[SUB12] TU ME AMAS? - Luciano Subirá

When they questioned the Lord Jesus about which was the greatest of all the commandments and gave him the difficult task and mission to sum up the most important thing in the scriptures to one thing, the Lord Jesus did not falter he replied saying: “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. " In the next few minutes I want you to follow me to understand a little more a practical application of what Jesus classified as the greatest commandment In John 21, verse 15 to 17, the Lord Jesus asks Peter 3 questions. They look exactly the same but there’s actually a detail that differ them.

The question for Jesus to Peter is: “do you love me? " I particularly believe that Jesus was not asking to know the answer. I believe the Lord’s question for Peter: Do you love me?

firstly we need to recognize that it involves an important subject. Like we have advanced, Jesus classified this subject of Loving God as of the highest importance, he classified it as the greatest commandment. But when He asks Peter: Do you love me?

He is not only expecting a yes or no from Peter. I want you to understand that the purpose of this question Jesus is asking is to take Peter to a self-evaluation on where He is regarding his love for the Lord. And what makes me understand and interpret that the practical application of this sincere self-evaluation are basically two.

First, you can’t understand the story only by reading Jesus’ questions in chapter 21, we must go back to John chapter 13, where Jesus in the last supper with his disciples says: “one of you is going to betray me. " When Jesus affirms that, many of them start to question: "Lord, is it me? " And when they’re asking that “Lord is it me?

”, they are recognizing the potential to fail exists in me, the risk exists, the possibility to sin against God,. But while most of them question if it could be one of them, Peter’s position is different. Peter even says to Jesus: “I would die for you.

" What Jesus is listening from Peter is not only the abstention of the question “perhaps it’s me", but he is guaranteeing with all possible strengths, “Lord I would even die for you, if I can even get to that point of course I won’t betray you. " But actually, in the moment Peter, moved by all this inner safety affirms that: “I would die for you", Jesus looks to him and say: "Peter, truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. " Jesus was saying: "Peter, you think you’re in a level, regarding your love for me, you believe you have a certain intensity of love inside of you and I want to show you’re mistaken, that what you have is not all that you think you do.

Jesus warned Peter and you know the story, you know what happened. In the Gethsemane garden Jesus is arrested, Peter the apostle even tries to defend him, we need to give some credit, he pulls the sword and strikes Malchus, one of the high priest’s servants, but Jesus rebukes him, tells him to put away the sword and that is the moment in the bible where all of the disciples fled. Fulfilling the scripture: “I will strike the pastor and the sheep of the flock will spread.

" Not one stayed, not even Peter. After the occurred, the word of God shows us Peter and John following Jesus from a distance. This "distance", reveals the fear they had.

“If the soldiers come back to arrest us we have a safe distance to run away, if not, we follow from far away to see what is going on. " Finally they reach the sanhedrim where Jesus was taken, where He is arrested, where He will be judged, and when they were entering the place, the word of God says in John chapter 18 that John was known by the high priest, here is why the maiden’s question makes sense, when she asks Peter by the gates when he denied Jesus for the first time. She asked: “are you also his disciple?

" This "also" means: “we know this one is a disciple, what about you? " Peter answers: “I'm not. ” You know the story.

Peter denied Jesus thrice, the rooster crowed, the Bible says Peter came to himself, he cried bitterly and know Jesus sees Peter. This Peter probably doesn’t think the same way about himself as he used to. A Peter that had touch with his reality, that failed, and discovered that he didn’t love Jesus as much as he thought, it is to this Peter that Jesus asks this first different question he says: “do you love me more than these?

" What was the Lord’s purpose by asking if Peter loved him more? I’m sure it wasn’t to promote a competition, any sort of “love contest". Nothing like that "the love contest", because in another moments, when they disputed on who was the greater, Jesus rebuked them In a clear way saying they shouldn’t have this heart that compares, that measures strength, so now, Jesus wouldn’t go against his word, wanting them to start some sort of competition.

