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Scripture Reading: John 21:14-17 S. S. 1:2-8
In this chapter we will consider the last chapter of the Gospel of John and the first chapter of the Song of Songs. The order of the writings in the Bible is very meaningful. According to the human concept, we would never imagine that there would be a story of shepherding at the end of John, the Gospel of life. John 21:14 says, “This was now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after He had been raised from the dead.” Note that here the Bible calls them disciples, not apostles. In this context we should not consider Peter as an apostle. Peter was not in the position of an apostle but in the position of a disciple when the Lord dealt with him. Therefore, what follows is something related to the disciples.
Verses 15 through 17 continue, “Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Peter was grieved that He said to him the third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep.” Notice that twice the Lord used the same word, feed.
As we have seen, the first section of the Gospel of John, in chapters 1 through 3, deals with the birth of life. The second section, starting from chapter 4, deals with the growth of life, and the third section is on the maturity of life, which is the building up. The more we read this book and get into it, the more we will see that this is the right order. The birth of life is a matter by the Spirit and of the Spirit: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:6b). Growth is a matter of eating and drinking. In John 4 drinking comes before eating, because drinking is more fundamental than eating. Then in chapter 6 there is the eating, and in chapter 7 there is drinking again. This is the way we take a meal; we drink something first, then we eat, and then after eating we drink again. Drinking and eating, eating and drinking, are for the growth.
The last section, especially from chapter 10 and onward, is for the maturity of life, that is, for the building up. The important word in chapter 17 is one. Verse 21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Oneness is the building up, and it is maturity. Until we are built up with others, we can never reach maturity. Being built up is a proof that we are mature. The birth of life is a matter of the spirit, growth is a matter of drinking and eating, and maturity is a matter of oneness.
At the end of the Gospel of John there is the record of how the Lord Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. All Bible students who know this book agree that chapter 21 is a postscript. After someone writes a letter, he may add something as a “P.S.” at the end to make the letter more clear. The end of chapter 20 says, “Moreover indeed many other signs also Jesus did before His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name” (vv. 30-31). Seemingly, at the end of the twentieth chapter, the book of John concludes. After this conclusion, however, there is another chapter, chapter 21, as a postscript.
Both the composition and the meaning of chapter 21 give us the same impression that even if we know the Lord as life, grow in Him, and are built up, there is one thing that still is easy to neglect. We know we need to grow, to pay our full attention to growth, and we have seen the light that we have to be built up. However, we must realize that as we are growing and being built up, we need to be balanced and feed others. While we are feeding on the Lord, we have to feed others. We have to feed the lambs. We must be like mothers, who feed on their own food and then feed their children. If there were not such a chapter as John 21, we might easily neglect taking care of and feeding others.
As we have seen, the Gospel of John is not like the other three Gospels. At the end of the other three Gospels, there is the commandment, the so-called great commission, from the Lord to go and preach the gospel. It seems, though, that there is no such commission in this book. However, this book says, “Feed My lambs...Feed My sheep.” First, the Lord tells us to feed on Him, and then He says to feed others. This is the balance. Regardless of how spiritual we are, how much growth we have, and how much we have been built up, if we are not feeding others all the time, we are wrong; we are out of balance. Under the Lord’s sovereignty there are some spiritual children that we need to take care of.
In the Song of Songs there is a seeking one, representing a believer who not only is saved but to some degree is trained and dealt with by the Lord. Song of Songs 1:2a says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” For the Lord to kiss us is for Him to show His love to us. After asking the Lord to show His love, the seeking one immediately realizes His love and says, “For your love is better than wine. / Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you. / Draw me; we will run after you— / The king has brought me into his chambers— / We will be glad and rejoice in you; / We will extol your love more than wine. / Rightly do they love you” (vv. 2b-4). If we ourselves are drawn by the Lord, then others also will run after Him.
Verses 5 and 6 continue, “I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, / Like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. / Do not look at me, because I am black, / Because the sun has scorched me. / My mother’s sons were angry with me; / They made me keeper of the vineyards, / But my own vineyard I have not kept.” At this point, the seeker realizes two things. First, in the past she was forced to take care of other vineyards, but she did not care for her own. That means that she did many other things, but she neglected her own life condition. Now she realizes her shortage. She has to take care of her own condition, her own inner life. Second, she is hungry and has no satisfaction. Therefore, she prays, “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock? / Where do you make it lie down at noon? / For why should I be like one who is veiled / Beside the flocks of your companions?” (v. 7). She realizes that she needs feeding, satisfaction, and rest, and she wants to know where to find it. The Lord answers her, “If you yourself do not know, / You fairest among women, / Go forth on the footsteps of the flock, / And pasture your young goats / By the shepherds’ tents” (v. 8). To follow the footsteps of the flock is to follow the church. If she follows the flock, the church, she will find the place where the Lord feeds His young goats.
