(A commentary on John 21:15-25)

In the first part of this chapter, seven of the Lord's disciples had come home to Galilee. They had gone fishing, seen Jesus on the shore, followed his instructions to fish on the right side of the boat, dragged a net loaded with 153 fish to shore, and... as the second half of the chapter begins, they have just finished breaking their fast with Him. Now they are relaxing.

Jesus says to Peter,"Do you love me?" and Peter, perhaps a little startled at the question, thinking that the answer is obvious, answers "yes", and Jesus responds, "Feed my lambs". Twice more this sequence is repeated, but with some changes. Then, after this unusual conversation, the Lord tells them all a little parable about being young and later being old. Then the Lord tells Peter to follow him, and Peter, apparently jealous, asks what John is supposed to do. The Lord mildly rebukes Peter’s jealousy by saying, "If this man tarry until I come what is that to you?", but then He tells John also to follow him.

Finally, the gospel of John, and indeed the collection of all four gospels, closes with an explanation by John that he is the writer of this gospel.

So now, let’s look more closely at the conversation, the parable, and the outbreak of jealousy.

Only two of the seven disciples, Peter and John, are mentioned in this part of the story. Peter represents faith, or truth, but truth about spiritual things that we really believe are from God. John represents good, or love to the neighbor. The former resides in the understanding part of the mind and the latter in the will part of the mind.

In telling Peter to feed His sheep, the Lord is saying that to follow Him means to preach the truths that all the disciples now know about the Lord, His coming, and about how a life should be led, in order to be a follower of the Lord in a new church. In the conversation the Lord is direct and probing. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" I think Peter is being asked whether he loves the Lord, Jesus, more than he loves his fellow Galilean friends, though it’s ambiguous, it could mean "do you love me more than these other six do?’ When Peter answers the first time he says "Lord thou knowest that I love thee."

With this first of the three probing questions, the Lord answers "Feed my lambs," while after that the response is "Feed my sheep." Sheep and lambs both represent people who are in a love of doing good, but while sheep means those who love to do good for the sake of the neighbor, lambs mean those who do good for the sake of the Lord. The first is spiritual good, and the second is higher, and is called celestial good. But people who wish to do good at first don’t know what is good; they need to learn that from the Word and be taught. This is why Peter is told to "feed them", which is to say that truth must indicate how good is to be done. In order to do things that are good, the will's wanting to, and the understanding's knowing how to go about it, must be conjoined. For a successful Christian life, or on a larger scale, a Christian church, 'Peter' and 'John' must work in harmony.

Then comes the parable. "When you were young you got yourself ready and did what you wanted on your own. But when you become old, you have to reach out for help and another shall carry you where you don’t want to go."

This doesn’t seem to fit in here, but of course it does, and in two ways. The first way is given in the Biblical text; it is about the Lord’s death, that all the prophecies were leading Him to His crucifixion, as is mentioned. The second way is a lesson for all of us. When we are young, confident, and strong, we feel that we can do what we want and don’t need any help. Temptations to do evil we ourselves can deal with. But when we grow wiser we realize that all our strength comes from the lord, and if we continue to depend only on ourselves, the temptations from the hells will be too strong and we will be led into doing what the hells want for us, not what we want. We must learn at the start to follow the Lord and depend on Him. This he says at the end of the parable, where it seems not to fit until we understand the parable. "And when He had spoken this He saith unto (them), follow Me." That’s what we need to do also.

Peter is happy to do this preaching of the truth and maybe feels that he has been singled out, but he also realizes that John also loves the Lord and is loved in return. So he asks "And what is this man supposed to do?" It seems that the needed harmony is not yet present, and that Peter is jealous of the bond, and probably hopes to be assured that he is number one... but that doesn’t happen. Peter is simply told that it doesn’t matter; he needs to do the job he has been given.

I’m reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25, where Esau is the firstborn and will inherit the birthright and blessing from Isaac, as his due. Jacob by craft devised by his mother deceives Isaac and steals what is Esau’s. Then he runs off to Padan-Aram and stays there with his uncle and becomes rich. It is only on his return journey that he wrestles with the angel and has his name changed to Israel, that he again meets Esau. The change of name means that now that Jacob is rich with truth from the Word, now with the friendly meeting with Esau, also rich, that the two twins can in parable, be merged into one personage, called Israel, meaning the joining of good and truth in the mind.

