LOVE ME MORE THAN THESE
John 21:15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
In so many places in the Word, the Lord Jesus is very clear about where He should rank in our lives; it is alone at number 1. We can see in Matthew 10:34-39 and Luke 14:26, Jesus says something that people find hard to hear and understand. He says you have to love Him more that your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and your own life, or you are not worthy of Him. The King James in Luke uses “hate,” which really throws people off, but very simply this means you must love everyone less than you love the Lord. He stands alone at number 1 in your life. Nothing is in front of Him; no one is before Him. This is more than a head nod and a, Yes, that’s true;” it should also be true in our actions. He comes first, what He says comes first, and what He tells me to do comes first. Now, this is scary to some people who don’t know Him very well because immediately they think that doing this would hurt their family and their marriage, but quite the opposite is true. If you really know Him, you know the only reason humans are here on Earth is because God wanted a family. When we got born again, we came into the family of God as sons and daughters. God is our Father. God is all about families, so don’t give me, “I can’t obey God because it will hurt my family.” God would never hurt your family.
So, what do we do with this? First, we have to keep our relationship with the Lord number one by reading the Word and fellowshipping with Him. Second, we must really get to know the voice of the Lord because He will give us specific things to do, and we have to do those things for Him. But I can assure you of this, if it is the Lord and you do it like He tells you to, it will never hurt your family. Any time family is getting hurt by the things of God, we, as human beings, are missing it somewhere, i.e., you are not allotting your personal time correctly, there is a misunderstanding among the family, or something else but God has become number one. I think I can speak for my wife when I say, we are both of the persuasion, “Don’t make me chose between you and God; that choice has already been made.”
Today’s scripture is often misunderstood. I think most people think Jesus is asking Peter, “Do you love me more than these other apostles?” I don’t think Jesus would ask him that because the Word says not to compare ourselves among ourselves. Then, later Peter asked about what would happen to his main competitor John, and Jesus basically said, “What’s it to you? Obey me and don’t be concerned about what he is or is not doing.” What Jesus was talking to Peter about was the boats, the nets, the business, and all that went with it. Why? Because after Peter’s failure, it was the first thing he went back to. Jesus wanted to get Peter to say, “No, I love you more than the stuff, the career, my livelihood.” The Lord wants the same thing from us. Jesus is number 1, and we are to love Him more than anything and anyone.