Love Takes Us to Better Places.

In John 21, we read about the aftermath of Peter denying Jesus and Jesus asking Peter multiple times if he loves Him.

Scripture says,

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 

16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 

18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 

19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

I have heard this scripture preached many, many times. And usually, when we think of this scripture, we think that Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him three times to make up for the three times that Peter denied Jesus. And we usually think that Peter was “grieved” because he realized what Jesus was doing when he asked Peter the same question a third time.

But if we dig into it a bit further, we can see something else in this passage. (This was the point when I was on the edge of my seat when I heard this takeaway. Keep reading because your mind will be blown).

When we look at the Greek translation behind the words in this passage, we see that when Jesus asked Peter if he loved him the first time, Jesus originally used the word “agapas,” which is the Greek word for “agape” – the kind of love that God shows us.

The second time Jesus asked Peter if he loved him, he used the same word for love – agapas.

The third time, however, Jesus used the word “phileis,” which is Greek for “phileo” – brotherly love.

When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him for the first and second times, He was asking him if Peter loved him with the kind of love that God loves him with. And because Jesus is God, he knew that when Peter said yes to those first two questions, he was not telling the truth.

So Jesus asked Peter if he loved him with a phileo love (brotherly love) instead.

Peter knew that Jesus knew the real truth and that he only loved him (right now) with a phileo kind of love.

And because of this, Peter was grieved.

But if you look at verse 18, we read that Jesus sorta randomly changed subjects a little bit and He started talking about how Peter was going to die for Christ.

But at the beginning of verse 18 when Jesus says, “when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted…” Jesus is actually referring to how Peter, right now, is considered a "young Christian." He is still going through that transformative process where he is still thirsting for milk, but is starting to hunger for meat.

Peter is serving God with a phileo love at this point in time.

Now look at the end of verse 18. Scripture says, “but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

Jesus is prophesying over Peter’s life and is basically saying, “Hey, I know that right now, you only love me with a phileo kind of love, but as you get older, you are going to love me with an agape love. And you are going to love me so much that you die for me."

So right now, Peter is serving the Lord with a phileo love, but as he continues serving the Lord with this kind of love, it turns into agape love.

The same for you.

Perhaps you are a young Christian, and you just recently started following Christ. Or maybe you have been a Christian for years, but you’ve been living on the milk instead of the meat.

But maybe you are experiencing a movement in your heart right now, and you are desiring that agape love for God that we’ve been talking about.

Good news is that you can absolutely get there.

Right now, you might have that phileo love for God, but I encourage you to keep serving the Lord with that phileo love. Let God work through you, faithfully serve Him, and He will change that phileo love into agape love.

“Let love be your highest goal...” 1 Corinthians 14:1