When Peter sinned by denying Jesus three times, I bet he was shaking in his boots (er … sandles) when he first found himself face-to-face with the Risen Christ. If I were Peter, I’d be worried about getting a good solid reprimand of some sort (a lightening bolt from the sky, perhaps?).
But how did Jesus respond to His wayward follower? There were no theatrics. No rage. No anger. No spankings or time outs. Jesus just asked Peter a simple question.
“Peter, do you love Me?”
Hm. Interesting.
The other evening at our small group from church, we were talking about forgiveness, and this exchange between Peter and Jesus came up in the discussion. We’d been talking about what repentance looks like, what we need to do when realize we’ve committed sin, and what should be a proper response to the Gospel in how we live our lives.
When I contemplated the “Do you love Me?” question that Jesus asked Peter, it made me realize that if we truly love Jesus, we won’t need a long list of things to do to live accordingly. We’ll just need to be reminded that we love Him … and then — if we REALLY love Him — we’ll live out that love by how we behave and how we relate to others and to the world around us.
If we truly love Him, we won’t want to hurt Him. We won’t want to do things that hurt others. And if we carry His name as believers, we won’t want to do anything that will bring disgrace to Him through our lives, actions, inactions, thoughts, or words.
Do you love Him?
I heard a message recently (or maybe I was reading a book) where the pastor was talking about this concept about how Jesus didn’t beat Peter over the head the next time He saw him. Rather than three lectures, or lightning bolts from the sky, for every one of Peter’s denials, Jesus asked “Do yo love Me?” Three denials, three questions. I’d never noticed that before.
Peter knew he’d blown it, he just needed to focus on where to go based on his answer.
~Kelsey
Great post! It’s also important to remember that even at the time when Peter denied Jesus three times, Peter loved Jesus.
So when we answer the question, “Do you love Him?” and our answer is yes, we can be confident that He knows we love Him, even if we’re making mistakes. Even if we have hurt Him, hurt others, or behaved in ways that have brought disgrace to His name.
If we really love Him, we will have another chance. He’ll keep coming back, asking us and reminding us. “Do you love me?”
I love seeing Jesus’ tenderness and gentleness to people, even in their messiest, most broken moments. The conversation with Peter blows my mind every time I hear about it.
I just heard this today too. I think I saw it on Joyce Meyer “enjoying everyday life.” And it got me to thinking about the same thing.
This is funny because I’m thinking we must really think alike. With me stealing the blog layout too.
I have a question for you and if you can answer me privately or on the blog, either way would be fine by me. How come it’s so hard to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and sins? Even though, we know Jesus has forgiven us? This is something I have been struggling with for awhile now.
I just read your reply. LOL! I guess he had some garlic cloves too.
what a sweet post! ive been kind of ‘away’ so i have some katchup posting to do myself … i hope you will come by …
but i liked this post. forgiveness, repentance, all that stuff. im a believer, but not very religious. so i think if i turn away from what i was erring in, and go for gold, and be honest with God, He is bigger than me and can handle it. i guess i trust His love.
kïrstin♫
Glad you liked the garlic cloves. It was funny.
I like this look!
Just read your post. So many people try to tell us these days that you have to do this, or must be this way, in order to show your love for Christ. But what you said could not be more true, and the perfect balance of the book of Romans and the book of James. We do not need a check list of things to live by that make us Christians. We need to love God, and in doing so our actions will reflect that love as we interact with the world around us. Thanks for reminding me of that simple fact.
BTW, the theme with the picture of the bridge in the mist is AWESOME!!!!
Debi,
I had bookmarked this blog site, but had not gotten around to reading it until now. I just read the blogs from Feb. 28th back through around mid-Feb. or just before mid-Feb.
I was very touched by your blog about the pastor that couldn’t meet your needs because he kept talking about fear and relating it to sin.
You also talked about at some point you realized that you needed to change churches. You did the right thing by yourself and your family. When you reach a place that you don’t feel that your church is a safe place any longer, it IS time to either talk, which you did, or change, which you also did. You are to be commended for not sitting on your laurels and choosing to stay in a ‘known’ environment with all the change already occurring in your world. I see you as a very level-headed and rational-thinking person. I know there are days that you probably don’t always think of yourself this way right now, but know that there are those of us out here that don’t even know you that see so much strength, resolve, caring and love in you. I know we also feel your pain, fear, sense of loss and yes, sometimes grieving in a sense. I also know there is a great blanket of prayer and caring for you and your family. It comes not only through your writing, but the writing of others comments in your blog.
I know this is plainly and perhaps obviously said, but perhaps that is what you need to plainly and obviously read at present. I don’t know, but I felt lead to write this to you.
In God’s love and prayer,
Billie
Yes all too true. However, this way of thinking leads to judging yourself based on how you show your love which inevitably leads to comparing yourself to others which never ends well. Remember that Paul said that our righteousness (the good things we do, the things we do to show our love for Jesus) was like filthy rags. Ultimately it is Christ in us the hope of glory and not us in Christ. Remember the one man called a man after God’s own heart (David) found himself in need of repentence time and time again. So, before you are tempted to beat yourself or anyone else up over not showing love for Christ remember that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. (I know big paradox because he also tells us to be Holy as God is Holy, food for thought.) Ultimately it comes down to how he sees us and not how we see ourselves.