Title: Love the Past Like Your Enemies
John 21 (23)
Love the past as enemies
(John 21:16-17)
< Absolute love gives you absolute power >
The three questions the Lord asked are the same, but strictly speaking, they are all different. There are 4 Greek words for “love”. The first is eros, which means carnal love, the second is phileo, which means love between friends, the third is stolge, which means motherly love, and the fourth is agape, which means eternal love.
The word the Lord used when he said, “Do you love me?” in the first and second questions was agape. At that time, Peter was not confident to say that he loved the Lord with agape love, so he replied twice, "Lord knows that I love with Phileo's love." Finally, the Lord asked the third time in verse 17, “Do you love me with Phileo’s love?” In other words, the Lord did not push Peter to reach agape, but lowered the standard and level of love through Phileo.
He lowered the level of his eyes not only in terms but also in the intensity of his words. When the Lord first asked the question in verse 15, he asked, “Do you love me more with agape love than these people (more than all these things)?” When Peter answered that question with confidence, when he asked the second question, he lowered the intensity a bit, removed the phrase ‘better than these people’ and simply asked, “Do you love me with agape love?”
However, when he answered with no confidence, he finally asked, “Do you love me with Phileo love?” In this scene, the figure of the Lord trying to be at eye level with Peter is well shown. Love is becoming like the object you love. Such incarnate love makes the history of true change.
A missionary went on a mission to a tribe that did not wear clothes, but no matter how much he preached the gospel, he did not open his heart. When he prayed about that problem, God moved his heart and he threw off his thick clothes, and only then did the natives open their hearts. It is only when you give up such thick clothes of pride that power and miracles appear in your life.
Incarnate love is not easy. Self-sacrifice is necessary Self-love is an instinct, but self-sacrifice is a will. That self-sacrificing love is Agape. Agape is an absolute love that tears itself apart and completely disappears. Absolute love gives absolute power, creates absolute change, and gives absolute blessing. If you force someone to sacrifice, you will live for a short time, but if you are prepared to sacrifice yourself, you will live forever.
The love of the incarnation also teaches the importance of humility. If you are humble, you will receive grace, but if you are proud, you will not receive grace. People often mistake themselves for being the best, but the way to victory in life is to protect themselves from that illusion. They look different when you put them on, but they look the same when you take them off. In fact, those who act as if they are the smartest can be the craziest.
The difference between someone who says I'm crazy and me is actually a piece of paper. That's why I have to be humble. If you are not humble, you will encounter dead ends in everything you do, but if you are truly humble, a cool road will open in front of you.
< Love the past as enemies >
It was the love of the Lord's incarnation that raised Peter. Love overcomes past shame and restores broken relationships. The love of the Lord is what I need most in order to overcome my bitterness, wounds, and difficult life journey.
In fact, after the three questions were finished, a strange thing happened. At first, I thought the Lord's question was a question that would heal my wounds, but as I exchanged questions three times, I felt that all my mental illnesses were healed. In the end, he was able to forget the shame of the past and go on a new path to becoming a better disciple than anyone else.
Everyone has painful memories of the past that hold onto them. If you do not overcome the past, you will become unhappy. Some people eat sashimi and then pretend to not eat sashimi anymore. One false memory prevented him from eating delicious sashimi. If you don't get over the failed experiences of the past, part of your life is destroyed.
In particular, if you do not overcome the experience of failure in relationships, a significant part of your life is destroyed. What do you need then? That's love. In particular, we need love for our enemies. Lincoln said that enemies should be removed from the mind. When someone told Lincoln to destroy his enemies, Lincoln said, “Of course, we have to get rid of our enemies. With love for my enemies, I will make them friends and destroy them!”
To live a truly blessed life, loving your enemies is essential. The enemy does not mean only 'people'. The real enemy is 'memory of past failures and shame'. To live a successful life, overcome those memories well and let go of all the resentment and painful memories of the past that arise from relationships. Forget the 'past like an enemy' and go further, love the 'past like an enemy'.
It's great to just forget about your enemies' past, but even better is to love your enemies' past. “At that time, that shame allowed me to be so humble! Because of that failure, I looked to God and became a being loved by God!” With such a generous confession of faith, the most wonderful and loving future will unfold when we embrace and sublimate the past like an enemy with love.