a great preacher and missionary.

(2) It is important in relation to Jesus.

(a) He is anxious that all should love him. Hence the question. A cold Stoic cares not for the love of others; but a loving nature craves to be loved. He who is love, and came on an errand of infinite love, is anxious to be loved of all.

(b) He is anxious to know how all feel towards him, especially his disciple and candidate for apostleship. He is anxious to learn from his own lips the true sentiment of his heart.

(c) Only those who specially love him can be of special and real use to him. He wants shepherds, workers, preachers, and soldiers; but only those who love him supremely are eligible for his service, especially to be Shepherds of his flock.

3. In its special trial.

(1) It is tried by Christ. He asks his all-important question. He is the Examiner and Judge, and he alone is fit for this office. He alone knows what is in man.

(2) The trial is personal. Christ stood face to face with Peter, and asked him, "Lovest," etc.? The trial of love is still between the soul and Christ. The Personal Christ comes to the soul and asks, "Lovest thou me?" The candidate for the ministry may be questioned by the Church through some of its officials; but the real examination is that in the human heart by the ever-living and present Savior.

(3) The trial is most searching. The question is thrice repeated, almost in the same words. It rang in his ears, penetrated his heart, went through and through his whole moral being, and stirred his soul unto its very foundation.

4. In its satisfactory evidence.

(1) The evidence of his inward consciousness. He felt in his very heart that he loved him. His inmost spirit testified to this.

(2) The evidence of his public confession, He emphatically answers to the question, "I do love thee." There is no hesitation, but, with every repetition of the question, his affirmative answer is growingly earnest.

(3) The evidence of the perfect knowledge of Jesus. At each answer he appeals to this. "Thou knowest," etc. He is willing to be judged by his past conduct in spite of his denial. He had confidence in his Judge. He was conscious of his omniscience, and still to this he confidently appeals.

(4) The evidence of his modest self-distrust. He had more confidence in the knowledge of Jesus than in his own. He finally leaves the matter with his Judge. This is unlike old Peter; there must have been some inflow of new life and light. At his third repetition of the question he was grieved; if he was not, we should be inclined to grieve for him. It was human and Christian to feel so. It was the natural pain of sincere love at being questioned, its blush at being apparently doubted a strong evidence of its sincerity.

(5) The direct evidence of Jesus. "Feed my lambs." This was a final proof that his love was genuine. Christ would not entrust his iambs but to the bosom of genuine love, nor his sheep but to the arms of warm affection. His employment in his service was the strongest proof of the sincerity of his love.

II THE SERVICE DEMANDED.

1. This service is special. "Feed my lambs," etc.

(1) Christ has his lambs and sheep. He has his little, weak, young, helpless, ignorant and wayward ones; and he also has some that are more mature and strong.

(2) These require feeding. Neither the weak nor the strong can live without food. The weak are not too weak to take it, the strong are not too strong to require it. Food is as essential to the health and growth of spiritual life as it is of the physical.

(3) It is the special duty of the pastor to supply them with food. The provision must be appropriate and suitable in quality and quantity. It must be spiritual, and not carnal and material. It must be real, and not illusive. Souls will starve if they have to breakfast on mere rhetoric, dine on mere words, and sup on empty ceremonies. The food must be appropriate, plentiful, and timely; otherwise the sheep and lambs of Christ will not thrive.

2. The service is various.

(1) Some portions of it are comparatively easy and simple. "Feed my lambs." Compared with other portions of the pastoral office, this is simple. It embraces the first elements of knowledge, the first principles of truth, the alphabet of Christianity, and the milk of the Word.

(2) Some portions of it are more difficult and honorable. "Tend and feed my sheep." This requires great wisdom, intellect, and spiritual power and penetration to dive down for the hidden treasures, and climb some of the higher branches of the tree of life for the ripest fruits.

(3) The various portions of the office demand all our energies. Food must be provided and wisely administered. This will involve thought, search, energy, and tender care, and will demand all the vitality of head and heart; and this must be supplied by the great Shepherd.

(4) Those who faithfully perform the simplest duties of the service are fitted and allowed to perform the most difficult and honorable. He who is willing and able to feed the lambs is allowed to feed the sheep. Those who teach the young in the Sunday school are specially trained to teach the more advanced in the congregation. Those who are faithful over a few things shall rule over many. If you will not feed the lambs, who will entrust you the sheep?

(5) The performance of the simplest portions of the service requires the most love. After the answer to the question, "Lovest thou me more than these?" Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." To feed and nurse the little, weak, and invalid ones requires tenderer and more patient love than to satisfy the strong and healthy. If the latter require more wisdom and eloquence, the former require more love. The father will rule and instruct the healthy and robust of his family; but the mother alone will nurse the babe, and watch over the invalid child. The more honorable portions of Christian service may be performed from the love of fame, popularity, and self-interest; but its drudgery can scarcely be inspired by anything but the pure love of Christ. If you wish to manifest disinterested love for Christ, feed his lambs, and this is the only training for advancement.

3. This is a service which can only be properly performed by supreme love to Christ.

(1) This alone can make it possible. It involves physical, mental, and spiritual energy, and self-sacrifice, tender and patient care and watching; and these can only be inspired and sustained by supreme love to Christ.

(2) This alone can make it valuable to the shepherd, to the sheep, and to Christ.

(3) This alone can make it pleasant and delightful. Otherwise it will be a burden and an unbearable drudgery; but love will make its most unpleasant duties a sweet delight.

(4) This alone can make it really successful. The food provided and administered in love will alone be multiplied and blessed; and in its participation the lambs and sheep of Christ will lie down in green pastures, beside the still waters.

LESSONS.

1. It was proper that Peter"s love should be severely tried. This was required by the nature of the case. He denied Christ thrice, and thrice was the question of love put to him. A damaged vessel must be well examined and repaired before being sent to sea again.

2. The omniscience of the Master is a great comfort to the sincere servant. On account of his essential failings and shortcomings at best, he is liable to be upon the whole misguided by men; but from their petty court he can appeal to the "King"s bench," and, if right there, he has a consolation in the duties of his office, which will inspire him in all difficulties, and which no man can take away.

3. Let the pastor ever remember that the sheep are not his own, but Christ"s. Although he is the shepherd, the provider, and the feeder, yet he is not the owner. Their owner is Christ, and let them be treated as such in all their peculiarities and failings for his sake.

4. Those who love Christ are commissioned by him to do his work. Let the fact of personal, genuine love to him be established, and their commission follows as a matter of course. Love to Christ is entitled to work for him, and will work for him. It will ever find employment, and the fidelity with which it performs its duties is the final proof of its power and sincerity. In the degree we love Christ we shall feed and tend his lambs and sheep. B.T.

An under-shepherd"s great necessity.

Reasons based on previous experiences of Peter will at once suggest themselves as explaining why the question of Jesus was addressed to Peter rather than another disciple. But the best reason of all is that Jesus knows best whom to ask, and. when. There was need why Peter should be especially addressed; but the other listeners were not shut out. Love to Jesus was as much a necessity and a duty to the other six as to Peter.

I LOOK AT THE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE "THOU," "Lovest thou me?" Jesus addressed no stranger, no occasional acquaintance, but the constant companion and servant over a very considerable time. Jesus cannot come to a stranger with this question. But who of us should be able to plead the stranger"s plea? Have we not heard the forerunner"s voice, "Repent"? Have we not heard the Master"s voice, "Follow me"? What a solemn reminder this question contains of the headway some of us may have to make up! It is very plain that such a question must be preceded by dealings leading up to love. A mother can say, "Lovest thou me?" to a child that never remembers the time when that mother"s face was not the most familiar object. But the same woman cannot say to a strange child, on her very first meeting with it, "Lovest thou me?" She will have to do something before love can spring up. If we have not had experiences of repenting and of endeavoring to follow Jesus, it is vain for us to listen and wait, as if love to Jesus would spring up mysteriously without apparent cause.

