To Encourage You

John 21:20 “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them”

What an interesting statement we have in John 21 regarding Peter’s observation.  As Peter spoke to Jesus, it says he turned and saw “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”  We know that disciple to be the apostle John, who never names himself in the gospel he wrote other than in this way.  Above all else that John could say about himself, the most important thing, the thing he said over and over, was that Jesus loved him.  He was convinced of this, and he was in awe of it.  His perspective on how he saw everything else around him was influenced by this one fact: he was a disciple whom Jesus loved.  Everything else was secondary to him, even his own name, for his identity was defined by this one fact: Jesus loved him.  It was more important to him that Jesus loved him than that anyone knew anything else about him. 

The setting in the passage above is that Jesus had just prophesied to Peter how Peter would die.  Peter’s concern then turns to John. “What about him?” he asks.  “Is he going to die also, and if so, how?”  To this Jesus replies “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” In other words, “Peter, don’t worry about the others that are following me.  They are my concern, not yours.”  And John reminds us that whatever happens to those who are following Christ, it is on the basis of Jesus’ love that he deals with us. 

What an awesome truth this is that the God Whom we serve loves us.  The all-powerful, all-knowing God who has power even over death is someone Who loves us.  He loves us in life, and He loves us in death.  “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).  “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).  We, every one of the saints, are the Lord’s possession.  And God loves those who are His.  We are secure in Him, and nothing in all this world is more certain.  What a wonderful truth that we can be “sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). 

You see, the love of God is a very strong thing.   It is set on us, focused on us, with an unfathomably deep attachment that nothing can shake.  It doesn’t depend on our strength to hold onto it.  It’s rooted in the omnipotent strength of the almighty God. It is as powerful as He is. It is as infinite as He is.  It is beyond description and so incredible that our life on earth is far too short to comprehend it in its depth.  Like John, Peter, and Paul, God would have us to be “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17), i.e., His love. His love should be the foundation and lens through which we see everything else in life, every circumstance, every event, and every other person.  It is God’s desire that we would be so immersed in Him that we “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18-19).  Isn’t it interesting that He wants us to know something that surpasses knowledge?  In this He is telling us that no matter how much we “get it,” no matter how much we appreciate and revel in it, no matter how much gratitude we have for it, God’s love is greater still.  It will indeed take all of eternity to get to the bottom of it. 

May God help us all to see that it is not just the apostle John who is the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” for our great and wonderful God would have all of us who are His followers to know that we also are one of the “disciples whom Jesus loves.”  And may we also see other believers as “disciples whom Jesus loves.”  What an impact that should have on how we think of them and act toward them.  And how grateful we should be as we realize that that is indeed how Jesus thinks of and acts towards us.