I

The Lord Jesus’ thrice repeated questioning of Peter: “Simon, son of John, love you Me?” allows people to feel the sternness of the Lord Jesus’ attitude, and the urgency He felt during His questioning. The question was thought-provoking and meaningful, a question that cannot help but cause every follower of Christ to feel remorse and fear, but also to feel the Lord Jesus’ anxious, sorrowful mood. And when they’re in great pain and suffering, they are more able to understand the Lord Jesus Christ’s concern and His care; they realize His earnest teaching and strict requirements of pure, honest people. The Lord Jesus’ question allows people to feel that the Lord’s expectations of people revealed in these simple words are not merely to believe in and follow Him, but to achieve having love, loving your Lord and your God.

II

This kind of love is caring and submitting. It is humans living for God, dying for God, dedicating everything to God, and expending and giving everything for God. This kind of love is also giving God comfort, allowing Him to enjoy testimony and to be at rest. It’s mankind’s repayment to God, man’s responsibility, obligation and duty, and it’s a way that people must follow for their entire lives. These three questions were a requirement and an exhortation that the Lord Jesus made of Peter and all people who would be made perfect. It was these three questions that led and motivated Peter to follow his path in life to the end, and it was these questions at the Lord Jesus’ parting that led Peter to start on his path of being made perfect, that led him, because of his love for the Lord, to care for the Lord’s heart, to submit to the Lord, to offer comfort to the Lord, and to offer up his whole life and his whole being because of this love.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III