This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (15:8).

The ultimate purpose of our life as God's miniatures is to show the glory of our Father in heaven. Speaking of God's glory, however, we Christians often mistake it with worldly honor that comes from men. The above scripture says that it is by the fact that we are Jesus' disciples that our Father is gloried. And how do we become his disciples? Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." The glory we seek in this world is merely praise or honor that comes from men, and has nothing to do with God's glory. This is because his glory is hidden from the world, and can be seen only through our spiritual eyes. Peter, in his first epistle, encourages Christians who are going through persecutions and various hardships, which he calls "unjust suffering," in the following way:

But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed (1 Pet 4:13).

Happy are those who give themselves to suffer as Christ suffered, for he will share his glory with them. When he shares his glory with you, you reflect his glory, and shine as the light of the world. This happens because you make yourself nothing and give yourself to God as a living sacrifice.

If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Pet 4:14).

God's glory is in his Spirit, and it is by his Spirit that glory is revealed and manifested. Therefore, in order for the glory to be revealed through you, you will need to be led by his Spirit.

… because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children (Rom 8:14-16).

God's glory does not come from you, and hence it cannot be shown by yourself. It is the Spirit of God that manifests himself through you by working with your human spirit. Glory is in the "revealing (apokalupsis, disclosure) of the sons of God," whom the Father bore through the word of truth.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed (lit. longing for the revealing of the sons of God, vv. 18-19).

Those who have this hope put all the desires of the flesh away, and set their mind on bearing fruit by walking in the spirit. Guard yourself against the words of judgment and criticism people may hurl at you according to their standard of the honor and praise of this world, which has nothing to do with God's glory.

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory (v. 17).

We are not only co-heirs with Christ in terms of the blessings we receive, but also in terms of the sufferings and glory we share with him. This status of a co-heir with Christ is the special spiritual position where God wants us to be. Jesus prayed for us to the Father on the night before he was crucified:

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world (John 17:24).

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings (lit. God)

and crowned him with glory and honor (Ps 8:3-5).

When it comes to keeping the commandments, we Christians think that it only means to not do anything wrong: as long as we do not do those of "You shall not …," we are not sinning and we are okay. But according to the above scripture, as for "anyone … who knows the good he ought to do," if he "doesn't do it," he sins. In our minds, doing what is wrong is not the same as not doing what is right. Yet, the Bible says, they are the same. "The good he ought to do" is to love, and not to love is a sin. Not to love does not merely means to hate, but also to have passive attitudes about the command to love one another.

Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor (lit. glory and beauty, Exod 28:2).

God gave Moses some detailed instructions as to how to make priestly garments—what material in what color is to be used, etc. The priestly garments show the kind of glory and beauty a priest has in the spiritual world. Glory and beauty in their world are as real as those in our physical world, and whoever has them is admired by all. In the Bible, we have a story of the demon possessed man who ran and fell on his knees in front of Jesus shouting, "Jesus, Son of the Most High God!" To the eyes of the evil spirits, the glory that surrounded Jesus was more than they could bear. Glory is spiritual and comes from God who is spirit. Therefore, the glory that comes from God and the splendor of this world that we see with our eyes are not only different from each other, but also incompatible to each other. You cannot seek both glory from God and glory from men (or praise from men as in NIV) at the same time as you cannot serve two masters, God and money, or love both the Father and the world. Jesus said:

I do not accept praise (lit. glory) from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise (lit. glory) from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise (lit. glory) that comes from the only God (John 5:41-44)?

If you seek glory from men, that is the only kind of glory you will receive, and you are alien to Jesus' discipleship. In fact, such an attitude is evil and Satanic that it contagiously makes others unclean in the church. Jesus said to his disciples on the night he was betrayed:

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (15:8).

To our minds, to seek God's glory is to seek to sit on Moses' seat in a synagogue, or to sit on the right or the left of Jesus as the two sons of Zebedee once sought. To Jesus' mind, however, it was to die on the cross that was for the glory of the Father. Jesus said:

Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? "Father, save me from this hour"? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name (12:27-28)!

And as his disciples, we follow in his footsteps. It is to our father's glory that we bear fruit and become his disciples. Jesus had earlier said:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it (Mat 16:24-25).

This is the only way to bear fruit and glorify the Father, and when he is gloried through us, he will share his glory with us.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins (James 4:17).