II LOOK AT THE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE "ME." In a few days Peter will have entered on a new and momentous chapter of life, where everything will depend on the completeness of his devotion to Jesus. He will not be of the slightest use if he is to be a man of divided interests and fluctuating attachments. He is to be a shepherd of the flock of Jesus, and it will take all his energy and all his care. The comparison is ever being instituted between the claims of Jesus and the claims of self. Jesus must be first and last, and all that lies between. If Jesus is just to tinge our lives with a superficial influence, and modify our selfishness a little, we shall do little indeed for his sheep. Why should we serve the world by candlelight when we can do it by sunlight? why by twilight, when we can do it by noonday? We are bound to do our very best for men, and we can only do it by being servants of Jesus. We do more than others, because we are able to do more.

III LOOK AT THE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE "LOVEST." The feeling of love is seed and soft to everything else. Love binds the "thou" and the "me" together. Mere admiration of Jesus will do nothing. The love of Jesus is the only effectual fountain to wash away the selfishness continually rising in our hearts, and especially will the love of Jesus keep us from becoming weary of loving the loveless. The sin-stricken life, the heart polluted with evil thoughts and affections, needs love. Yet love is what such a life too often falls to get. We fall most naturally into speaking angrily and contemptuously of bad people. But a heart full of living love to Jesus, with him ever in observation, will love and pity the wicked far more than be angry with them. Whatever other good qualities we possess, love to Jesus must crown them. If only we can respond fully to this question of Jesus, we shall escape many an irritating thought, many a vexatious brooding over the meanness and duplicities of mankind. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Simon, son of Jonah - The appellation Christ had given him, when be made that glorious confession, Matt. xvi, 16, the remembrance of which might make him more deeply sensible of his late denial of him whom he had so confessed. Lovest thou me? - Thrice our Lord asks him, who had denied him thrice: more than these - Thy fellow disciples do? - Peter thought so once, Matt. xxvi, 33, but he now answers only- I love thee, without adding more than these. Thou knowest - He had now learnt by sad experience that Jesus knew his heart. My lambs - The weakest and tenderest of the flock.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

dined Lit. breakfasted.

lovest (Greek - διάβολος, deeply love; used of divine love Joh 14:21, and of that love which the law demands Luk 10:27.

love (Greek - καταφιλέω, am fond of). It is a lesser degree of love than agapas.

Feed See, 1Pe 5:2.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Test of Peter’s Love.

The Lord’s threefold question:

v. 15. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.

v. 16. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My sheep.

v. 17. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.

When the disciples had finished their breakfast as guests of the Master, Jesus showed that He had a special reason for appearing at this time. He addressed Himself to Peter, probably taking this disciple aside from the rest. The Lord had appeared to Peter alone on Easter Day, Luk 24:34, and had undoubtedly at that time reinstated him in his position as His disciple. But here the Lord purposely speaks to Peter in the view of, if not in the presence of, six disciples that had been present on the evening before His death. In a most solemn and impressive manner Jesus asks Peter three times as to his love for Him. He puts the first question in such a way as to make a comparison between the love of Peter and that of the rest. Peter had professed and protested a more affectionate regard for Christ than the other disciples, Mat 26:33, but had learned, to his great sorrow, how foolish it is to trust in one’s own strength. Three times had he denied his Lord after that saying. It was not the object of Christ to work repentance at this time, for Peter’s grief had been deep and genuine, and he had been received into grace before this. Nevertheless, the lesson which the Lord administered was necessary, in order to keep Peter in the humility which is demanded above any of the servant of the Lord. The use of his old name, Simon, and the addition of the explanation, "son of Jonas," made the question all the more searching: Lovest thou Me? Was Peter now ready to love His Lord and Savior with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind? The threefold answer of Peter is significant of the change that had taken place in him since that night of the denial. At that time it had been his own self, his own person, that had been brought into the foreground. But now the first person is relegated to the background, while Peter appeals to the knowledge of Christ. When the question of the Lord came for the third time, Peter was deeply grieved. He felt the justness of the Lord’s position; he knew that he had given cause for doubt. And the very tenderness of the reproof made the grief of Peter all the more poignant and his protestations of love all the more fervid. He finally appeals to the Lord’s omniscience. He that knows all things, that searches hearts and minds, could and would read the feeling of his heart aright and know that the love he bore his Savior was genuine, based upon the faith in the redemption of the God-man. This is a mark of true faith, when Christians not only confess before men that they love their Lord, but when they challenge the omniscient God Himself to search their hearts in this respect. The love of the Christians may often be weak and in strong need of support, but it must be genuine just the same. The Lord recognized and rewarded the sincerity of Peter’s love and faith. Three times He gives him the significant command to feed, to be a pastor to, His sheep, His lambs. The sheep of Jesus, as He Himself explains Joh 10:1-42, are those whom the Father has given Him, the believers. And the lambs are the little ones in the kingdom of God, especially the children, Mat 18:1-35; Mar 10:1-52. Thus Peter received a special call and was reinstated in his office and ministry. Peter was to be one of those that have charge of the flock of Christ, that perform the work of pastors and shepherds. For to feed the sheep, as Luther says, is nothing but proclaiming to them the Word of God, that is, true faith. The commission of the Lord is in power even today. All true preachers of the Gospel, in this respect, have the same ministry as the apostles. The prime requisite for a person that has charge of a flock of Jesus is genuine and fervid love toward Christ, the great Shepherd of all. This love will then find its expression in true pastoral work, both public and private, the application of the wonderful message of salvation wherever this message can be proclaimed.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. Christ puts Peter upon a threefold profession of his love unto him, answerable to his threefold denial of him: his threefold denial required a threefold confession. True repentance ought, and will be as eminent in the fruit and effects of it, as the saint’s fall hath been. A threefold denial of Christ shall be attended with a threefold profession of love unto him.

