We’re picking up from our last look at Do You Love Me?
After preparing a meal for His disciples, the Lord looks at Peter in John 21 and begins a dialog.
Previous to this exchange, Peter was fishing, and the others were with him.
“I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will also come with you.” They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing” (John 21:3).
Peter has now seen the Lord three times (John 21:14), and was the first of the apostles to see Him (Luke 24:34). Even still, he’s aimless. His preoccupation is his occupation, and Christ’s followers are right there with him. His eyes are set too low. Our Lord knows this, and it won’t abide.
Into his milieu, the Lord enters. He will not leave Peter to himself. His mission is far too important (Matt. 16:18). His purpose is too far reaching (John 21:18-19).
However, Peter must first connect with something he has merely entertained. Christ’s call on Peter would not be confirmed by miracles, but instead by love. The love that Peter must have–that all Christ-followers must have–is a love rooted in knowledge.
Consider the apostle Paul explaining this to the church at Philippi, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Paul’s aim before his experience and commission into the Lord’s service was equally as deadly as Peter’s aim before Christ’s bringing him back into the fold of ministry service.
Christ must have Peter’s heart. But, Peter must know Christ for who He is. No more Christ, the mere miracle-worker. No more Christ, the mere prophet. No, no. Christ must be known by Peter, and this knowledge is not rooted in power, it’s not rooted in passion, it’s not rooted in prestige. It’s a far deeper knowledge into which Peter–and all Christ-followers–must be pressed.
“Do you love me…?”
“Do you love me more than these?”
“…Is there in you, Peter, a capacity to love me more than you love these followers of mine?”
“…Is there in you, Peter, an understanding of Me that surpasses your understanding of these disciples?”
Before Peter is reinstated into the Lord’s service, he must know that they will also “…come with you” (John 21:3).
Peter, what are you following? Who do you love? What do you know?
On Tuesday night a couple of weeks back, one of my daughters came into our bedroom, got on the bed, and proceeded to ask me some very important questions. The first question, “Daddy, what is my favorite animal?” She rattled off a few more question that related to how well I knew her at her deepest level. Then it hit me. In that moment, my daughter and I were engaged in a journey of covenantal epistemological discovery. It was pure delight.
What is epistemological? It comes from the word epistemology, which is simply a fancy word for knowing or knowledge. It tries to answer the question, “How do we know…anything?” One scholar, Dr. Esther Meek, wades into these deep waters and states that knowledge is best understood within the framework of a covenant. She goes on to write that a covenant is based on both love and commitment. Thus, to Dr. Meek, knowing (anything or anyone) is relational and interpersonal. The opposite would be transactional and what we would call factual or data-driven knowledge. We all can relate to this type of knowledge. It’s someone standing up and speaking mere facts about Christ. “Christ is God’s Son. Christ died on the cross. Christ rose from the grave.” The next question to this person, “Do you know this Christ of which you speak?”
Thus, in Meek’s covenant knowing framework, we do not know to love, but instead we love to know.
When my daughter asked me, “What is my favorite _______?” She didn’t only want to know if I knew that her favorite animal was a fox. She wanted to know, “Do you know me?” “Do you know me for me?” In other words, “Do you love me?”
Tie this back to Christ’s bringing Peter back into fellowship and recommissioning him into His service.
As we previously saw, what fell from Peter’s mouth–when he was pinched by the potential of association with a Man destined to die–was an obstinate declaration, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
Christ will not endure partial-knowledge from any of His followers. Notice the words to the Church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, “‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”
Peter–and followers of Christ today–must, at some point, face this juncture with the risen Christ.
Do you know Me? Do you know Me for Me?
Peter’s response, “Lord…You know…”
Of course He knew, but did Peter know? Would Peter instead know fishing and bring the followers of Christ with him? Would Peter know comfort and once again deny any association with Christ?
Or, would Peter know the Lord? Not for what Christ did or could do, but for Him alone, the very Son of God.
Peter’s answer would frame the rest of his life, and would be the foundation from which he would build his ministry–the same foundation from which we too will build our ministry.
In just a short while, Peter’s life would drastically change. Our Lord prophecies over Peter…
“‘Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.’ Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ‘Follow Me!'”
John 21:18-19
No more comfort. No more denials. No more running. Peter would face an extreme and grisly death, and his knowledge of Christ would sustain Him.
If He is who He says He is, then He is here with me. He has not left me, nor has He forsaken me. He is with me in the fire. He is with me in the flood. He is my supreme desire. He is my love.
True knowledge. True love.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
The lesson for us today:
Knowing God is loving God. Loving God is being right with Him. Being right with Him is accepting His free gift of salvation. Accepting His free gift of salvation is coming to a place in your heart and mind whereby you no longer try–by any work–to remove your sin, but you transfer your trust from yourself to Christ–that He lived the life God required Him to live, He died the death God required Him to die, and that He rose from the grave conquering both sin and death.
In other words, you recognize that your sin separates you from God, but God joins you to Him by grace through faith…that you may know Him.
Run to the Father. Know His Son. Love Him forever.
— April 26, 2022