When it comes to keeping the commandments, we Christians think that it only means to not do anything wrong: as long as we do not do those of "You shall not …," we are not sinning and we are okay. But according to the above scripture, as for "anyone … who knows the good he ought to do," if he "doesn't do it," he sins. In our minds, doing what is wrong is not the same as not doing what is right. Yet, the Bible says, they are the same. "The good he ought to do" is to love, and not to love is a sin. Not to love does not merely means to hate, but also to have passive attitudes about the command to love one another.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him (1 John 3:17)?

Note the clause, "but has no pity on him," which can be translated literally, "but shuts his compassion on him": he has compassion in his heart, but shuts it with his head so that he ends up not doing anything for the person in need. He does not hate, nor hurt anybody, so he thinks he is okay. But is he? At the gate of a certain rich man, there was a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and always longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table, but the rich man, seeing him everyday, did nothing for him. Both died. Lazarus was brought to Abraham's bosom, but the rich man went to hell. When Christ comes and sits on his throne in glory, he separates all the people as a shepherd separates his flock, and puts the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And he will say to those on his left:

Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me (Mat 25:41-43).

When an expert in the law, who wanted to say he was righteous, asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" he answered by telling the parable of a good Samaritan. For this expert in the law thought in his mind that the "neighbor" meant only the Jews, not the Samaritans. On the deserted road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a priest saw a Jew half dead lying on the ground, but passed by on the other side. A Levite came, and did the same. Both, not wanting to be bothered by unnecessary work which would take extra time and efforts, shut their hearts of compassion, and did nothing. After all, nobody saw it. They knew the good they had to do, and that is why they "passed by on the other side," but did not do it. And a Samaritan came, "took pity on him," and did everything he could following the heart of compassion he had. Jesus asked the expert in the law, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" He replied, "The one who had mercy on him," which indicates that he too knew the good. Then, Jesus said:

Go and do likewise (Luke 10:37)

Note that he said, "Go and …" Love requires active actions. Did Christ go to Jerusalem and die passively? No, he laid down his life willingly and actively. Remember that as far as his own interests were concerned, he was without sin, and did not have to die, nor had any reason to suffer as he did. This is love.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (1 John 3:16).

And he said:

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John 15:12).

We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4:6).

Two kinds of spirit are working in this world: one is "the Spirit of truth," which comes from God, and the other is "the spirit of falsehood," which comes from Satan. The former is the spirit of life, light and love, and the latter is the spirit of death, darkness and hatred. All humans belong either to the Spirit of truth or to that of falsehood.

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth (1:6).

To "have fellowship with him (God)" means to know him and to love him, and anyone who has such fellowship walks in the light and loves his brother. In contrast, anyone who walks in the darkness hates his brother, and even if he claims to have fellowship with God, he belongs to the spirit of falsehood, and the truth is not in him.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble (2:9-10).

It is important to keep in mind that the whole letter is about the command to love one another. With different words and expressions, the author is not only repeatedly encouraging the readers to love as a command, but also explaining how reasonable, logical and realistic it is for those who were born of God to do so.

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen (4:20).

Note the expression, "if anyone says (claims)…, yet (but) …" (also in 2:4 and 9), by which he is speaking of the hypocritical attitude of antichrists: they are led by the spirit of falsehood, and do not have fellowship neither with the believers nor with God himself.

For Christians today, to love one another is usually considered something that is optional, extra, or additional to not sinning: "if you want to love, you can do so, but if you do not want to, you do not need to." In other words, to hate is a sin, but it is quite permissible to not love actively and deeply, or to be indifferent to the needs of others.

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; and (such is) the one who does not love his brother (3:10).

"Anyone who does not do what is right" is "the one who does not love his brother," and such a man is "not a child of God." It does not refer to hatred only, but not to love actively with the attitude of indifference is included.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (v. 16).

Did Christ go on to the cross and die for us with the passive kind of love? John also says:

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him (v. 17)?

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Pet 1:22).

This verse is composed of the following parts:

1) by obeying the truth

2) you have purified yourselves

3) you have sincere love for your brothers,

4) love one another deeply, from the heart

By 1), 2) has happened, and as a result of 2), 3) came to be the fact, which becomes the basis for the command 4). To love one another even in persecutions is the main theme of this letter.

Pay attention to the expression "obeying (hupakoe) the truth," which is not "knowing" or "understanding" the truth as we would normally say with the word "truth." Similarly, at the beginning of the letter (1:2), Peter says that Christians were chosen for "obedience (hupakoe) to Jesus Christ." Since Christ is the truth, to obey him is to obey the truth, which is more suitable to us today because Jesus is not here physically (cf. 1:8, 2:8). And it is by this obedience that sanctification comes. Holiness and obedience are inseparable: they are two sides of the same coin. Obedience to the word of God makes you holy, and disobedience to it indicates that you are not holy. Obedience involves two aspects: submission to the authority of God, and willingness to do his will and instructions. And it is through obedience and holiness that we come to have "sincere love" which is the most important spiritual fruit. With disobedience and un-holiness, there is only insincere love.