When Jesus asks: "Peter, Do you love me more than these? " it’s because that’s what Peter thought of himself before. In another words, Jesus is now saying: "so, Pete, do you still think you’re the man?

Do you still think you have ask you said you did? " The second reason why I see Jesus taking Peter to this self evaluation, it’s the type of word that he chose, that appears in the original greek when he uses the word love. "Peter, do you love me?

" In the original greek we see the word "agapaó", a derivation of "agapé", it speaks of perfect love, sacrificial love. But Peter’s answer, when he says: "Lord, you know that I love you", though to us it sounds like he is saying something positive, like he is saying: “of course yes", Peter is using another word, he says: “you know that I love you phileó". Phileó in greek is brotherly love, the love of a friend, the love of a brother, but it doesn’t have the same intensity of an agapé.

It’s almost like if the lady asked her boyfriend or fioncé: "Honey, do you love me? " And the guy answered: “You know that I consider you a lot. " We know this guy is in trouble.

That’s not what she is asking, much less what she wants to hear. By the way, the first NIV version in Portuguese, the New International Version, translated this passage like this, when Jesus asks: "Peter, do you love me? the answer, in the first version, was previously like this: “you know that I like you.

" It’s like Peter was saying: “I do love you, but it ain’t that much. It is not that huge love. Then Jesus insists and asks the second question.

In the second time: "Peter, do you love me agapaó? ", again. Peter insists in the same level, He answers: “you know that I love you phileó.

" Then we get to the third question, and the third has something different because the passage says that Peter was sad with the third question not with the three, but with the third question. In the third question Jesus looks to Peter and asks: "Peter, do you love me phileó? " Like who is saying: “is that all you have to offer?

" And Peter saddened by that answers: “you know all things. " What is behind this affirmation “you know all things"? Peter is saying: “back then I thought I was the man; back then I thought I love you a lot more than what I in fact loved you and you already knew my heart didn’t have all I thought it did.

" So Peter is now sad saying: “you know that it is only phileó. At this moment this is all I have to offer. ” Peter is able to examine his heart, he is able to discover that the intensity of his love was not what he thought it was.

When we speak of love for the Lord, that is the greatest commandment, something of an incontestable importance, we must understand the need of evaluating our own love. We need to make this sincere self-evaluation. Where are we?

And we can’t do that from the “perfomance" point of view, because in the letter to Ephesus in Revelations, The Lord speaks of High perfomance. “I know your works, your labor, your perseverance. You endured trials because of my name and you did not faint.

" It was a church of high productivity, a high performance. But the Lord says: “Yet I hold this against you, you have forsaken your first love . " This is the moment where He says: “remember where you fell, repent and go back to the practice of your first works.

" In another Words the Lord is saying that when we recognize the level of our passions, that our love for Him is not where it should be, we can’t treat it like it was just a crisis. We need to understand what this is in fact. The word of God classifies it as a sin.

Because if the greatest commandment is not only to Love God, but to love Him with all of your heart, soul, strength and understanding, then loving Him less than that is not fulfilling the greatest commandment. When we understand this, that God doesn’t classify it as a crisis, He says “remember where you fell", he calls it a fall, He says "repent", He is saying that it is a sin, but he says “go back to the first works". He brings hope to our hearts.

And makes us understand that the purpose of the self-evaluation is not only to make us see what we lack and enter a place of guilt and condemnation, but He brings hope to our hearts, that we can retake what is lost and manifest a lot more for Him. Actually, when we comprehend that and give the right answer, we’ll keep the level of love we should have. Because a relationship with God that is not based in love, is classified in the Bible as a terrible place, in 1 Corinthians 16:22, the bible says: “if someone doesn’t love the Lord Jesus be anathema.

" The word "anathema", in the best hypothesis, means abominable, in the worst, cursed. We don’t want that kind of classification, so may our relationship with God be more than building high perfomance , a love relationship, of passion for the Lord Jesus. May God help us in this self evaluation and may He help us fight to recover what maybe is lacking when it comes to loving Him.

God bless you.