In the Lord’s answer there is a balance. While we seek to feed on the Lord, we have to feed others. We have to take care of our “young goats.” We should not think, “Formerly, I worked too much. Now I will forget about that and pay my full attention to seeking the Lord to satisfy myself. I am hungry, and I am thirsty. I have no rest. Lord, let me know where You feed Your flock, where You give Your flock rest, that I may be satisfied and have rest.” On the one hand, this is right. On the other hand, though, while we are seeking the Lord, we have to be balanced. We must not forget our “young goats.” If we do not have spiritual children, we are wrong; we have to bring forth some children.
The young brothers and sisters need children to balance them. All the young fathers and mothers learn the best lessons from their children. If someone does not have children, he is not balanced. We neglect this too much. It is a real problem that there are many dear ones among us, but not many have spiritual children. Even according to the flesh, if the brothers and sisters do not have children, there is something seriously wrong. The more children we have, the more we are right. Someone may argue with this, but I assure you that the Lord stands with me in saying it. In Genesis 1 the Lord told Adam to fill the earth with children (v. 28). The earth is not yet filled up. The earth has to be filled. Without children, how can the Lord’s purpose be fulfilled? How can He have the material to fulfill His eternal purpose? Do not be afraid of having a big family. The bigger a family is, the better. To have a family without children means that we are wrong in some way.
In the church there must be many spiritual children, the more the better. When we come to the meeting, we should come with three or four spiritual children, one on the right, one on the left, one at the back, and one in the front. That will be wonderful. In this case, we will have the real growth.
All the young mothers and fathers learn the real lessons of human life by having children. When I was young, close to thirty years ago, by the mercy of the Lord I already had two or three children. At the same time there were a number of sisters in the church, many of whom were nurses. Those sisters were trained and very capable. When they went to the homes of the brothers and sisters who had children, they did not criticize outwardly, but they criticized inwardly very much. I knew this because a number of times they came to me and told me how they felt about certain sisters and brothers. I did not argue, but I said to myself, “All right, sisters, wait four or five years. You will have two children. Then I will go to your home and see how you manage it.” I told them, “Wait for a time and see.” They thought I meant that they should wait and see about those other families. They did not realize that I meant, “Wait and see how you will manage.” After a few months, one of those sisters got married, and after two or three years she had children. From then on, her mouth was shut; she no longer criticized. If we have two or three spiritual children, we will learn the lessons. Our criticizing mouth will be shut, and our criticizing heart will be calmed down. Then we will know only to sympathize with others. It is not a small thing to take care of children.
Allow me to illustrate this further. When we were young, the sisters who came to our home liked our little babies, but if the babies dirtied their diapers, the sisters would quickly give them back to the mother. When those sisters married and had their own children, however, there was no way for them to give their children to someone else. They had to take care of the dirty diapers themselves. In this way they learned the lessons. If we do not have children under our care, we learn only one thing—to enjoy. Moreover, if we cannot have our enjoyment, spontaneously we criticize; we never sympathize. This is the case until one day we pick up the responsibility to take care of four or five, even ten or twenty children. Then our mouths will be shut, and our hearts will be calmed down. We will sympathize with others, we will realize our responsibility, and we will learn the lessons.
By the Lord’s mercy, even physically speaking we had a number of children when we were young, and I learned certain lessons. Spiritually speaking also, even from my youth I had many spiritual children, and I learned more lessons. Now it is hard for me to criticize, but it is easy, by the Lord’s mercy, to sympathize. Today if I go to a sister’s home where there are several children and there is some problem, I do not criticize; I only sympathize. Having children helps us to learn the lessons. As disciples, we all need to take care of some children.
The main point in this chapter is the word feed. To feed is not to teach. We need something with which we can feed others, and we need to know the way to feed others. First, we have to take care of some spiritual children, either some young believers, some new converts, or some unbelievers. Then we have to learn the lesson to prepare something to feed them with, and we have to learn the way to feed them.
It is not my intention merely to give some messages. Rather, this is a training. It is not enough to listen to these matters without practicing them. I beg you to put all these things into practice. From now on, try to pick up a few spiritual children, and learn to feed them. Then you will see your shortage. Mothers learn by feeding their children. Whether someone knows the way of life and how to feed on the Lord Jesus will be tested by his feeding of others. Suppose that today we gain three spiritual children. We may not know how to feed them. We may say, “I have nothing to feed them.” Then we will see that we are short of feeding. What we feed others must be the thing that we have taken in and digested, just as mothers feed their children with the things they have taken in and digested. This is not to teach but to feed.