Observe, 2. The solemn question put by our Saviour unto Peter: Lovest thou me? Lovest thou me more than these? That is, more than thy occupation and employment, more than thy nets and fishing boats? If so, leave them, and wholly employ thyself in feeding my sheep and lambs. Or, more than these? that is, more than the rest of my disciples. Dost thou love me more than thou lovest these? Or, more than they love me? If so, evidence the sincerity of thy love to me by thy care of mine.

Thence note, that ministers who are called to take care of Christ’s flock, had need of much love to Jesus Crhist, and great compassion for souls; by which they will be animated and fortified to go through with the labours and difficulties, as well as to encounter the dangers and sufferings, which do accompany their calling. Simon, lovest thou me? Feed my flock.

Note farther, that the surest argument and best evidence of a minister’s love to Jesus Christ, is his conscientious care to feed, that is, to teach, instruct, and govern, the whole flock of Christ; lambs and sheep, weak and strong: the feeblest in the fold were purchased by the great Shepherd. And if he judged them worth his blood, well may we judge them worth our sweat.

Note again, that such as would be faithful in their ministerial charge, ought to look upon their people as committed to them by Christ himself, as loved of him, and committed to their care by him, and for which they must be accountable to him. Christ calls them three times over, his lambs and his sheep, and as often charges Peter to feed them.

Observe next, Peter’s threefold answer to Christ’s question: Simon, lovest thou me more than these? Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

Where note, 1. The great modesty of Peter in his reply. Lovest thou me more than these? says Christ; Peter replies, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He doth not say, Lord! I love thee above them all, and before them all: here is no boasting now. Once it was said that Peter vaunted, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I; but now his fall had taught him humility; he boasts not of his love above others, and makes no comparison with others, but only ranks himself among the true lovers of Christ: Lord, I love thee.

Note, 2. The evidence that Peter gives of his sincere love to Christ: he dares appeal to Christ himself, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee; yea, Thou art omniscient, the all-knowing and heart-searching God, thou that knowest all things, knowest that I love thee.

O! it is a blessed thing, when we can and dare appeal to God’s knowledge; and it is matter of high consolation to know that God knoweth our sincerity and love unto him, and he knoweth and approveth us as such. Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.

