Daily EncouragementSample

Our Lord had given Peter some insight into his future, and now he asks this question about John. There are lessons for us in the Lord’s reply.

There is a place for a healthy interest in the lives of our brethren, but this must not lead to an excessive inquisitiveness. We are not to be busybodies. People with Peter‘s type of personality are particularly likely to want to know everything about everyone else. Our Lord respects the privacy of his disciples, and so should we. If we do not, he will tell us as firmly as he told Peter to mind our own business. And our chief business is, of course, to follow him.

The realization that fellowship essentially means sharing is important, and is an incentive for walking in the light, where that fellowship with one another can be experienced to the full. But it does not mean that Peter has to know all there is to know about John.

The one essential for Peter and John and for all of us is to follow the Lord. It is the one relationship where all is known and where, ultimately, all is well because of the cleansing blood (1 John 1:7). There Peter can leave his own future and John’s in safekeeping.