WHAT CHOICE WOULD YOU MAKE?

John 21:15a After they had dined with Him, Jesus asked 'Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Whenever I have read today’s text, I have been reminded that Peter was given the same number of opportunities to declare his love for Jesus as he had denied Him, three times. Yet, reading the same text today, my mind was fixated on the first question found in verse 15 ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ This isn’t repeated, as in subsequent verses, the question becomes “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

It is interesting that the first question was one of comparison, and note the timing “after they had dined together”.  This was in fact Jesus asking “if I was placed alongside other things, even those things I have willingly given to you, which would you choose?”. Between resources, wealth, fame, family, career, ministry, men, pleasure and Jesus, which would be your pick?

Don’t be so quick to say “Jesus”, because perhaps, you haven’t found yourself in a position that required you to make that choice. Yet, this is a question we are asked on a daily basis with every choice we make. Do we choose things over God, or do we choose God over things? It is very easy to fall in love with creation, than to love the creator. That is where we miss it. The question thus is “will you choose Jesus over things, or will it be the other way round?”

#sly