Click here to listen: Reigning in Love
This lesson was powerfully painful! Thank God for His Word. Here are a few highlights.
Foundation Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 / Focus Scripture: John 21:15-17
This is the exchange between the resurrected Jesus and Simon Peter son of Jona (grace). Jesus asks three times –twice the same way and once a different way– “Do you love me?” Peter answers the same way each time. Jesus then gives three commands, all different, after Peter affirms his love.
We looked at what this exchange between Jesus and Peter taught us about communication with God. There was a difference between what Jesus said, and what Peter heard…sometimes still an issue for us as His disciples.
Main Points
- Reigning with Christ means reigning Christ’s way.
- God is beyond manipulation. We do not handle Him the way we handle some people (or the way some people handle us). There is no “this is just the way I do things” with God.
- Relationship with Him, life for Him, and service on His behalf must be done His way.
- Consider the manifold grace of God, and the nature out of which He speaks to you when He calls you to reign.
- What Peter heard was another call to relationship. His declaration of love was as a deep, personal friend. This could be why he was grieved at having to declare (or defend) his love for Jesus a third time.
- What Jesus said, though, was a call to action…to reigning.
- Peter was not speaking to the Rabbi who led him through processes while enduring processes of His own. Jesus spoke as the fulfillment calling Peter up to his season of reigning.
When it comes to love, it’s the agapao that will root us and keep us in position when the phileo is questionable. It is knowing that the issues of my love and loyalty are settled on Christ that help me stay committed when I want to break out.
Peter’s call to reigning was to:
- Keep the lambs. Provide safety for whatever and whomever needs nurture. Be aware of the threat. Feed them, and keep them in the flock.
- Pastor the sheep. Pay attention to what and who belongs to Jesus. Tend to them as a shepherd.
- Keep the sheep. When we meet Jesus in love, stay and keep the sheep. Nurture the sheep. Look out for them as well.
We were challenged by the call to reign with God’s love, and through His love produce the queenly character we’ve studied–prudence, petition, safety, judgment, mercy, supplication, and willingness.
Selah, Kingdom Queens. Let’s go forward together.
