John 21:15–25

The Love Motivation

¹⁵So when they had ^afinished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you ^1blove Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I ²love You.” He said to him, “Tend ^cMy lambs.”

¹⁶He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you ¹love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I ²love You.” He said to him, “^aShepherd My sheep.”

¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you ¹love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him ^athe third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, ^bYou know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “^cTend My sheep.

Our Times Are in His Hand

¹⁸“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”

¹⁹Now this He said, ^asignifying by ^bwhat kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “^cFollow Me!”

²⁰Peter, turning around, saw the ^adisciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had ^bleaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”

²¹So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”

²²Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain ^auntil I come, what is that to you? You ^bfollow Me!”

²³Therefore this saying went out among ^athe brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain ^buntil I come, what is that to you?”

²⁴This is the disciple who ^ais testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

²⁵And there are also ^amany other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.