Obedience to the truth means to get rid of ideas and desires that do not comply with the truth, and to let the truth dominate in actions and words. It is to give yourself up and follow Jesus in his footsteps as he also made himself nothing for the fulfillment of the Father's will. Jesus said to the disciples:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mat 16:24).

It should be remembered that Jesus had just said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan!" Peter was only puzzled by Jesus' reaction that time. His ignorance and attitude of disobedience continued and resulted in his denial of Jesus. Note that he said, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will," while Jesus said, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written..." And even at the time Jesus turned to Peter and said, "I tell you the truth. This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times," Peter opposed him and said, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." His pledge of obedience to Jesus was proven to be fake and failure. Realizing he was in the attitude of pride and disobedient, he cried bitterly. Later, he re-baptized and purified himself in the Sea of Galilee when he received another lesson on obedience.

The attitude of obeying the truth is best seen in the life of Jesus. He prayed to the Father, "... if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." He made himself nothing in obedience to the Father. Even for Jesus, it was by obedience that he sanctified himself: for he had prayed to the Father prior to the above prayer.

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified (John 17:19).

And because of his holiness, he was exalted to the highest place.

... he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name (Phil 2:8-9),

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first (John 15:18).

These were the words that Jesus spoke to the disciples right after he said, "This is my command: Love each other (v. 17)." Suddenly, he changed the subject from loving each other to the hating of this world that his disciples were about to experience. That "the world hates you" is not a possibility or a choice that we can make. It is a step that every Christian must take in order to bear fruit. In fact, it is often through persecutions that God prunes us cutting off the smaller branches that hinder us from bearing fruit.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you (v. 19).

Those who were chosen by God were taken out of the world, and brought into the kingdom of God—the family of the Trinity. If you live in this spiritual status, the world hates you. It is the friction between the two spiritual flows—one from God and another from Satan. As long as you live in this world where Satan is still at work, such friction is unavoidable unless you give up your spiritual status in Christ. You do not belong to the world, though you are in it, so it hates you. However, if you do not like the way the world hates you and want to be loved by it, you will need to go back to the world by giving up your spiritual status together with your inheritance in Christ. No, the Bible teaches us to delight in persecutions. Because of the love you have for Jesus, the people in this world will insult you, laugh at you, and criticize you. When the world does all of that, be glad and happy because you will come to bear much fruit, which is for the glory of the Father. For this very purpose, Christ came to this world.

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds (12:24).

If this is the way the Son of God, our Lord, walked, then, we are to follow him living the same way as God's miniatures.

Remember the words I spoke to you: "No servant is greater than his master." If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also (15:20).

It is important to know that John's gospel, as well as the other gospels and letters in the New Testament, was written at the time when the Christians were going through severe persecutions. Jesus, knowing that the world was going to persecute his disciples, prepared the disciples' hearts for it so that they could remain in him.

All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God (16:1-2).

To "go astray" means to stumble or fall, which is the opposite of to "remain" in the meaning of to keep standing. In the midst of persecutions and hardships, the love of people would grow cold, but Jesus encouraged his disciples to remain in him and his love so that they would continue loving one another. The same encouragement exactly applies to us today, though the persecutions are not as hard as the time of the New Testament. The world does not know God's love because it knows neither the Father nor Jesus, but we love one another as Jesus loved us by remaining in his love. Loving one another is the important fruit we bear for the Father's glory.

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (15:8).

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). "

These were the words that the angel spoke to Mary. Jesus came to exist in a very abnormal way. All of his genes were inherited from his mother Mary except his Y chromosome, which determined his maleness: his Y chromosome must have come directly from the Father. This was, in fact, the fulfillment of the following scripture in Jeremiah.

How long will you wander, O unfaithful daughter?

The LORD will create a new thing on earth—

a woman will surround a man (lit. femaleness will envelop (a) male, Jer 31:22).

Mary and Joseph, about 40 days after the birth of their son, went to the temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to the Lord. Simeon who saw Jesus and was moved by the Holy Spirit blessed them and said to Mary:

This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too (Luke 2:34-35).

