Key scripture – “He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (John 21:17, ESV).

Pastor, James McDonald asks; Can you feel the tension and heartache in Peter’s and Jesus’ last recorded interaction? And can you see the resolution that resulted? Jesus went hard after Peter’s undivided love.

In the background was the fact that Peter did deny Jesus, and it’s clear he was very defeated about that failure. Peter had thought Jesus was his first and only love, but he needed to recognize and see that other things were more important to him. The point in question was not about the quality or depth of the love; it’s about competing loves.

When Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (v.15), He was challenging everything that was comfortable and familiar in Peter’s life—the fish, the nets, the boats, the water, and the people that came with that life.

But when Jesus reduced the question to “Do you love me?” He was confronting Peter’s competing loves. It’s as if He was saying, “You said you would never deny Me, but as soon as it got unpopular, you went down like a rock. When it cost you something and you were afraid, you ran for the hills.” Jesus pressed Peter to the point of grief over his sin, which is the condition of a heart that precedes repentance. The outcome He desired for Peter had been reached. God uses the same approach with each of us.

Loves compete when something, anything, becomes more important to us than Christ. When anything in your life gets a higher priority than Jesus Christ, it’s a competing love. There can be no rival thrones that threaten Jesus’ place of supremacy.

Sometimes God ordains grief and suffering to pry from our whit knuckled grip anything that threatens His rightful rule. When something has to change, God allows a crisis to expose and eliminate our competing loves. Often He appoints pain to incinerate their influence. All competing loves must bow before the throne of Jesus Christ as Lord in our life.

In Peter’s case, church history records he was eventually crucified upside-down, because he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same manner as Jesus. By the time of his death, Peter was the humble, courageous man that he wasn’t as a young fisherman. Distracting loves in Peter’s life had been silenced. You can see that in the book in the Bible, titled Second Peter, which was written right before Peter was crucified. God’s sanctifying work had been accomplished in Peter’s life.

What is competing with Christ for first place in your life? The enemy’s strategy is to divide and conquer by inciting your competing loves. But Jesus is persistent about eliminating rival affections. He will keep asking, “Do you love me more than these?” until you can answer with a completely surrendered heart – Yes.

What specific thing do you sense the Holy Spirit convicting you about regarding competing loves?

Go before God right now, confess your sin, your competing love, say what God says about it, then repent and turn away from it, by laying that competing love on the altar and leave it there.

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, pour Your Spirit on me as I put myself in Peter’s place and hear You ask, “Do you love me more than these?” Lord, I give You permission to confront and eliminate any competing loves in my life. I do not want anything in my life to be more important than You. I bow before Your absolute sovereignty. I leave _________, my competing love, at the altar. I want to begin afresh and not let anything compete with Jesus, my first love. I follow You Jesus, and only You. I lay myself before the throne of Jesus in complete reverence to Him. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.