經文: 「彼得因為耶穌第三次對他說，你愛我嗎？就憂愁，對耶穌說：主啊！祢是無所不知的，祢知道我愛祢。耶穌說：你餵養我的羊。」— [聖經·約翰福音 21章17b節]
因著馬利亞迫切尋找主，找不到就不甘休，所以在七日的第一日清早，耶穌復活，在未升天之前首先向抹大拉的馬利亞顯現；這事以後，門徒中間有兩個人往鄉下去，走路的時候，耶穌變了形象向他們顯現；後來十個門徒坐席的時候，耶穌也向他們顯現，並讓多馬摸祂的釘痕，現在又向彼得顯現，在這幾次顯現事件裡，「愛」是最重要的關鍵。
我們很容易了解，為何耶穌要問彼得三次：「你愛我嗎？」，其實這是提醒他曾自信滿滿地說：「主阿！我就是同祢下監，同祢受死，也是甘心。」(路加福音 22章33節)。主耶穌問他三次，就是要他深刻反省，對主耶穌的愛是真實不改變的嗎？然而事實證明遇到考驗時，人的軟弱會顯露無遺，人的承諾是靠不住的。要如何彌補人一時的軟弱跌倒呢？唯一的方法就是餵養主耶穌的羊群，才能恢復他在主耶穌心中的地位。
上帝就是愛，耶穌基督是上帝的兒子，上帝愛耶穌，耶穌也愛屬祂的人到底：「我愛你們，正如父愛我一樣。」(約翰福音 15章9節)；耶穌又說愛祂的必遵行上帝的命令，並且要彼此相愛。無論天上和地下，無論我們自身或是關懷羊群，最重要的一件事，就是要有「愛」。
無論任何人，若想要有耶穌的同在與內住，最重要的關鍵就是「愛」，若沒有「愛」，耶穌就無法向他們顯現。彼得教導我們這樣的愛不是來自於人，乃是源自於耶穌向罪死，並從死裡復活的能力；而信靠耶穌的人，就有份於這樣的能力與愛。就如經上所記：「你們雖然沒有見過祂，卻是愛祂；如今雖不得看見，卻因信祂就有說不出來，滿有榮光的大喜樂。」(彼得前書 1章8節)。感謝上帝，假若自以為站立得穩卻跌倒的彼得，能有這樣大的改變，我們也一樣可以有這樣大的改變，只要耶穌動工在我們心裡面，我們也有一顆愛的心向著祂，祂就要向我們顯現，並吩咐我們要餵養祂的小羊。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
[每日靈修 7月18日]
作者：慕安德烈
編輯：榮華興
『 Peter: The Greatness of LOVE 』
Scripture: “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? He said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest aft things; Thou kntnvest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto Him, Feed my sheep.” — [John 21:17b]
It was to Mary who loved much that Christ first revealed Himself. Then in Peter’s first vision of the Lord, in His making Himself known in the upper room at Emmaus, in His appearance to the ten, and in the revelation of Himself to Thomas, it was ever to the intense devotion of the prepared heart that Christ manifested Himself. And now in His manifestation of Himself to Peter it is again love that is the keynote.
We can easily understand why Christ asked the question thrice, Lovest thou Me? It was to remind Peter of the terrible self-confidence in which he had said: “Though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee”; of the need of quiet, deep heart-searching ere he could be sure that his love was real and true; of the need of deep penitence in the consciousness of how little he could trust himself; and then of love being the one thing needful for the full restoration to his place in the heart of Jesus, the first and highest condition for feeding His sheep and caring for His lambs.
God is love. Christ is the Son of His love. Having loved His own, He loved them to the uttermost, and said: “As the Father loved me, I also have loved you.” He asked that they should prove their love to Him by keeping His commandments and loving each other with the love with which He loved them. In heaven and on earth, in the Father and in the Son, and in us, and in all our work for Him and our care for souls, the greatest thing is love.
To everyone who longs to have Jesus manifest Himself – “I am with you alway” – the chief, the essential requisite is love. Peter teaches us that such love is not in the power of man to offer. But such love came to him through the power of Christ’s death to sin, and that power of His resurrection life, of which Peter became partaker. As he puts it in his first Epistle: “Whom having not seen, we love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Thank God, if Peter the self-confident could be so changed, shall not we believe that Christ will work in us the wondrous change too, and manifest Himself to a loving heart in all the fullness of His precious word: “Lo, I am with you alway.” It is to love that Christ will manifest Himself, as the only fitness for feeding His sheep and tending His lambs.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 18 July 」