Note lastly, from these words, Lord, thou knowest all things, an argument of Christ’s divinity. He that knows all things, and particularly the hearts of all men, is God, 1Ki 8:29 but so doth Christ, if St. Peter’s testimony here be true; saying, Lord, thou knowest all things, that is, say the Socinians, very many things; but this would have destroyed St. Peter’s argument at once; for it follows not that Christ knew the sincerity of Peter’s heart, unless he knew the secrets of all hearts; and if he knew the secrets of all hearts, he is really God.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? At the close of the feast, the Lord turned to Peter with this question, one that he repeated twice. On the night of the betrayal, when Christ intimated that his disciples would forsake him in the trial he was about to suffer, Peter spoke up and asserted that though all others forsook him he would never forsake him. What Christ had said might be true of the rest, but he was so loving, faithful and true, that he would die for him. Yet before the cock crow of the next morning he had thrice denied that he knew Jesus, even with his oaths. Such was the collapse of the confident disciple who “loved the Master better than these” other disciples. Since that fall, Christ had met with Peter among the rest of the disciples, but had not referred to this subject, but now has come the time for a restoration of Peter. Hence, he probes him with the question, “Lovest thou me more than these?” That question would at once recall to Peter his boastful claim, his awful fall, and would pierce him to the heart. He no longer claims that he is the truest of the apostolic band, does not even affirm confidently, but answers, “Thou knowest my heart; thou knowest that I love thee.” Then said the Savior, Feed my lambs.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Jesus begins to have a conversation with Simon Peter.

do you love me ... do you love me

Here "love" refers the type of love that comes from God, which focuses on the good of others, even when it does not benefit oneself.

you know that I love you

When Peter answers, he uses the word for "love" that refers to brotherly love or love for a friend or family member.

Feed my lambs

Here "lambs" is a metaphor for those persons who love Jesus and follow him. AT: "Feed the people I care for" (See: Metaphor)

Take care of my sheep

Here "sheep" is a metaphor for those who love and follow Jesus. AT: "Care for the people I care for" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Peter

love

lord

ewe

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

15–19. THE COMMISSION TO S. PETER AND PREDICTION AS TO HIS DEATH

15–19. There had been an appearance to S. Peter alone (Luk 24:34; 1Co 15:5), and it was then, we may believe, that he was absolved. His conduct here (Joh 21:7) is not that of one in doubt as to his relation to his Master. But he has not yet been reinstated as chief of the Apostles. This takes place now. He received his Apostleship after the first Miraculous Draught; he receives it back again after the second.

15, 16, 17. Ἰωάνου (אBC1DL) for Ἰωνᾶ (Acts 2 from Mat 16:17).

15. Note that the writer speaks of ‘Simon Peter,’ but represents the Lord as calling him ‘Simon son of John.’ This is in harmony not only with the rest of this Gospel, but with the Gospels as a whole. Although Jesus gave Simon the name of Peter, yet, with one remarkable exception (see on Luk 22:34), He never addresses him as Peter, but always as Simon. Mat 16:17; Mat 17:25; Mar 14:37; Luk 22:31. The Synoptists generally call him Simon, sometimes adding his surname. S. John always gives both names, excepting in Joh 1:41, where the surname just about to be given would be obviously out of place. Contrast in this chapter Joh 21:2-3; Joh 21:7; Joh 21:11 with 16, 17. Should we find this minute difference observed, if the writer were any other than S. John? [20]. This being the general usage of our Lord, there is no reason to suppose that His calling him Simon rather than Peter on this occasion is a reproach, as implying that by denying his Master he had forfeited the name of Peter. That S. John should add the surname with much greater frequency than the Synoptists is natural. At the time when S. John wrote the surname had become the more familiar of the two. S. Paul never calls him Simon, but uses the Aramaic form of the surname, Cephas.

Note also that Jesus uses ἀγαπᾷς twice, and the third time φιλεῖς (Joh 21:17), whereas S. Peter in all three answers says φιλῶ. The change is not accidental; and once more we have evidence of the accuracy of the writer: he preserves distinctions which were actually made. S. Peter’s preference for φιλῶ is doubly intelligible: (1) it is the less exalted word; he is sure of the natural affection which it expresses; he will say nothing about the higher love implied in ἀγαπῶ; (2) it is the warmer word; there is a calm discrimination implied in ἀγαπῶ which to him seems cold. In the third question Christ takes him at his own standard; he adopts S. Peter’s own word, and thus presses the question more home.

