Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: February 17th

PETER’S PENITENT LOVE - I

Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith unto Him: Yea Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him: Feed My lambs. - John 21:15

IN these words there is an obvious intention to recall various points in the past of the Apostle’s history. In their emphatic dwelling on the human side of his character, they suggest that by his fall he has forfeited the name of the "man of rock," and has proved himself, not stable, but uncertain as the shifting wind. And so they would pierce to his heart. The fact of his risen Lord coming to him with a question about his love upon His lips would be a dagger in his soul; all the more because he knew that the question was a reasonable one, since he had so shamefully sinned against love. Now, all this deliberate raking up of the man’s past sin looks to be very cruel. Is that like "not breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoking flax"? Does that seem like the generosity of love which is ashamed to recall the transgression that it forgives? Would not Christ have been nearer the ideal of Divine and perfect forgiveness if He had not put Peter through this torture of remembrance? No! For the happiest love and the deepest to Him must always rest upon the contrite remembrance of sins forgiven. Therefore the tenderest and divinest work of Christ is to help His penitent servant to a true penitence. He cannot give His love, nor honour with service, unless we acknowledge and abandon our sin before Him. He will make sure work. The keenest cut of the surgeon’s knife is not cruel. The malignant humours have to be drained out, aye! even squeezed out by a hand, the pressure of which, because it is firm, however gentle it may be, will always be painful. And it is poor surgery to begin with bandages and styptics, when what is wanted is that the ulcer shall be cut open and the putrescent matter got rid of. Therefore does Christ thus hold the man right up against his past, and make him, as the preliminary to the fullest communication and reception of His love, feel intensely and bitterly the reality of his transgression.

Peter’s answer shows how he has learned some lessons, at any rate, by his fall and restoration. He will not hesitate one moment to avow his love. The consciousness of his treachery does not make his lips falter in the very least. He is ready at once with his "Yes!" But, as many of you know, the love which he professes is not exactly the love which Christ asks about. The two words in the question and in the answer, which are both translated - and rightly translated - "love," are not the same. And though this is not the place to try and draw the delicate lines of distinction that separate between them, it is important for the whole understanding of the story to notice that the love which Peter claims is, in some sense, inferior to the love which Christ asks. He will not say that he has climbed to the heights of that loftier, diviner emotion, but he will avow that he knows he has a hearty, human, natural affection for his Master, such as we cherish for those that are dear to us. So far he will go, but he had rather that his Master should judge him than that he should judge himself. "He knows nothing against himself" in this matter, yet he refers himself to the Lord: "Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee."