Called to care…
This week’s devotions are based on Revealed Week 5 – Calling Revealed (WATCH HERE)
Jesus had big plans for Peter. After probing and restoring Peter with the question, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” he calls him to “Feed my lambs,” “Take care of my sheep,” “Feed my sheep.” Three times, Peter affirms his love and three times, Jesus gives him this direction.
Jesus first was interested in Peter’s heart, “Do you love me more than these?” the he was interested in defining Peter’s calling to discipleship. No longer is Peter to be just a follower, although following Jesus would always be primary, but he is to be one that now nurtures, guids and cares for other sheep. Jesus was Peter’s shepherd. Now Peter was to shepherd others.
Jesus’ words, “Feed my sheep,” and “Take care of my sheep,” are rich with imagery and profound meaning. Sheep are vulnerable, dependent creatures. They need a shepherd to lead them to green pastures, to protect them from predators, and to tend to their needs. Jesus is entrusting his flock to Peter, a flock that represents his followers, his church, the people he died for. This is an immense responsibility, one that requires deep love, unwavering commitment, and genuine compassion.
But this calling is not just for Peter. The Spirit of God has preserved this encounter for us to take to heart today. Every generation, Jesus calls his followers to also be shepherds. Sure some are in a more public role as a pastor, or similar task, but at the core of Christ’s calling is caring for the Christ’s sheep. This might look different for each person, but the core principle remains: to nurture and support others in their spiritual journey.
How about you? How does this calling apply to you?
Are there people in your life who need encouragement, guidance, or support? This could be a friend struggling with doubt, a family member facing a challenge, or a colleague feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps it’s a new believer who needs mentoring, a neighbor who needs a listening ear, or someone in your community who is lonely.
To be sure, Jesus is calling us to notice those around us, to see their needs, and to respond with love and compassion. However, he also seems to be focusing on those of the family of believers. “Feed my sheep” also has a strong implication of spiritual nourishment. Are you sharing your faith, offering biblical insights, or providing resources that will help others grow in their relationship with Christ? How might you do that in your home with the “flock” of your family? How might you do this at your church by helping to teach Kids Church, lead a Sunday school class, host a small group or simply walk with someone through a spiritual challenge, offering the hope of the Scripture and the comfort of the Gospel.
Feeding the sheep also involves safeguarding the flock. This means standing against false teachings, protecting others from harm, and speaking truth in love. It means being a source of wisdom and discernment, helping others to navigate the complexities of life and faith. To feed the sheep, one must continually be fed by the words of Jesus, our Good Shepherd.
Jesus knew the calling came with challenges. It requires time, energy, and vulnerability. There will be moments when we feel ill-equipped, inadequate, or even overwhelmed. But remember, Jesus doesn’t call us to this task alone. He promises his presence and his strength. “Feed my sheep,” Jesus says. Let’s answer that call with willing hearts and open hands, knowing that in serving others, we are truly serving him.
Apply: So, today, consider the sheep in your life. Who are you called to feed, and who are you called to care for? Ask the Lord for guidance, strength, and wisdom. And trust that as you respond to his call, he will equip you for the task.
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for calling me to care for your sheep. Strengthen me for the task and guide me in your ways so I may take care of your sheep and lambs well. AMEN.
Do you love me more than anything?
This week’s devotions are based on Revealed Week 5 – Calling Revealed (WATCH HERE)
Do you love me more than these?
This penetrating question causes one to pause and consider the value of someone or something in your life.
Siblings may pose the question to their parents and ask, “Do you love me more than my sister?” They are trying to determine their “rank” in the hearts of their parents.
Sometimes this question is posed when something happens that maybe leads a person to think that they aren’t loved as much and so are trying to reaffirm their standing in the heart of another. If a wife is wondering about her husbands love, she may ask, “Do you love me more than your golfing buddies?” because she may be hurt that her husband went golfing and forgot her birthday. (Bad move, by the way!)
Jesus asks Peter this question, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Was Jesus insecure about needing to be loved by Peter? No.
Was Jesus looking for affirmation that he was more loved than the rest of the disciples? No.
Jesus was giving Peter’s heart a chance to respond, knowing that just a few weeks earlier he had vehemently denied Jesus. Was his heart reoriented toward Jesus, or was it still in question. The question was asked three times. The third time hurt.
But Jesus wasn’t out to hurt Peter, but rather reaffirm his love for and his confidence in him. Jesus had a large task to commission Peter to do, but he first wanted to give Peter a chance to reaffirm his love for him.
John 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
Jesus call to Peter and to us is to love him above all else. The loyalty of our heart is primary before any act of service can be performed.
But it’s hard.
We want to answer clearly, “Lord, you know that I love you.”
