Berean Break
August 31, 2003 broadcast
Do You Love Me More Than These?
by George Sinkie
Good
Morning and welcome to this edition of the Berean Break. My
name is George Sinkie and I am honored and glad that you are
with me this morning. As always we are going to study the
Bible this morning and check out the things that we believe and
teach. Lets begin with a word of prayer and then
we will be looking into John chapter 21. Lets pray:
Great God in heaven, Thank You
for this day in our lives. Thank You for this new week
that You have given to us. We pray that each person joining
us in this study will open their hearts to Your will. Help
us to avoid the man-made creeds and catechisms of this world.
Dear God, help us to see how they distort Your will to
a destructive end. Thank You for Jesus and Your written
word that we can know You. Help us now as we study Your
truth to obey that truth. In Jesus name, we pray!!
AMEN!!
Lets turn over to John 21
and we are going to read a discussion that Jesus has with Peter.
This is one passage where the precision and accuracy of
the Koine` Greek is hard to retain when the Bible is translated
into English. We will look at this in a little bit, but
first lets read John 21:15-17,
15 So when they had finished
breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more
than these?
He said to Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.
He said to him, Tend
My lambs.
16
He said
to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said
to Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You. He
said to him, Shepherd
My sheep.
17
He said
to him the third time, Simon,
son of John, do you love Me?
Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time,
Do
you love Me?
And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things; You
know that I love You. Jesus said to him, Tend My sheep.
After Jesus has fed the disciples
breakfast He speaks to Peter and asks, do you love Me more than
these? Perhaps
Jesus here is referring to Peters love for fish and fishing.
Jesus, if you remember, had called Peter from the fishing
business and called him to be a fisher of men. Matthew
writes in Matthew 4:18-20
18 And walking by the Sea
of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter,
and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for
they were fishermen.
19
And He
said to them, Follow
Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20
And they
immediately left the nets, and followed Him.
For about three years Peter has
followed Jesus and Jesus may be helping Peter to see that just
because He has died, been buried, and was resurrected, and that
He is soon going to ascend back to the Father, does not end this
call of Jesus to be a fisher of men.
Another couple of possibilities
are that Jesus is asking if Peter has a greater love for Him
than the other men here or if he loves Him more than he loves
these other men.
As I mentioned earlier, this section
has been a hard one to translate into English and convey the
full meaning of the words. The hard part is not what does
Jesus mean by these as we have been looking at, but
comes in the question of love that Jesus asks Peter.
As you read through John 21:15-17 in most major translations
you get the idea that Jesus asks Peter the same question three
times and that Peter answers Jesus that yes he loves Him. As
we are going to see today, from the Greek words that are used,
this is not the case at all. Jesus asks two very distinct
questions and Peter in his answer in a sense avoids Jesus question.
In the Koine` Greek language there
are several words that can be translated by our English word
love. We are only going to be concerned today
with the two that are used in this passage. The first Greek
word is agapao. Perhaps you have heard the noun form of
this word which is agape`. This is the self-sacrificing
kind of love that God had for every person in the world. In
John 3:16, Jesus says,
16 For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life.
Paul also wrote in Romans 5:8,
concerning this love that God had for all people,
8 But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.
This agape` love is a love that
is decided in the mind and is not dependent upon the object to
which that love is directed. In the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-47,
43 You have heard that it
was said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.
44
But I
say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute
you
45
in order
that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for
He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends
rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46
For if
you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not
even the tax-gatherers do the same?
47
And if
you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
The follower of God cannot allow
his emotional feelings for his enemy to influence his love for
that enemy. He still must want the very best for that enemy
and be willing to sacrifice himself for the good of that enemy.
Jesus wants to know if Peter will
give Him total commitment. The confusion comes when Peter
answers and the translators, give his answer as, You know that I love
You. Peter
is not in this answer agreeing with Jesus because he uses a different
Greek word that is translated love in English. The
word that Peter uses is phileo, and means tender affection or
to like. This love is based upon the feelings that a person
has for the object of that love. God did not send Jesus
to provide the way of salvation for all men because He
liked us. Because we had sinned, we were repulsive in the
sight of God. But God chose to love us anyway. There
is a vast difference between these two types of Love.
Perhaps Peter is being cautious.
Remember, in that upper room where Peter said, Ill
never deny You, Jesus, even if I have to die with You.
That statement shows the self-sacrificing love meant by
agape` and yet Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock
crowed the next morning. Peter was bold in words but weak
in actions. Now Jesus is questioning Peters commitment
and Peter says I like You. Jesus asks the same
question the second time and Peter gives the same response. In
Jesus third question though, He asks Peter do you
phileo Me? In a sense, Jesus is saying, Peter,
have I done enough good things for you that you will be My friend
and like me? Can you see why Peter was grieved? It
is because Jesus has lowered the question that He asks to a very
simple level that grieves Peter.
Some of the better study Bibles
will footnote these two different words and from that we can
see that there is a difference in what Jesus asks and what Peter
answers in this discussion. While I do not recommend the
Living Bible as a good translation of the Scriptures, because
it was translated by only one man, Kenneth Taylor, and there
are times when he put in his own religious beliefs rather than
the true teaching of God, Kenneth does do a pretty good job of
conveying the truth here in John 21: 15-17 though. He writes,
After breakfast
Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more
than these others?
Yes, Peter replied, You know I am your
friend. Then
feed my lambs,
Jesus told him. Jesus repeated the question: Simon, son of John, do
you really love me?
Yes, Lord, Peter said, you know I am
your friend. Then
take care of my sheep,
Jesus said. Once more he asked him, Simon, son of John, are
you even my friend?
Peter was grieved at the way Jesus asked the question this
third time. Lord, you know my heart; you know I am,
he said.
I
dont want to leave you with the impression that Peter did
not love Jesus though. While Peter was not so bold as to
proclaim his love and then fail to live it out, we can see very
clearly from the life that Peter lived that he did have this
agape` form of love for Jesus.
What about our love for Jesus?
Is it real or superficial? Do we love Jesus? How
do we know that we really love Jesus? Consider what it
says in John 14:15
15 If you love Me, you will
keep My commandments.
One
way that we know whether our love is real is whether or not we
keep His commandments. Like in Mark 16:16 when Jesus says
that the one who believes the gospel and is immersed shall be
saved, do we keep that commandment? I have in my life.
There are many who reject it and teach that a person can
be saved without being immersed in water for the forgiveness
of sins. They teach that all you have to do is believe
in Jesus and you will be saved. They reject the commands
of Jesus and therefore based on the Scriptures we can tell that
they really do not love Jesus. Is your love for Jesus obedient
to His will or do you reject His will? If I can help you
in anyway to know and obey Gods will, I hope that you will
contact me. I would also like to know any questions or
topics that you would like to have covered on the Berean Break. |