These words obviously indicated how Jesus was going to die, and how Mary was going to suffer because of his death. The name Mary in Greek is Mariam, and it is equivalent to Miriam in Hebrew. The name Miriam comes from the verb, mararu (to be bitter), and Miriam, the sister of Moses, was probably named that way because she was born at the time when the Hebrews were being persecuted in Egypt (their newborn boys were killed). She was a well-known prophetess and sang a victory song after the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea. Another name that is associated with this word is Mara, the name by which Naomi called herself when she returned to Bethlehem with Ruth after she had lost her husband and both of her sons. She said:

Don't call me Naomi (meaning pleasant). Call me Mara (bitterness), because the Almighty has made my life very bitter (hemar, Ruth 1:20).

This Naomi as Mara corresponds to "Jesus' mother" in John's gospel. As Naomi took the son who was born of Boaz, and became his foster-mother (omenet), Mary took John as her son after the death of her own son Jesus.

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home (John 19:26-27).

"Jesus' mother" in John's gospel is the type of the Holy Spirit. She was separated from Jesus right before his death so that he could be given to his disciples.

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty (v. 28)."

This was also the fulfillment of the scripture, "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk (Exod 34:26)": the mother's milk was the Holy Spirit who nourished Jesus, and he was not sacrificed together with the "goat." The Holy Spirit who had fostered Jesus spiritually and worked with him in his ministry has now become the foster of those who were born through his redemption.

If you love me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15).

It should be remembered that Peter had earlier said, "I will lay down my life for you," which Jesus knew would not come to be fulfilled at this stage. The rest of the disciples were in the same condition, and seeing their inability to love and to understand what was said, Jesus said:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever (v. 16)--

Without the help of this "another Counselor," the above words of Jesus in v. 15 would not be fulfilled. The word, "Counselor," is "parakleitos (one who appears in another’s behalf)" in Greek, and "menahem (comforter)" in Hebrew. Since Jesus most likely spoke in Aramaic, the nuance of the word he used was closer to that of Hebrew "menahem" associated with its usage in the Old Testament. This word is used as a verb, when Ruth expressed her appreciation to Boaz for what he did for her: "you have given me comfort (Ruth 2:13)." It is also used when God spoke to the remnant of the Jews after the days of his judgments with the devastating experience of destruction and captivity were over: "Comfort, comfort my people (Isa 40:1)". It was not simply the healing of their emotion of sadness, but more importantly the restoration of what was lost, the creation of what was destroyed, and the revival of what became dead—the redemption. Jesus was the first of such a "comforter," and the Holy Spirit is "another comforter."

… the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you (v. 17).

Jesus also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth." The word "truth" is "aleitheia" in Greek, and "emet" in Hebrew. This word cannot be explained with only a few words as you can see from the way Jesus did not answer the question that the Roman governor Pilate asked, "What is truth?" Truth is not a thing, or an abstract thought, but a being, as Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." "Emet" is a noun from the verb "aman (to make firm, to support, to foster, to believe, and to trust,)." When it is used together with the word, "spirit (ruah)," it refers to the living spirit who does the action of "aman" describing his nature and work. In other words, the phrase would be the same as "—er" in English, which is equivalent to a Hebrew participle: in this case, "omenet" in feminine, and "omen" in masculine. Interestingly, the word, "omenet," is used for Naomi, when Ruth bore a son with Boaz.

Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap (lit. put him in her bosom) and cared for him (lit. became a foster-mother to him) (Ruth 4:16).

As she "took the child," she adopted the child as her own, and "put him in her bosom" to nurse him, and "became a foster-mother ("omenet") to him." So, it was Naomi who took care of, nursed, taught and guided Obed. Out of this line came David, a faithful king full of faith, and also Jesus Christ, our Savior. Note the way Naomi adopted this child: in the same way, the Holy Spirit adopts those who believe, and begins to live with them, but the world does not see him as Jesus said. Then, pay attention to the following words:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18).

"I will come to you" refers to the combination of his resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after his ascension. He is with us in the form of the Holy Spirit. This makes sense because the Holy Spirit is "the Spirit of truth" for us—our spiritual foster-mother. Without the Holy Spirit, we would be orphans: we were born again, and became God's children, but abandoned in this world. It would be impossible to live as God's miniatures doing the will of the Father without the Holy Spirit. We need him just as we need Jesus Christ.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph 5:1-2).

Here, note the phrase, "as dearly loved children." In order to love with God's love, you need to know first how much you are loved by God. Once you know how God loves you, you also love others by imitating him.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34).

