That night, the seven disciples, led by Peter,  had been toiling, trying to catch fish all night and catching nothing , not even a fingerling. Then, beside the bank, a voice of a lone figure rang out in the wee hours of the morn to them: “Children, have you any meat?” The answer was No! Then the silhouetted figure in the breaking light of the dawn, instructed them: “Throw your net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” When they had this done, they caught boat-sinking fish. Suddenly, they recognised the owner of the voice as one very familiar to them: Jesus Christ, recently killed and, now alive. They soon dragged up the catch to the land. Even then, a sumptuous meal of fish was already prepared for them on a low burning fire.

John’s story continues: “When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simeon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” ……

Again, Jesu said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” …..

The third time he said to him, Simon son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:12-17).

The greatest question in life as here is on love and its solidity, its fidelity , how reliable it is. It’s a question coming from God to man, “Do you love me?” Or, put in another way, “Can I depend on your love?” This question is what man carries about all of life. It’s what man is here to prove on this earth. This question can only be answered in this world by man; the solidity and reliability of man’s love for God can only be answered by man here, and no where else, not even in heaven, much less in hell. After here, the story is all over; there’s no question to answer again.

A child finds it easy to love its parents for their gifts to it. Man does this to God because of His daily benefits. This is not the type of love Jesus is addressing here. Anybody can do that. Even this love can be found among cannibal animals towards one another! It’s found easily, effortlessly among the families of different creatures to one another. It’s a higher level of children love the children of Israel, in her exodus experiences exercised towards God in the wilderness. This is only heavenly, impossible to find anywhere on earth; it’s a love ministered to and through man here on earth by the heavenly being in the person of the Holy Spirit.

In this Johanna story, the word love occurs three times, but the first two used by the Lord Jesus Christ in the original Greek is agapao; while all the three Greek word used by Peter and the last by the Lord is phileo. All the two words have different shades of meaning. We shall rewrite, inserting the Greek words. …

Jesus said to Simon Peter ….”Do you agapao me…?” He (Peter) said to him (Jesus), “Yes, Lord, you know that I phileo you.

Phileo means to be a friend to (fond of an individual, object), i.e have attachment for, as a matter of sentiment or feeling; while agapao is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). Most of the members of the church in the wilderness, Israel, were kids ready to offer their emotion-based love of phileo when the miracles of God hit the roof, and were quick to withdraw it when a another light cropped up. But there is another form of love which is based on principle,  faith; a love, that will never consider the possibility of a change whatever the situation. This was the type of love Christ required from Peter and the be believers here..

God, at and in creation, planned that man would be at one with Him. Jesus didn’t live, die and resurrected only so that the believers might phileo Him alone; He wants His own type of love ministered by His spirit to the believers to be ministered back to Him. It’s Greek noun form is agape love, love without any condition. It’s the right of the believer to exercise faith to acquire all that’s in the world; it’s great faith to achieve them by faith. In this, it’s great to let loose the phileo love on God for this. But what of if for some inexplicable reason, known only to God, the faith-fetchable things failed to come, what would be the fate of our love towards God? This is the point where agape intervenes. Agape is distinct in that it tenaciously holds on, unmoved, un-bothered even in the face of God’s withdrawal of divine intervention.

Again, the greatest question of God to man has always been, Do you love God; do you love His Christ? Do you agapao God and His Christ? It’s easy to answer yes when there is no reason to say otherwise. But it may be difficult to say in the face of certain death like the three Hebrew children ……“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace;…. but if not…..we will not serve thy gods, nor worship…” (Daniel 3:17-18). Many times, phileo may come with faith-shaking proof even as awesome as escaping death. But, come up to another species of believers in Christ. These are described as the remnants of the seeds of the woman. They came face to face with death by the dragon raging against them, but they overcame. They overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and by not loving their lives so much as to shrink from death (Revelation 12:11). I’ve always wondered why Paul, in spite of the knowledge of what would befall him in Jerusalem, decided to go on, saying, But none of these things move me…..(Acts 20:24). Here’s is the show of love of agape that is not only riveted to the unrelenting delivering hands of God, playing down bothersome questions. These two types of love came to him naturally and spontaneously. Peter said, Yes Lord, I phileo you. He repeated this three times. But he later understood through his life. John comments on this scene, the end of this story, here is the conclusion: Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God… (John 21:19).

Jesus Christ asks Peter, Do you love me

The question is still hanging.