John 21:14-17–Do You Love Me, Peter?

This  passage, after Jesus' resurrection, chronicles Jesus addressing Peter directly.  He asks Peter, the one who denied Jesus three times, if Peter loves Him.  I find it telling that of all the things to say to Peter, Jesus chose this.  He asked Him quite simply: do you love me?  As if this were the most important qualification for Peter to possess.  And, in truth, it was.

I think it is telling that Jesus was so concerned with Peter's heart, just as He is primarily concerned with our hearts.  It is as if Jesus is asking us, ones who have denied Him like Peter, if we love Him.  This proves to be one of the most honest and profoundly revealing questions we can ask ourselves as Christians.

So, do you love Him?

Supplementing Our Faith

2 Peter 1:5-8: "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love,  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  Peter speaks with a concision, but to supplement our faith?  Is Peter asking us as Christians to do something more than merely believe? (Sense the sarcasm).

In reality, Peter is clear that believers are to add these virtues to our faith in increasing measures, all purposed to the goal of love.  Under this sort of analysis, it is not enough merely to believe unless that belief is transformative and as Christ forms the basis for our identity we will be transformed by His Holy Spirit and by His love.  Let us then commit ourselves to the supreme task of growing in Christ, adding virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love to our faith!

2 Peter 3:9 and Repentance

Peter, in his second epistle, writes: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Pet 3:9).

This verse is an interesting verse and often used to make an argument for universal salvation, or the idea that everyone will be saved in the end.  This is asserted by some who construe this verse in such a way as to highlight that God does not wish that any should perish, and therefore, none will.

Clearly, this is a woeful misunderstanding of this verse, as the point here is not whether every will be saved but, rather, how gracious God is in His enduring patience to give opportunity upon opportunity for repentance unto salvation to take place.

We should not neglect that this verse indicates that some will perish, but not because God wills them to but because those that will perish do so as a result of their own lack of repentance.  This, along with faith, is one of the non-negotiable essentials of salvation.

Apart from repentance, salvation is not only impossible but it would be highly immoral for God to give salvation to those who do not wish it.  Consider that God, being holy and just as well as omnipotent, could if He desired override every freedom of man in order to save all.  But He does not for to do so would be tantamount to forcing someone to love Him.

Because this is the case, repentance is a necessary choice on the part of the human.  It is prompted, to be sure, by the Holy Spirit.  But salvation cannot be received apart from repentance.  It is the repentance, the turning away from sin and from self that we should not ever neglect and should not ever conceal when we present Christ.  Any diminishment of repentance in the Gospel is to remove salvation from the reach of humanity, for it is repentance in faith that is the required response of the person that allows for Christ's overwhelming grace to flow unhindered into the life of the person.