Loving God

Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

We are commanded to love God with all of our bodies, with all of our being, and with all of our strength, but how do we even begin to love God with every single aspect of our being?

What does love look like, to begin with? Jesus asks Peter—one of His disciples—three times if he truly loves Jesus. All three times, Peter answers in the affirmative, and Jesus gives him three commands in John 21:

Feed my lambs. Shepherd my sheep. Feed my sheep.

Feed my lambs

The literal words used mean to feed and promote the general welfare of lambs, but more than that, that they have the resources to grow up and mature.

Jesus is telling Peter—and us—that if we truly love Him, if we truly love God, we will take care of the bodies and souls of His people.

This speaks to the act of helping people grow in understanding of God. It says that we need to guide people to finding God. If we truly love Jesus, we are giving people the resources to grow in God.

When we follow this command of Jesus, we take care of people’s entire beings..

Tend my sheep

Here, Jesus tells Peter that he needs to govern, or rule, the people of God. Another translation says to serve the people of God.

It’s not a matter of telling people what to do, or doing everything for them. A shepherd guides the sheep. Leads them to clean water and grazing grounds. Ensures that their wool and skin is clean, and that the sheep have enough safety and protection to grow and reproduce. They stay up with their sheep making sure they’re protected.

By tending to the people of God, we are ensuring that their entire being—their souls—are being taken care of, and that they can grow in size and in number.

Feed my sheep

Here, again, the word used says to promote the general welfare of sheep, giving them resources to grow.

We’re talking about full-grown sheep, not lambs, so the food they require is different, but still necessary.

Just like lambs, if we love God, we need to make sure that we are giving people the resources to grow in the knowledge of God.

Where it differs is that just like real lambs, people just learning about God need simple “food”—simple knowledge. We can’t give a newborn baby steak; a newborn baby needs milk and simple foods.

However, as that lamb or baby grows, they naturally want different food that is tougher to process. They need to learn to chew their food, and their bodies can digest more and more complex foods. Their bodies grow stronger.

And that’s what Jesus is talking about here with Peter: that if we truly love God, we need to create a space for people to have basic questions about God answered, we need to create a space where those people can bring others, and we need to create a space where people can grow stronger and gain deeper understanding about God.

If we truly love God, we need to create a space where we—and by extension others—can grow to love God in our hearts, in our souls, and in our strength.

So what are the positions and actions we are taking that hinder people from drawing close to God?

Are we excusing abuse and injustice from leaders because "they have good things to say” or “their heart’s in the right place”?

Are we condemning our neighbors because they don’t look, talk or act the way we think they should?

Are we making it easier for those around us to thrive, or trying to keep barriers in place that bring people down?

If we say we love God let’s ensure that in everything we do, with everyone we meet, we feed the lambs, tend the sheep, and feed the sheep of Jesus.

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