But then we think of the ways the Lord wouldn’t know we love him.
In a moment of frustration, we take the Lord’s name in vain. In a moment of laziness, we stay away from worship. In a moment of self-pity, we doubt the Lord’s ability to help. In a moment of pride, we try to figure out a life problem on our own. In a moment of fear, we back down from a bold witness for the Lord.
Of course it is a legitimate question for Jesus to ask, “Do you love me more than these?” Our hearts are easily distracted and our actions easily drift.
Loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is difficult to do. Things in life compete for that pole position. Money tempts us, “Do you love me more than Jesus?” Relationships tempt us, “Do you love me more than Jesus?” Career tempts us, “Do you love me more than Jesus?”
We’d love to say, “Never!” But we need Jesus’ forgiveness to our hearts that must admit, “We don’t always love you, Jesus more than these.”
And so he does. As we confess our sins, Jesus forgives them.
His love for us never changes. So we can always say with confidence, “Lord, you know that I love you.”
Apply: What things/people in life are distracting you from loving Christ first and fully? Ask the Lord for wisdom to identify such things and with his help, keep love for the Lord always first.
Prayer: Lord thank you for loving me. Help me to always love you more than anyone or anything else. AMEN.
Love others as Jesus loved you!
Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Love Revealed (Watch Here)
Love one another AS you have been loved.
As the Apostle John said, (1 John 4:11) Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Love for others ONLY comes as a response to and result of God’s love for us. If we take the words, “We are to love everyone” without the definition and example of God’s love for us in Christ, we will fail to love as Jesus directs us to.
So what might that love look like as we love others?
First, let’s define love based on the last days of looking at God’s love for us.
Love is a choice to act on behalf of and seek the good of others, even at personal cost, regardless of their response or worthiness.
So what does agape love look in our relationships with others?
We are willing to put others first.
This direction doesn’t mean a person has no self-care or take time for themselves, but is willing to put the needs of others first rather live life with a focus on self and taking advantage of people for one’s own self interest. The Apostle Paul put it this way: Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Ground your love for others in truth.
Remember that part of loving is warning a person of the spiritual dangers of their behavior. Love is redirecting a person from the lies of Satan to the truth of God’s Word. Love is not based on your opinion but really helping someone understand and walk in the ways of the Lord. Just as we would want someone to love us enough to tell us the truth. Here’s some guidance from the Apostle Paul: 1 Corinthians 13:6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
Do not expect a return.
Love does not come with strings attached. When you show up for work and get paid, that is not love, that is a job. Love acts without expectation of repayment. Sure someone may respond with a gesture of thanks, but that’s not the motivation to act in love. Love acts without expecting a return. Again Paul writes, Philippians 2:3-4 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you
should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of
others.
Finally, love when it’s tough.
Sometimes people are an “extra love opportunity.” People you struggle to get along with or people who are outright mean to you are hard to love. Even in situations where you are with your spouse or best friend, they push your buttons and you feel like lashing out…it’s tough to love. Love calls us to love even when it is tough. Jesus said in Luke 6:32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.
To say, “Love one another,” is easy. To do it is hard. But remember, the power and direction for loving others is AS Jesus has loved you. Let his love fill you so that you can fill others’ lives with his love. The result?
John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Apply: What aspect of loving others is most challenging to you? Can you think of an example of how Jesus loved in that situation? How can it help you to love?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us so genuinely and deeply. I ask that your love would every day become more real for me so that I might love others just as you have loved me. AMEN.
How Jesus has loved us!
Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Love Revealed (Watch Here)
“As I have loved you.”
The standard for love of others is Jesus’ love for us.
To be better at loving others, we must grow deeper in how Jesus has loved us. The world around us can define and exhibit “love” however it chooses, but if we want to be known as disciples of Jesus, we must understand and model the love of Jesus.
So what does that look like?
First Jesus CHOSE to love.
To love as Jesus has loved us is to choose to love. The love that Jesus showed was not earned or deserved by the recipients (actually just the opposite). He desired the blessing of others and so he chose to act on their behalf. John 13:1 states, “It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.”
Jesus didn’t ask the disciples if they wanted their feet washed, he chose to wash their feet. Jesus didn’t ask for prayer requests from his disciples, he prayed for them. Jesus didn’t ask his disciples to defend him against arrest, he chose to be arrested. Jesus didn’t ask his disciples if he should die for them even though they deserted him, he chose to die for them.
The whole of Jesus’ mission was the plan of his Father which Jesus intentionally undertook for the salvation of all mankind. He was not coerced, bought off, or manipulated. He chose to love us.
He loved UNCONDITIONALLY.