Here, if the clause, "As I have loved you," is removed, this command would simply be the command, "Love your neighbor as yourself," as in the Old Testament. Thus, what makes this "new command" different from the old one lies in the phrase, "As I have loved you"—as he laid down his life for them so that they would have eternal life. It is crucial to know that while the old one served as a condition to determine life or death, blessings or curses, the new one no longer carries such conditional nature since whoever believes in him has eternal life and is redeemed from the curse of the law unconditionally—by faith, not by deeds. However, the disciples that time, hearing the word, "command," all understood it still in the conditional sense of the old covenant. So Peter came up to insist strongly on his ability to love and follow Jesus as follows:

Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you (v. 37).

Yet, after this, everything went in a completely unexpected direction for Peter. As the story unfolds in John's gospel, a keen contrast is observed between how Jesus' loved and how Peter failed to love in spite of what he said he would: while Jesus' love was fulfilled and made complete at his death on the cross, Peter's love was not, and ended with a bitter cry. As a matter of fact, in Peter's case, instead of his words, the following words of Jesus came to be fulfilled:

Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times (v. 38)!"

If Peter, having been in this condition, could realize the incompleteness of his love, and the powerless nature of his flesh, it would be by God's miracle. In fact, it is by this miracle that all believers come to walk according to the spirit and love others as the fulfillment of what Jesus said. Surely, the event in John 21 put an end to old Peter and brought him a new birth. It had been some weeks since Jesus was raised from the dead, and according to John, Jesus had already appeared to the disciples twice. By this time, they had been taught the meaning and purpose of Jesus' death and resurrection through the scriptures, and directly given the words concerning their commission to go and preach the good news to the world. At such a stage, Peter's decision of "going out to fish" was not fitting at all. For him, it was another mistake like his denial of Jesus. They worked all night, but caught nothing. At dawn, Jesus stood on the shore. Whenever we make a mistake, Jesus is right there to work it for something good. So his turn came to say:

"Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some (21:6)."

They did so, and caught a large number of fish. As they came up to the shore, there they found breakfast ready for them to eat. Nobody said anything because they were all feeling the emptiness of their flesh inside. As they finished eating, Jesus said to Peter:

Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these (v. 15)?

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7).

The foundation for the lifestyle of God's miniature is God's love. Note here the statement, "love comes from God"—not from man. God is the source of love, and apart from him, man cannot love. John confesses that he did not know the existence of this love till he saw Christ crucified.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (3:16).

It was a shocking experience for him, and has completely changed not only his concept of God, but also his values, world-view, way of life, and everything. The same must be the experience that we all came to have in Christ, and it is the very basis upon which we love one another. When the world sees us loving one another this way, it comes to know that we know God and have fellowship with him. But If we do not love one another, it proves that we neither know God nor have fellowship with him.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (4:8).

If man does not love, it is because he has not been born of God and has not experienced his love yet. Such a person does not know how to love and cannot love. However, John says, "Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." And to those who have been born of God, Jesus said:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34).

It is very crucial for those who have been born of God to know that his love is different from human love. Here, Jesus said, "As I have loved you, so you must love … " specifying the manner in which his disciples should love. The way Jesus loved was different from the way the disciples loved. Peter, by insisting that he loved Jesus, said to him, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." He did love Jesus, but it was by human love that he loved. God's love, meaning his kind of love, never fails, but human love fails. You can compare the way Peter loved with how Jesus, knowing that Peter would fail, forgave him, prayed for him so that his faith would not fail, and went on to die on the cross alone. God's love covers over a multitude of sins. It is interesting to see how Jesus asked Peter, and how Peter answered, after Jesus' resurrection: Jesus asked, "Simon son of Joh do you truly love (agapao) me more than these?" and Peter answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you," admitting that he did not love in the same way as Jesus loved. He could say that because he saw that Jesus' unfailing love was made complete through his death and resurrection while his human love had miserably failed.

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:12).

Note the expression, "… is made complete." Love is not something you do, but it is something that is made complete, or fulfilled. As God's word, which comes from the mouth of God, is carried out by human vessels who believe in it, and thus becomes fulfilled, God's love, which comes from him, is made fulfilled and perfect through his vessels who understand and believe in his love. Just as God's word does not come from you, and God himself fulfills his own word through you, his love does not come from you, but God himself makes it complete through you. When you try to love by bringing out your own love, then you fail, but when you let God love by being led by his Spirit, you will succeed. In fact, Satan uses human love as in the case of Peter whose love was set for "the things of men": Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan!"