“Because of this, make every effort to

add integrity to your faith;

and to integrity add knowledge;

to knowledge add self-control;

to self-control add endurance;

to endurance add godliness;

to godliness add Christian affection;

and to Christian affection add love.

If you have these qualities and they are increasing, it demonstrates that your knowledge about our Lord Jesus Christ is living and productive.”

2 Peter 1:5-8

Dear, honest Peter!   This earthy, hard-working fisherman was quite the character….before and during his time with Jesus.  Fishermen are pretty tough.  They understand fish.  They understand the feel in the air…the effect of the wind….and the sense of “they’re bitin’….let’s get out there!”   And they like old, ratty clothes and often smell bad.

When Jesus disrupted Peter’s life, he had a lot of struggles trying to contain his “fisherman ways” as he was learning to walk with Jesus.  And he learned – changed – SO much.  Here we read an amazing list of what Peter had been learning and experiencing.

I’d like to reverse the order of his words, in a way of looking at why one characteristic needs the other.  I have a feeling these were all coming from his own life experience as He learned to follow and walk with the Good Shepherd Jesus, and to see Jesus’ Divine Nature begin to reflect in his own old fisherman’s nature:

• Faith needs Integrity: Integrity grounds and solidifies Faith…Integrity keeps Faith honest;
• Integrity needs Knowledge: Knowledge adds factual substance to upright character;
• Knowledge needs Self-Control: You can know a lot, but without self-control, it may not be lived out in the day-to-day of life.  Knowledge needs to translate into real life.
• Self-Control needs Endurance: It’s easier to control one’s self on those “good days”, but it becomes harder in the long-haul;   (“I’ve given up chocolate” days)
• Endurance needs Godliness: “I can…I can…I can…” can be all about ME, not about God, or the people in my life.
• Godliness needs Christian Affection: Living “in the spiritual clouds”  or in “righteous ways” can lose touch with the human needs for affection and emotional connections;
• Christian Affection needs Love: ..emotional connections… can go off in wrong directions rather quickly.  Love is not an emotion….it’s the choices and actions that put the “other” above my own needs and priority.  Love lays down one’s own life for the “other.”

Peter’s list is wonderful.  They’re all good things…greatly needed to be lived out in this world.

“…Jesus asked Simon Peter,  ‘Simon, son of John,

Do you love me more than the other disciples do?”

Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus told him, ‘Feed my lambs.’

Jesus asked him again, a second time,

‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’

Peter answered him,

‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’

Jesus told him,

“Take care of my sheep.”

Jesus asked him a third time,

“Simon, son of John,

Do you love me?”

Peter felt sad because Jesus had asked him a third time,

“Do you love me?”

So Peter said to him,

‘Lord, you know everything.  You know that I love you.’

Jesus told him,

“Feed my sheep.”

John 21:15-17

Jesus was alive again, and for a third time was with His disciples.  He had made them breakfast.  They knew who He was.  Then, Jesus asked Peter, specifically,  an important question, three times.  Why 3 times?  Where was Peter’s head each time?  What is it about something repeated three times that makes a difference?

First time:    A question comes in the midst of “something else” going on….my mind is focused on something at hand…things bombarding my mind at the moment the “new” topic comes up.   Distracted.  Focused elsewhere.  Experiencing something else at that time.

Watch children, for example.   “Seth…come here and _________.”   Didn’t even hear me.  Fully absorbed in his present moment.  

Second time:   “Seth….you’re not listening to me.  Come here and ________.   RIght now!”       Now he’s aware of the conflict he’s feeling.   He wants to keep doing what he was already doing.  I’m pulling him / his thoughts away from something else that has captured them.  Awareness begins…a choice is being required.  Continue what he’s into or choose to change his focus….probably to something that will require some kind of change in his actions.   An internal struggle begins.  He’s going to have to make a choice. 

Third time:  “SETH!”   Seth has not yet given his focus to me.   I must go to him, put his little face in my hands and require him to look into my eyes. It’s the only way I can truly get his attention.  His eyeballs are still going all over the place…avoiding looking in my eyes. That requires a “connection”  with me.  He is going to have to make a choice….either continue his own way, or give in to obedience to me.

What happened with Peter?  He was a fisherman.  His “catch” didn’t require long-term, 24/7 care.  Fishermen don’t develop a relationship with the fish.  One hard whack on the head – done!   Peter knew how to do that.  He knew fish.

What Jesus was asking him to do would require his life.  24/7.  Challenging, tireless, physically demanding, time and life-sacrificing.  It would require being away from home and comfort for months at a time.  Lonely. And Peter didn’t know how to do it. Fishing he knew.  Feeding sheep he didn’t.  It required a completely different skill set and temperament.  It would require everything.  It would require his life.

What is happening in my own life, my own heart as Jesus is asking me that same question?

THE END POINT:    IF YOU LOVE ME, FEED  MY SHEEP.  It’s about “the others”….no matter how bedraggled, skittish, dirty, wayward, flea-ridden, head-butting, stubborn, needy, troublesome, sickly,  funny, odd, disobedient or loveable.

This is the whole goal of a good shepherd….find food so that they can eat, and make them feel safe enough to be able to eat.  Whether it means months away from home so that they can be in good pasture, or whether the good pasture has been prepared for them right at home…

Loving Him must play out as “feed My sheep.”  It will require everything.