I like the word feed. The Lord Jesus did not say, “Take care of My lambs”; He said, “Feed My lambs.” Someone may say, “Now I am taking care of some young believers.” However, to take care is one thing, but to feed is another. Some brothers truly love the Lord and love others, and they take care of others. However, they take care of them without feeding them. If a new, young convert loses his job, a brother may help him to get another job. This is to take care of him, but there may be no feeding. To feed people is more than to take care of them. It is a matter of life. We have to feed on the Lord ourselves; then we will digest something of the Lord and will have something from within with which we can feed others. To feed others is a matter of life, just as for mothers to feed their children is a matter of life, not of knowledge or anything else. This is why the account in John 21 is not recorded in chapters 17, 15, or 12. Even by chapter 12 Peter was not qualified. He was too short of life. Feeding others requires a certain amount of life.
We all have to pay attention to this matter. If the church life is proper and normal, we all will take care of some spiritual children and continually feed them. I say again, if we try to practice in this way, we will discover our shortages. We will see that we are short of many spiritual experiences. If you make the decision to feed two or three spiritual children, after only two weeks you will discover your shortages; you will see what you are lacking. Then you will seek the Lord in a proper way that you may learn how to feed on the Lord and how to feed others.
This is a matter of feeding, not merely a matter of teaching. If we expect the church and the saints to grow unto maturity, we all must learn the lesson to take care of some spiritual children and feed them all the time. Otherwise, there will be no real growth among us. We should not simply meet here year after year, not increasing by caring for spiritual children. The increase of the church must be in the way of taking care of the “young goats.” If we do this, we will be right and balanced, and this will solve many problems.
It is too easy for young sisters and brothers who have no family and children to go to one another to “talk,” that is, to gossip, under the good pretense of fellowshipping in the Lord. This is actually fellowshipping in the way of gossiping. In the past I saw this too much. I tried my best in certain local churches to help these saints not to contact each other in this way. I even gave messages telling them, “If you are going to visit a brother, you first have to pray. You have to consecrate yourself to the Lord and seek the Lord’s guidance, and you need to have the anointing within. Otherwise, you should not go.” Even though I gave strong messages about this, they did not have much effect. The young ones still had the stirring within them to gossip. This went on until those persons were married. Marriage is truly a bondage. The best way to be bound is to marry. After one year, one child came, and after two or three years, more children came. Then these sisters could no longer contact others to gossip. With three children, they did not have time even to sleep. When I saw this, I said, “Praise the Lord. Those children are better than my messages.” If we have spiritual children, we will have only responsibility, not gossip. We will not have enough time even to sleep. Everything will be exhausted by those children. This is good; praise the Lord for this!
In these few days I have exercised in my spirit to seek the Lord concerning what to speak in these messages. The Lord gave me the answer: “Tell them to have spiritual children. Then all their problems will be solved. The best way to solve their problems is to help them to have spiritual children. Then they will learn the lessons, and they will be able to avoid many negative things.”
In some parts of this country, people do not like to have children, because children are naughty and noisy. However, if you are going to choose a neighborhood to live in, do not choose one that has no children. People who insist on not having children are the hardest people to deal with. They often come to complain that you play the piano too loud or that your radio is on too high. I would rather live with people who have many children. Then they can play their piano, and I can sing my hymn. They can march, and I can jump, and no one will complain. The way to solve the brothers’ and sisters’ problems is to help them to have spiritual children. All those who seek the Lord without feeding others are the ones who create problems. If someone is indifferent, the church can easily deal with him, but the more someone is seeking without feeding others, the more problems he creates. The right way for people to solve their problems is to have spiritual children. Then they will know where they are, and they will know what responsibility is. Moreover, they will know what the real growth in life and the experience of life are.
In this chapter I have only one burden, that is, to convince you that you need to feed others. Then you will see where you are and what you need. What you need is not a matter of knowledge, teaching, or anything else. What you need is the real experience of life, the real way to know how to feed on the Lord Jesus and experience something of Him. Then you also will know what other people need, and you will know what you have to minister to others, what you have to feed others with. Then you will be humbled, you will be calmed down, and you will become sympathetic with others who bear responsibility. This will help the church very much to grow and to be built up. I beg you to put this into practice. We truly need to pray for this. Let us all take the burden, the responsibility, not only to help others but to feed others, to feed some spiritual children. This truly involves growth and even maturity.
