TEXT: JOHN xxi. 16. “He saith to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Tend my sheep.”
THERE is no more important charge than that which the Lord gave to His apostle in these words. He calls Himself the Shepherd of His flock; therefore what He here committed to the charge of the apostle was to do the Lord’s own work in His name, and under His oversight and ruling direction as Chief Shepherd. But this is a charge committed by no means exclusively to the Apostle Peter, nor exclusively to the rest of the apostles, nor to those alone who now in a special and official way serve the Lord as teachers and overseers in His Church: it is the duty of all Christians without exception; we are all to be labourers in His vineyard. But in this vineyard, the plants of which are none other than redeemed souls, its fruits none other than the fruits of the Spirit, what can any one find to do that would not be included in the expression, Tend My sheep? Co-operation and help in the work which the Lord has to do on the souls that God has given Him, this and nothing else can we supply to Him, and He can make use of nothing else. If therefore we are to present our whole life to Him as a living thank-offering; if we are bound to show that He has sanctified our souls, by our making some use of the powers we owe to Him, then we must all certainly take part in the work which, in the words of our text, He commits to the apostle. But He connects this charge with Peter’s answer to His question, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? And thus it appears to us that in an examination to which, as it were, the Lord subjects Peter, this love to Christ is the one thing He requires of him, with a view to his feeding Christ’s sheep. But we find among Christians in all ages very different opinions about this. Some adhere strictly to this word of the Lord, and say that there is absolutely no other spiritual qualification for this duty; that a man has no need to acquire anything else beforehand in order to render to the Lord the service to which all are called; that he only needs to be growing ever stronger in love to the Saviour, and to be able ever more joyfully to answer with the apostle, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. Others, on the contrary, maintain that of course the Lord knew everything else that was in the apostle; what spiritual faculties were awakened, what light of knowledge was kindled in him; but because Peter had fallen and denied Him, He may have stood in doubt about just this one point; or rather, though He, knowing what was in all hearts, could not doubt, the rest of the disciples might have doubted whether love to the Lord was still quite as lively in his heart as it had been. And therefore, they say, the Lord addressed this question to him, not as if there were nothing else required in order to tend His sheep, but because all the other disciples knew quite well the kind and measure of everything else in the soul of Peter, but on this one indispensable point it was necessary for him to come out clearly. In response to these different views, whether love to Christ is sufficient qualification for the fulfilment of the Christian’s calling, or something more is required, let us consider more closely the words pf our text. First, and most necessary, let us try rightly to understand the Saviour’s words in this connection; and secondly, let us go further back and inquire together how those different views may be supposed to have arisen among Christians, in order still more fully to assure ourselves as to what has been the mind and will of the Lord.
I. First, then, if we wish to ascertain which of those two meanings the Saviour may be supposed really to have had, it will be necessary for us to begin by asking what, according to the nature of things, is implied in the commission with which the Lord here charges His disciple, Tend My sheep. Confining ourselves to the figurative expression which the Saviour uses, it unquestionably includes very specially two things: first, that the sheep of the flock must be protected; then, that they must be fed. The shepherd’s care takes in both of these parts; therefore the Lord expects from His disciple and entrusts to him both kinds of work. Well, now let us next ask by what means and in what manner the souls of men are protected, so that they may not again withdraw or wander from the Lord’s flock, and that in the flock no danger may approach or evil befall them? Certainly, we answer unanimously, love to Him is the first requisite; that love must call forth in each of us the strong desire to keep our own soul and the souls of others in living fellowship with Him; it must make us quick to notice whatever might be adverse to that fellowship. But now if we are asked to go a step further, and assert that this love to the Saviour is sufficient by itself for the work, then, it seems to me, we must say No. What a knowledge of the human heart in its obduracy and in its despondency is needful in order to protect the soul in spite of these; with what clear spiritual insight must we penetrate its most hidden recesses if we wish to note and trace out, before it be too late, anything in men’s own souls that endangers their fellowship with the Saviour if we are to detect the first stirrings of evil, and make those aware of it in whom we see it, so that if possible they may turn before they have fairly entered on a wrong course! What a knowledge we need to have of the ways of sin, and of the various snares that are prepared by those who are still sunk in earthly cares and sensual pleasures, for those who are just beginning to show a desire to struggle towards the higher, spiritual life! What experiences of the ways of the world are needful—experiences always dearly bought—to know how to bring flattery and dissimulation to light by the truth, and to distinguish them by their fruits; to be able to warn the inexperienced, and dispel for them the illusive semblance of kindness and goodness behind which those only too often conceal themselves who are trying to entice others into the way of ruin. When we think of all this, we must indeed admit that besides love to Christ, true wisdom also belongs to the work of tending His sheep. And now let us look at the second point—that the souls belonging to the Lord’s flock are also to be fed. What other food for souls is there but the Word of God? None, certainly; for the Word that became flesh and came into the world is also the true bread of life that came down from heaven. And Christ Himself said that the flesh profits nothing, but that His words are spirit and life. He therefore who means to feed redeemed souls must know how to dispense and portion out to them the divine Word. Now it is certain that if we are to partake of this food ourselves and dispense it to others, in the first place, our love to Christ must be a well-founded love which recognises that He alone has the words of life. But, in the next place, how needful it is on the one hand that we be able to form a correct judgment on the various relations and conditions in which men are found, to decide in each case what kind of food is most necessary and suitable for the soul, and with true wisdom to select from the great abundance and the infinite fulness of the divine Word that which is best fitted to nourish each one and strengthen him for good in every emergency. But then, on the other hand, still more, what is needful in order to be able rightly to divide the Word of God, although we know how it ought to be distributed to every one? Well, certainly this, that we first clearly and fully understand it ourselves. But the interval of a long course of centuries lies between us and the first utterance of those words; they are written in a foreign and now dead language: and yet the true and perfect under standing of the divine Word can only be that which corresponds most nearly to the way in which all those who heard it from the living lips of the Lord and His apostles—those whose minds were most awake, most favourably disposed and best prepared—understood it and applied it to themselves. Therefore a power of transporting our thoughts to distant times and into conditions of society strange to us, a knowledge of foreign tongues and customs, is a part of the qualification for rightly dividing the Word of God. And so, if we are to approach our brethren with the divine words, and thus tend Christ’s sheep, love to Him is, no doubt, the first condition; for this is the same thing as our own pleasure and joy in the divine Word, and it is love to Him alone that can constrain us to this whole work, for he who does not love Christ Himself, does not love His flock. But if it is asserted that love alone suffices, we shall again deny it, and certainly still more truly in our case than in that of His first disciples, and feel bound to say that, besides love, a right perception is also needful for the work. And thus when we consider the subject on this side, those persons seem to be right who think, that when the Saviour meant to commission His disciple to tend His sheep, He asked especially about his love to Him, because there might have been room to doubt whether that remained unchanged; but everything else that he needed for the work—the wisdom and knowledge—He took for granted in him as already known.