πλέον τούτων. More than these, thy companions, love Me. The Greek is as ambiguous as A.V. and R.V., but there cannot be much doubt as to the meaning: ‘more than thou lovest these things’ gives a very inadequate signification to the question. At this stage in S. Peter’s career Christ would not be likely to ask him whether he preferred his boat and nets to Himself. S. Peter had professed to be ready to die for his Master (Joh 13:37) and had declared that though all the rest might deny Him, he would never do so (Mat 26:33). Jesus recalls this boast by asking him whether he now professes to have more loyalty and devotion than the rest.

σὺ οἶδας ὅτι φ. σε. Not only does he change ἀγαπῶ to φιλῶ, but he says nothing about ‘more than these:’ he will not venture any more to compare himself with others. Moreover he makes no professions as to the future; experience has taught him that the present is all that he can be sure of. Σύ is emphatic. This time he will trust the Lord’s knowledge of him rather than his own estimate of himself. Can all these delicate touches be artistic fictions?

βόσκε τ. ά. μ. Not only is he not degraded on account of his fall, he receives a fresh charge and commission. The work of the fisher gives place to that of the shepherd: the souls that have been brought together and won need to be fed and tended. This S. Peter must do.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15-23.] The calling, and its prospect.

15. ὅτε οὖν ἠρ.] There appears to have been nothing said during the meal. Surely every word would have been recorded. One great object of this appearance, observes Stier, certainly was the confirmation, and encouragement of the “fisher of men,” in his apostolic office.

Σίμων Ἰωάννου] A reminiscence probably of his own name and parentage, as distinguished from his apostolic name of honour, Cephas, or Peter, see ch. 1:43. Thus we have Σ. βαριωνᾶ, Mat 16:17, connected with the mention of his natural state of flesh and blood, which had not revealed to him the great truth just confessed—and Luk 22:31, “Simon, Simon,” when he is reminded of his natural weakness. See also Mar 14:37, and Mat 17:25, where the significance is not so plain.

πλέον τούτων] more than these thy fellow-disciples: compare Mat 26:33: Mar 14:29, “Though all should be offended, yet not I.” That John does not record this saying, makes no difficulty here; nor does it tell against the genuineness of this appendix to the Gospel. The narrator tells that which he heard the Lord say, and tells it faithfully and literally. That it coincides with what Peter is related to have said elsewhere, is a proof of the authenticity, not of the connexion, of the two accounts.

τούτων has been strangely enough understood (Whitby, Bolten) of the fish, or the “employment and furniture of a fisherman:”—Olshausen sees a reference to the pre-eminence given to Peter, Mat 16:19,—and regards the words as implying that on that account he really did love Jesus more than the rest;—but surely this is most improbable, and the other explanation the only likely or true one. Perhaps there is also a slight reference to his present just-shewn zeal, in leaping from the ship first to meet the Lord. ‘Has thy past conduct to Me truly borne out thy former and present warmth of love to Me above these thy fellows?’ “Mira Christi sapientia, qui tam paucis vocibus efficit, ut Petrus et sibi satisfaceret, quem ter negaverat, et collegis quibus se prætulerat;—exemplum dans disciplinæ ecclesiasticæ.” Grot.

Peter’s answer shews that he understood the question as above. He says nothing of the πλέον τούτων—but dropping all comparison of himself with others, humbly refers to the Searcher of hearts the genuineness of his love, however the past may seem to have called it in question.

The distinction between ἀγαπᾶν and φιλεῖν must not here be lost sight of, nor must we superficially say with Grotius, “Promiscue hic usurpavit Johannes ἀγαπᾶν et φιλεῖν ut mox βόσκειν et ποιμαίνειν (see below). Neque hic quærendæ sunt subtilitates.” If so, why do the Lord’s two first questions contain ἀγαπᾷς while Peter’s answers have φιλῶ—whereas the third time the question and answer both have φιλεῖν? This does not look like accident.

The distinction seems to be that ἀγαπᾶν is more used of that reverential love, grounded on high graces of character, which is borne towards God and man by the child of God;—whereas φιλεῖν expresses more the personal love of human affection. Peter therefore uses a less exalted word, and one implying a consciousness of his own weakness, but a persuasion and deep feeling of personal love. (Hence it will be seen that in the sublimest relations, where, all perfections existing, love can only be personal, φιλεῖν only can be used, see ch. 5:20.) Then in the third question, the Lord adopts the word of Peter’s answer, the closer to press the meaning of it home to him.

