Section 2
"Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" The Lord was here restoring Peter's love toward Him. Peter did have a heart to love the Lord, but he was too confident of his own strength, his natural strength. His love for the Lord was pre cious, but his natural strength had to be denied and dealt with. The Lord allowed him to utterly fail by denying Him to His face three times (18:17, 25, 27) so that his natural strength and his self- confidence might be dealt with. Furthermore, Peter had just taken the lead in backsliding from the Lord's call. His natural confidence in his love toward the Lord must also have been dealt with by this failure. Since he might have been some what disappointed, the Lord came to restore his love toward Him, to charge him with the shep herding of His church, and to prepare him for his martyrdom, so that he would not follow Him with any confidence in his natural strength.
When the Lord spoke to Peter in 21:15-17, He did not call him "Peter," which was his regen erated name, the new name of his regenerated person. The Lord called him "Simon." Simon was his old name, the name depicting his natural per son. Because Peter was still a natural person, the Lord asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" The reason the Lord asked