JOHN 21:15a – When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

THEME OF THE DAY. MORE THAN THESE. The scene in today’s scripture is Jesus serving breakfast to His twelve disciples on the shore of Galilee. Imagine watching this meal unfold. I don’t think there was much of an appetite especially with Peter. There was an elephant in the room. All the disciples had denied and forsaken the Lord not long before. They remembered. The Lord remembered. And they each probably kept their eyes from locking onto the eyes of Jesus. The shame, guilt, and pain would have been too much to bear. Likely each one was thinking, “I wonder when He is going to bring up our failures?” He didn’t. That is what amazing grace does. It doesn’t hold our past against us. It cleanses us from the past, teaches us from the past, and says, “Go, and sin no more.” But Peter’s case was a little different and that leads to the question in today’s scripture – “Do you love me more than these?”

What was Jesus referring to with the reference “more than these”? A couple of possibilities. First, the fish, boat and nets within sight. As Peter failed the Lord, he may have thought, “Well, I cannot follow Jesus. I messed that up bad, but I can fish. I know how to do that. And I can run the family business. I will go back to these.” Or the “more than these” could be the other disciples. Whatever the objects, the question Jesus asked probes deep to the soul. It is a question about loyalty, priority, and commitment. And it isn’t just for Peter. It is a question He asked us each day of our lives. Think through it with me.

Jesus looks at us in our human relationships, all of them, even our closest and says, “Do you love me more than these?” Remember these words of our Lord, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). These are serious words and the Lord is not telling us to despise and abandon our families. Not at all, but what He is saying is that even our families cannot come before our relationship with Him.

Next, Jesus looks at us in the arenas of the world with its pleasures and material things and says, “Do you love me more than these?” Materialism, obsession with recreation, entertainment, and worldly pleasure slay many Christians in the spiritual war we are called to fight. Christians divert precious resources of time, money, and energy to worldliness leaving, at best “leftovers” for the Lord. The Apostle John made it clear what is the Christian’s attitude toward the world and its things, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17). Beloved, to love Jesus means being weaned from the love of the world. We cannot love Him and the world simultaneously. And He is a jealous God who will not share our hearts with anyone or anything.

Finally, Jesus looks at us in our approach toward life in this world and all its pressure to conform into its image and says, “Do you love me more than these?” Here we find the Spirit of God challenging us to either pursue holiness and be like Jesus or pursue the pleasure of sin and be like the world. And this, like the other two areas Jesus probes within us, is a constant. The question “Do you love me more than these?” will be asked each day of our lives for all of our lives. How we answer it will not be by our words but by our attitudes and actions. For the disciples and Peter, they went on from that eventful breakfast morning and proved to Jesus they did love Him more than these. May we also prove likewise with our lives.

PRAYER: “Father, help me not to put anything or anyone above Your Son in my life.”

QUOTE: “Our relationship with the Lord Jesus is to be first and foremost. It cheapens grace to make Him less”