The σὺ οἶδας, the two first times, seems to refer to the Lord’s personal knowledge of Peter’s heart—in His having given him that name, ch. 1:43, in Mat 16:17: Luk 22:31, and the announcement of his denial of Him. The last time, he widens this assertion ‘Thou knowest me,’ into ‘Thou knowest all things,’ being grieved at the repetition of a question which brought this Omniscience so painfully to his mind.

βόσκε τὰ ἀρν. μου] This and the following answers of the Lord can hardly be regarded as the reinstating of Peter in his apostolic office, for there is no record of his ever having lost it: but as a further and higher setting forth of it than that first one Mat 4:18 ff., both as belonging to all of them on the present occasion, and as tending to comfort Peter’s own mind after his fall, and reassure him of his holding the same place among the Apostles as before, owing to the gracious forgiveness of his Lord.

We can hardly with any deep insight into the text hold βόσκειν and ποιμ. to be synonymous (Grot. above, Lücke, De Wette, Trench), or ἀρνία, πρόβατα, and προβάτια. The sayings of the Lord have not surely been so carelessly reported as this would assume. Every thing here speaks for a gradation of meaning. The variety of reading certainly makes it difficult to point out exactly the steps of that gradation, and unnecessary to follow the various interpreters in their assignment of them: but that there is such, may be seen from Isa 40:11: 1Jn 2:12, 1Jn 2:13. Perhaps the feeding of the lambs was the furnishing the apostolic testimony of the Resurrection and facts of the Lord’s life on earth to the first converts; the shepherding or ruling the sheep, the subsequent government of the Church as shewn forth in the early part of the Acts; the feeding of the προβάτια, the choicest, the loved of the flock, the furnishing the now maturer Church of Christ with the wholesome food of the doctrine contained in his Epistles. But those must strangely miss the whole sense, who dream of an exclusive primatial power here granted or confirmed to him. A sufficient refutation of this silly idea, if it needed any other than the ἐλυπήθη of this passage, is found in the συμπρεσβύτερος of 1Pe 5:1, to this very charge: see note on Mat 16:17 ff. “Illud, ‘plus his’ (πλέον τούτων), indicio est, Petrum hic restitui in locum suum, quem amiserat per abnegationem (but see above) simulque quiddam ei prœ condiscipulis tribui, sed nihil a quo cæteri excludantur. Nam sane etiam hi amabant Jesum. Desinat tandem hoc ad se, et ad se unum rapere, qui nec amat nec pascit, sed depascit, per successionis Petrinæ simulationem. Non magis Roma, quam Hierosolyma aut Antiochia aut quivis alius locus ubi apostolum Petrus egit, Petrum sibi vindicare potest: imo Roma minime, caput gentium: nam Petrus erat in apostolis circumcisionis. Unum Romæ proprium est, quod apostolorum, etiam Petri sanguis in ea reperietur.” Bengel.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Simon, son of Jonas. Compare Christ 's first address to Peter, Joh 1:43. He never addresses him by the name of Peter, while that name is commonly used, either alone or with Simon, in the narrative of the Gospels, and in the Greek form Peter, not the Aramaic Cephas, which, on the other hand, is always employed by Paul. For Jonas read as Rev., John. Lovest [αγαπας] . Jesus uses the more dignified, really the nobler, but, as it seems to Peter, in the ardor of his affection, the colder word for love. See on 5 20.

More than these. More than these disciples love me. Compare Joh 13:37; Mt 26:33. The question conveys a gentle rebuke for his former extravagant professions.

I love [φιλω] . Peter substitutes the warmer, more affectionate word, and omits all comparison with his fellow - disciples.

Feed [βοσκε] . See on 1Pe 5:2.

Lambs [αρνια] . Diminutive : little lambs. Godet remarks : "There is a remarkable resemblance between the present situation and that of the two scenes in the previous life of Peter with which it is related. He had been called to the ministry by Jesus after a miraculous draught of fishes; it is after a similar draught that the ministry is restored to him. He had lost his office by a denial beside a fire of coal; it is beside a fire of coal that he recovers it."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.