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"Feed My sheep" - John 21:17
This is love in the making. The love of God is not created— it is His nature.
When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with
God so that His love is demonstrated in us. The goal of the indwelling Holy
Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will
be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of
oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father? He had such a oneness with the
Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out
for us. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John
20:21).
Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with
the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is— “Pour yourself out.
Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful
revelation you have had, just ’Feed My sheep.’ ” Jesus has some extraordinarily
peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy,
and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and
it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within
me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural
individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural
emotions— I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from
His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your
own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve
to revile and abuse the true love of God.
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