The world’s love is often connected to the performance of the recipient. If they don’t love back, I stop loving them. If they wrong me, jilt me, or turn on me, I feel justified to stop loving someone (and maybe worse.) However, look at the Apostle Paul’s inspired reflection in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still sinners, Jesus acted in love on our behalf!
He loved SACRIFICIALLY.
Jesus’ love for us always was an imposition on his time, character, activities. He was willing to give himself up for us so that we might be presented as perfect, holy and blameless before God (even though we could achieve none of this on our own!). As an example for husbands, the Apostle Paul uses the sacrificial love of Jesus as our example as husbands to love their wives. Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
These three perhaps the world understands a bit, but not fully. The last one is one is a key to loving as Jesus did.
Jesus loved us HONESTLY.
Jesus loves us enough to not allow us to live in the lies of Satan. He loves us enough to point out when our hearts are loving someone or something else more than the Lord, because he wants us to end up in heaven. He is willing to warn us of sin in our hearts, such as pride, selfishness, deviance from God’s law and much more because he knows these are the fruit of Satan, not the Spirit. Jesus loves us enough to guide us in a way that reflects him, not our sinful passions and desires. To love us, Jesus warns us, points out sin, and calls us to repentance. In no way does Jesus love by overlooking sin, not addressing it or worst of all condoning it because he doesn’t want to confront it.
Is confrontation of our sin is simply because he loves us enough to continue in it. He is more than willing to forgive one who repents of their sin and is more than happy to give his Spirit to help us overcome that sin. It would be dishonest and unloving for him to even hint that sinful behavior was justified or ok.
One of many examples is in John 8. Jesus confronts the pride of the Pharisees ready to stone a woman caught in adultery. Jesus forgives the woman and directs her away from her sin. All done in love because he wants none of them to be separated from God forever because of sin that is left unaddressed.
John 8:10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
As I have loved you…Jesus says…love one another.
Apply: Which aspect of Jesus’ love for you is most challenging as you think about loving others?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me intentionally, unconditionally, sacrificially, and honestly. We pray that in all our love for others, we would love as you have loved us. AMEN.
Love as…
Today’s devotion is based on the Message: Love Revealed (Watch Here)
A little word makes a big difference.
“Jesus wants us to love everyone.”
Sounds good doesn’t it?
I would have to agree.
However the context of this statement has to be carefully considered. In recent years, I have heard this phrase used often in a conversation where there is a discussion of a behavior that while it might be accepted and maybe even legal, it butts up against God’s moral law. The phrase is thrown out, “Jesus wants us to love everyone, doesn’t he?” and it seems like the “moral ace card” has been played and the one opposing the behavior has to fall silent because who could disagree with the statement, “Jesus wants us to love everyone”?
The sentence sounds good.
Jesus in John 13:34 said, “A new command I give you: Love one another.”
All too often Scripture is used as a convenient cover for tough and challenging conversations or even revelations that counter the culture or the accepted norm.
To be sure, Jesus wants us to love everyone.
To be sure, we cannot disagree with Jesus’ command to love one another.
However, where we must pause is the very next word: “As…”
John 13:34 continues, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Sometimes the smallest words make the biggest difference.
With this word, Jesus qualifies what our love of others is to look like. It is to look the same way he has loved us.
With this word, Jesus challenges us to understand how he has loved us.
With this word, Jesus turns us away from the world’s definition of love, how I think love should be practiced, or how the people around me wish love would be defined.
One cannot ignore the point Jesus is making. In the same way Jesus has loved us, so we are to love others.
So, that takes work. But it is work that is worth undertaking.
Before we get into a discussion about “loving everyone” or before we start making up our own definition or determination of what Jesus meant when he wants us to love one another, we must turn to Jesus to see how he actually did love us. What happens in our search is to realize that every teaching, every interaction, every action which is recorded about Jesus is an opportunity to ask, “How did he love me in this situation?”
Consider a somewhat random passage from Matthew 5:1-2. With these words, Matthew introduces the next three chapters.
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
Jesus loved these people enough to teach them about life in the kingdom of God, where blessing was to be found, what the law of God said, nuances of sin they may not have thought about, relationship issues, heart issues, and much more.
Why? Because just as a parent takes time to teach their child about life, relationships, faith and more because they love them, so Jesus did as well.
There is much more that we will delve into the next couple of days to better understand how Jesus loved us. And the great thing is, Jesus taught and modeled love throughout his ministry so that we would know not just a general idea, but very specifically what love is to look like when we love one another…and for that matter, love everyone.
Because one little word makes a big difference!
Apply: Read through Matthew 5-7. Make a list of all the ways that Jesus loved us in the various teachings he gives in his Sermon on the Mount…you may need a couple of pages!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for loving everyone with a perfect love. Help me grow in all the ways you have loved me so that I might truly love all around me JUST AS you have loved me. AMEN!