21:15
We now come to Peter’s personal encounter with Jesus. Some see this as totally separate to the preceding events, but the text makes it clear that it all flows together. Jesus famously asks Peter if he loves Him. Many talks on this make great play of the difference between the words used for love, philo and agape. According to Carson this distinction is largely spurious. The two words are not exactly the same, but there is a considerable level of overlap in their usage, so we should not make great play of any supposed difference. “More than these” has been taken in various ways. The most likely Jesus is asking Peter if he loves Him more than the other disciples do. Remember back to Peter’s declaration that he would never let Jesus down, Peter clearly at the time thought that he did indeed love Jesus more than the others did. Peter declares that he does love Jesus, and Jesus gives him the command to feed His sheep. The sheep belong to Jesus, not to us. Whatever responsibilities we may have for God’s people, we should always remember that they belong to Jesus not to us, and we will have to answer to Jesus for how well we have pastored or taught them.
21:16
Jesus asks Peter a second time if he loves Him, this time just asking if he loves Him, without any comparing the level of his love to that of others. Comparing ourselves to others is a futile exercise if we do it in terms of trying to work out if we are better or worse than others. It is, of course, fruitful to see what we can learn from others. Every single person has good and bad aspects to their lives. Peter again replies yes, and Jesus again commands him to tend His sheep.
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