THE MAIN IDEA
The love of Christ gives us the power to love like Christ. 

LOVING JESUS MEANS RECEIVING LOVE
Jesus had told His disciples that after He  was crucified and resurrected, they should go to Galilee, and they would see Him there. So they  go to Galilee and wait for Jesus. Who knows how long they waited, but Peter got restless and  decided to go fishing. Really, we read this as Peter’s decision to give up and go back to his  former profession. When Jesus does come, Peter makes a show of swimming to Jesus and  hauling the fish from the boat. But really, he was masking his embarrassment. Knowing this,  Jesus simply asks him three times, “Do you love me?” And each time, Peter responds by saying,  “Yes, You know I love You.” Jesus was basically giving Peter an opportunity to negate the three  times that he had denied Jesus while Jesus was on trial. And the point was not to make Peter go  through a confession ceremony in order to be reinstated as a disciple. The point was to remind  Peter that what really mattered was not how much He loved Jesus, but how much Jesus loved  him. And the same is true for us. 

LOVING JESUS MEANS CONFESSING LOVE
In the original Greek, Jesus uses two  different Greek verbs for love, agapaō and phileō. And Peter responds with only phileō. These  words mean the same thing, really, and there is probably no significance in how Jesus and Peter  use these words, even though a case could be made for some significance in the usage. What is  significant, however, is that even in his hurt and shame, Peter confessed his love for Jesus. The  word “confess” means to express openly one’s allegiance to a proposition or person. And that is  what Peter is doing. He confessed with his mouth, “Lord, You know all things” because Jesus  Christ is Lord and God. And he could see the evidence that God had raised Him from the dead  right in front of him. That confession and witness is the basis of our salvation (Romans 10:9). And so we should always be prepared to give people a reason for the hope that we have in Jesus  Christ (1 Peter 3:15). 

LOVING JESUS MEANS FOLLOWING LOVE
Jesus’s call to “Follow Me” is not just for  Peter. That call is for everyone who calls Jesus Savior and Lord. But we will not follow Jesus if  we love other things more. Jesus refers to those things when He asks, “Do you love Me more  than these?” The ambiguous “these” could be referring to the other disciples sitting around the  campfire. Or it could be referring to the fish and boats and all the fishing gear—that is, our  careers and money. Or Jesus could be asking, “Do you love me more than these other disciples  do?”—in other words, “Do you love yourself more than Jesus?” But Jesus had said that if we  love anything more than Him, we are not worthy to follow Him. Of course, Jesus does not  demand that we literally abandon our families and friends or our careers for the sake of a church  or for the sake of a ministry. But we should use our good judgment. The truth is that we could all  probably do better when it comes to following Jesus. And as we learn to follow Jesus better, the  happier our lives will be. And what does it mean to follow Jesus? Jesus says to “feed My  lambs”—in other words we are to help one another grow in our spiritual maturity and to grow in  our love for Christ. 

DISCUSSION QUESTION
Has anyone ever encourage you to become more mature in your relationships?  How so? Or how might you encourage others to be more mature in their relationships?