Esau means something similar to John, they both represent goodness or true charity. Jacob means something similar to Peter, they both represent truth learned from the Word. Any seeming enmity between them as to which is more important can make them both useless, and in a person who is becoming angelic (as everyone should be aiming for), there is no enmity. Truth enables good, and good inspires truth in order to get something done. Although we can think and speak of them separately, they are (perfectly in the Lord and less so in angels) conjoined into a oneness so as to be seen as married. The marriage of the Lord's Divine good and Divine truth is the origin of all creation. Yes, all creation.

This marriage of good and truth, and the need for both to work in our lives, in balance and harmony, is a core New Christian concept.

In the Gospels, there is just one more story that takes place after this one. In it, the rest of the disciples join the seven mentioned here to hear the Lord’s last commands.

19. XIX. IN THE WORD TO LOVE MEANS TO PERFORM USES.

In the Word to love means to perform uses, because love is will, and to will is to do. That to love is to will has been shown just above; but that to will is to do remains to be shown. The will viewed in itself is not love, but is a receptacle of love, and such a receptacle that it not only receives it but also takes on its states and assumes forms in accordance with those states; for everything of man's life flows in, since man is not life but a recipient of life, consequently he is a recipient of love, for love is life. This can be illustrated by the organs of man's senses. The eye is not light but a recipient of light formed to receive all varieties of light. The ear is not sound but a recipient of sound and of its modulation and articulation. The same is true of man's other external senses. And the same is true of the internal organs of sense, which are modified and moved by spiritual light and heat; and consequently the same is true of the will, which is a receptacle of spiritual heat, which in its essence is love. This receptacle is in man throughout; but in its first principles it is in the brains. These first principles or beginnings or heads are the substances that are called cortical and cineritious. From these through ray-like fibers it descends on every side into all things of the face and all things of the body, and there performs its gyrations and circlings in accordance with its form, which is the spiritual animal form that has been treated of elsewhere. And thus each and all things therein from things first to ultimates are moved, and in ultimates effects are presented. It is well known that everything is put in motion by an endeavor (conatus); and that when the endeavor ceases the motion ceases. Thus every voluntary action of man's will is a living endeavor in man, and it acts in ultimates by means of fibers and nerves, which in themselves are nothing else than perpetual endeavors continued from the beginnings in the brains even to the ultimates in the bodily parts, where endeavors become acts. These things have been presented to make known what the will is, and that it is the receptacle of love in a perpetual endeavor to act; and this endeavor is excited and determined into acts by the love that flows in and is received.

[2] From all this it now follows that to love is to do because it is to will; for whatever a man loves that he wills; and what he wills that he does if it is possible; and if he does not do it because it is not possible, it still comes into interior act, which is not made manifest. For no endeavor or volition can exist in man unless it comes into ultimates; and when it is in ultimates it is in interior act, although this act is not perceived by anyone, not even by the man himself, because it exists in his spirit. From this it is that volition and act are a one, and that the volition is counted as the act. This does not apply to the natural world, because in that world the interior act of the will does not appear, but it applies to the spiritual world, for there it is seen. For all in the spiritual world act according to their loves; those who are in heavenly love act sanely; those who are in infernal love act insanely; and if because of any fear they do not act, their will is interiorly active, but is restrained by them from breaking forth; nor does this action cease until the volition ceases. Since, then, the will and the act are a one, and will is the endeavor of love, it follows that in the Word "to love" has no other meaning than to do; thus that "to love the Lord and to love the neighbor" means to perform uses to the neighbor from love which is from the Lord. That this is so the Lord Himself teaches in John:

He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; but he that loveth Me not keepeth not My words (John 14:21, 24).

In the same:

Abide ye in My love. If ye have kept My commandments ye shall abide in My love (John 15:9-10).

And in the same:

The Lord said three times to Peter, Lovest thou Me? and three times Peter answered that he loved; and the Lord three times said to him Feed My lambs and My sheep (John 21:15-17).

Moreover, there are two things that cannot be separated; namely, being (esse) and existing (existere). Being is nothing unless it exists; and it becomes something by existing. So it is with loving and doing, or with willing and acting; for to love, and not do, and to will and not act, are impossible, for they do not exist; but they exist in doing and acting; consequently, when man does and acts, then love and will have being. In this and in no other way is the Lord loved and the neighbor loved.