ARE YOU DEVOTED TO JESUS

JOHN 21:15-17 Jesus is next statement to Peter points out that in the future he won't be able to depend on the strength. Actually, before under his own strength , he didn't accomplish much anyway--at least not what the Lord was wanting.

JOHN21:15-17

Verse 15 Lovest thou me more than these?  Peter had even boasted that he would stand by Christ though all men forsook him (Mark 14:29). We do not know what passed between Jesus and Peter when Jesus first appeared to him (Luke 24:34). But here Christ probes the inmost recesses of Peter's heart to secure the humility necessary for service. I love thee (pilw su). Peter makes no claim here to superior love and passes by the "more than these" and does not even use Christ's word agapaw for high and devoted love, but the humbler word pilew for love as a friend. He insists that Christ knows this in spite of his conduct. Feed my lambs (Boske ta arnia mou). For the old word boskw (to feed as a herdsman) see Matthew 8:33. Present active imperative here. Arnia is a diminutive of arnoß (lamb).

Verse 16 Lovest thou me? (agapaiß me;). This time Jesus drops the pleon toutwn and challenges Peter's own statement. Peter repeats the same words in reply. Tend my sheep (poimaine ta probatia). Present active imperative of poimainw, old verb from poimhn (shepherd), "shepherd my lambs" (probatia, diminutive of probaton, sheep).

Verse 17 Lovest thou me?  (pileiß me;). This time Jesus picks up the word pilew used by Peter and challenges that. These two words are often interchanged in the N.T., but here the distinction is preserved. Peter was cut to the heart (eluphqh, first aorist passive of lupew, to grieve) because Jesus challenges this very verb, and no doubt the third question vividly reminds him of the three denials in the early morning by the fire. He repeats his love for Jesus with the plea: "Thou knowest all things." Feed my sheep (boske ta probatia). Many MSS. both here and in verse Matthew 16 read probata (sheep) instead of probatia (little sheep or lambs).