{"id":7065,"date":"2015-10-30T00:05:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T07:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7065"},"modified":"2015-10-29T11:26:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T18:26:20","slug":"he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/30\/he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not\/","title":{"rendered":"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me more than these?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYes, Lord,\u201d Peter replied, \u201cyou know I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThen feed my lambs,\u201d Jesus told him.<\/p>\n

\tJesus repeated the question: \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYes, Lord,\u201d Peter said, \u201cyou know I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThen take care of my sheep,\u201d Jesus said.<\/p>\n

\tA third time he asked him, \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPeter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, \u201cLord, you know everything. You know that I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus said, \u201cThen feed my sheep.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don\u2019t want to go.\u201d Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d (John 21:15-19)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tPeter thought he didn\u2019t deserve Jesus\u2019 friendship any longer. He believed he had failed him and that he was beyond forgiveness. Peter doubted that he really loved Jesus at all. So Jesus made a special effort to show Peter that he was mistaken. Jesus showed Peter that despite everything he had done, or failed to do, Jesus still loved Peter. And, perhaps more importantly, Jesus reassured Peter that he still loved Jesus. <\/p>\n

\tWhat does the word \u201clove\u201d mean? It\u2019s meaning becomes clear from paying attention to how Jesus used it. Peter denied Jesus three times. Therefore, Jesus asked him three times to affirm his love. Jesus was reassuring Peter that just because he failed, it didn\u2019t mean that he didn\u2019t love Jesus, or that Jesus loved him any less. Peter was still Jesus\u2019 friend and still a part of God\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\tAnd what was God\u2019s plan? Peter had said he would die for Jesus, but when the time came, he\u2019d protected himself instead. So Jesus revealed that Peter would take care of God\u2019s people, establish his church, and in the end, that he would die like Jesus on a cross. Peter\u2019s love for Jesus really was no less secure than Jesus\u2019 love for Peter.<\/p>\n

\tJesus reassured his friend that failure today didn\u2019t mean failure for all time. God never gives up on his people, even if they sometimes give up on themselves. <\/p>\n

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After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, \u201cSimon son of John, do you love me more than these?\u201d \u201cYes, Lord,\u201d Peter replied, \u201cyou know I love you.\u201d \u201cThen feed my lambs,\u201d Jesus told him. Jesus repeated the question: \u201cSimon son of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7065"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7067,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7065\/revisions\/7067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}