15 So wlien they had dined, Je- 8U8 saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, ]o vest thou me more than these? He saith unto him. Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the sec- ond time, Simon, son of Jonas, lov- est thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I
love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved be- cause he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee, my sheep.
These verses describe a remarkable conversation "between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Peter. To the careful Bible reader, who remembers the Apos- tle's thrice-repeated denial of Christ, the passage cannot fail to be a deeply interesting portion of Scripture. Well would it be for the Church, if all " after-dinner " conversations among Christians were as useful and edi- fying as this.
We should notice first, in these verses, Chrisfs ques- tion to JPeter : " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ? " — Three times we find the same inquiry made. It seems most probable that this three-fold repetition was meant to remind the Apostle of his own thrice-repeated denial. Once we find a remarkable addition to the inquiry : " Lovest thou Me more than these ? " It is a reasona- ble supposition that those three words " more than these," were meant to remind Peter of his over-confi- dent assertion : " Though all men deny Thee, yet will not I." — It is just as if our Lord would say, " Wilt thou now exalt thyself above others ? Hast thou yet learned thine own weakness ? "
" Lovest thou Me " may seem at first sight a simple question. In one sense it is so. Even a child can un- derstand love, and can say whether he loves another or not. Yet "Lovest thou Me" is, in reality, a very Bearching question. We may know much, and do