“Feed
My Lambs”
THE MOTIVE FOR
FEEDING the lambs was to be his Master's self, and not his own self Had Peter
been the first pope of Rome, and had he been like his successors, which indeed he
never was, surely it would have been fitting for the Lord to have said to him,
"Feed your sheep. I commit them to you, O Peter, Vicar of Christ on
earth." No, no, no. Peter is to feed them, but they are not his, they are
still Christ's. The work that you have to do for Jesus, brethren and sisters,
is in no sense for yourselves. Your classes are not your children, but
Christ's. The exhortation which Paul gave was, "Feed the
Yet while this is a self-denying occupation, it is sweetly honorable, too, and
we may attend to it feeling that it is one of the noblest forms of service.
Jesus says, "My lambs: My sheep."
Think of them, and
wonder that Jesus should commit them to us. Poor Peter! Surely when that
breakfast began he felt awkward. I put myself into his place, and I know I
should hardly have liked to look across the table to Jesus, as I remembered
that I denied Him with oaths and curses. Our Lord desired to set Peter quite at
his ease by leading him to speak upon his love, which had been so seriously
placed in question. Like a good doctor he puts in the lancet where the anxiety
was festering: He enquires, "Lovest thou Me?" It was not because
Jesus did not know Peter's love; but in order that Peter might know of a
surety, and make a new confession, saying, "Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I
love Thee."
The Lord is about
to hold a tender controversy with the erring one for a few minutes, that there
might never be a controversy between Him and Peter any more. When Peter said,
"Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee." you half thought that the
Lord would answer, "Ah, Peter, and I love you"; but He did not say
so, and yet He did say so. Perhaps Peter did not see His meaning; but we can
see it, for our minds are not confused as Peter's was on that memorable
morning. Jesus did in effect say, "I love you so that I trust you with
that which I purchased with My heart's blood. The dearest thing I have in all
the world is My flock: see, Simon, I have such confidence in you, I so wholly
rely on your integrity as being a sincere lover of Me, that I make you a
shepherd to My sheep. These are all I have on earth, I gave everything for
them, even My life; and now, Simon, son of Jonas, take care of them for
Me." Oh, it was "kindly spoken." It was the great heart of
Christ saying, "Poor Peter, come right in and share My dearest cares."
Jesus so believed Peter's declaration that He did not tell him so in words, but
in deeds. Three times He said it, "Feed My lambs: feed My sheep, feed My
sheep," to show how much He loved him. When the Lord Jesus loves a man
very much, He gives him much to do or much to suffer.
Many of us have
been plucked like brands from the burning, for we were "enemies to God by
wicked works"; and now we are in the church among His friends, and our
Savior trusts us with His dearest ones. I wonder when the prodigal son came
back and the father received him, whether when market-day came he sent his
younger son to market to sell the wheat and bring home the money. Most of you
would have said, "I am glad the boy is come back; at the same time, I
shall send his elder brother to do the business, for he has always stuck by
me." As for myself, the Lord Jesus took me in as a poor prodigal son, and
it was not many weeks before: He put me in trust with the gospel, that greatest
of all treasures; this was a grand love-token. I know of none to excel it. The
commission given to Peter proved how thoroughly the breach was healed, how
fully the sin was forgiven, for Jesus; took the man who had cursed and sworn in
denial of Him and bade him feed His lambs and sheep.
Oh, blessed work,
not for yourselves, and yet for yourselves! He that serves himself shall lose
himself, but he that loseth himself doth really serve himself after the best
possible fashion. The master-motive of a good shepherd is love. We are to teed
Christ's lambs out of love. First, as a proof of love. "If ye love
Me, keep My commandments." If ye love Me, feed My lambs. If ye love.
Christ, show it, and show it by doing good to others, by laying yourself out to
help others, that Jesus may have joy of them. Next, as an inflowing of love.
"Feed My
lambs," for if you love Christ a little when you begin to do good, you
will soon love Him more. Love grows by active exercise, It is like the
blacksmith's arm, which increases its strength by wielding the hammer. Love
loves till it loves more, and it loves more till it loves more; and it still
loves more till it loves most of all, and then it is not satisfied, but aspires
after enlargement of heart that it may copy yet more fully the perfect model of
love in Christ Jesus, the Savior. Besides being an inflowing of love, the
feeding of lambs is an outflow of love. How often have we told our Lord that we
loved Him when we were preaching, and I do not doubt you teachers feel more of
the. pleasure of love to Jesus when you are busy with your classes than when
you are by yourselves at home. A person may go home and sit down and groan out
"'Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought," and
wipe his forehead and rub his eyes, and get into the dumps without end; but if
he will rise up and work for Jesus, the point he longs to know will soon be
settled, for love will come pouring out of his heart till he can no longer
question whether it is there.
So let us abide in
this blessed service for Christ that it may be the delight of love, the very
ocean in which love shall swim, the sunlight in which it shall bask. The
recreation of a loving soul is work for Jesus Christ; and amongst the highest
and most delicious forms of this heavenly recreation is the feeding of young
Christians; endeavoring to build them up in knowledge and understanding, that
they may become strong in the Lord.
C. H. Spurgeon