John 21:21–23

It was really loving interest about someone bound to him more closely than his own brother Andrew. The bond was a shared love for Jesus, and Jesus' love for them. That made Peter curious about John, now that the Lord had just revealed his own earthly future. The gracious Lord did gently reprove the prying spirit of His servant. But He also gave him plenty to think about in the riddle He set before him.

The Lord had only just forgiven his fault and foretold his death. It is hard to imagine Peter asking such a question about someone else at such a moment. But as we read the record we can only say, "That is Peter to the life."

An eye off the Master, and on a fellow disciple, leads to an outburst of curiosity. Turning round, getting taken up with someone other than the One he was called to follow — that was and still is the cause of the trouble. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was probably the best of the apostles, in character and in spiritual life. But anyone or anything that turns a believer's gaze away from his Lord makes close following in His steps harder.

It emphasised one thing. For each disciple — whether Peter or ourselves — our great business is not with our brothers and sisters but with our Lord. What the Lord appointed for John was not Peter's concern. His concern was to follow the Lord himself. Not many people today point to their brother and say, "What about this man?" But plenty say, "Look what this man has done!" To be troubled about somebody else's doings, especially if they are not quite right, is cheap and easy. To be troubled about your own is a costly business.

Peter asks out of sheer curiosity of heart, and maybe out of concern for his friend, but with no regard for God's glory: "Lord, what about this man?" The reproof meets him: "What is that to you? Follow me." Here is what matters in practice for the disciple: "follow me". All his knowledge and learning should bear on this. When Paul, by contrast, is struck to the ground on his journey to Damascus, what is his first word? "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Here there is no curiosity, and so no reproof.

It is easy to see how shallow the idea of Augustine and many since his day is. They say the Lord meant no more than this: that John would live to a long and peaceful old age. Peter, by contrast, was killed by violence in old age, and John's own brother James was killed while still young. Peter was to follow the Lord even in His death, as far as that could be. Not so John. He was to remain, hanging on the will of the Lord until He came.

John does not come under "Follow me," but is to continue until Christ comes, and not be cut off, as it were... You never get the church in John's ministry. It is always the individual. And since Christ Himself is what he clings to, everything vital and essential to souls is still there, even if the church goes to the winds.

But Peter's blunder gave the Lord the opportunity of bringing John to our notice in a special way. He was following without a command.

An eye off the Master, and onto a fellow disciple, leads to an outburst of curiosity. He turned about. He became taken up with someone other than the One he was called to follow. That was the cause of the mischief then, and it still is. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was probably the best of the apostles in character and in spirit. But anyone or anything that turns the believer's gaze away from his Lord is a hindrance to close following in His steps.

First, it stressed one thing for every disciple, Peter or ourselves. Our great business is not with fellow believers but with our Lord. What the Lord appointed for John was not Peter's concern; his concern was to follow the Lord himself. Not many today point at someone and say, "What shall this man do?" But plenty say, "Look what this man has done!" Being troubled about somebody else's doings, especially if they are not quite right, is cheap and easy. Being troubled about your own is a costly business.

If we want to follow Jesus, we must keep the eye continually on Him; we must notice His footprints and walk in them. This is to be our one great, all-absorbing business, whatever comes. The devil will tempt us to look here and there, and at this one and that one. He will tempt us to imagine we could do better somewhere else, and to take up and copy the work of some fellow servant. All this is met by those pointed words, "Follow Me."

Whatever abides, if it abides, does so in the sovereign "If it is my will" of Christ. We do well to adjust our thoughts fully to that.

It would also mean this. The Lord's triumph over death is so complete that how long a saint lives on earth is simply a question of His will.

Here we have an instance of how false it is to draw conclusions from Scripture. The point was not to deny the conclusion, but that "Jesus did not say that to him."

The nation was to reject the testimony, and Peter's death was to end it. But it would be otherwise with John's. Peter, seeing him also following Jesus, asks the Lord what will happen to him. "If it is my will," says the Saviour, "that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" He did not say, as people supposed, that he would not die. But in fact his ministry makes known the ways of God to the end.

John's ministry was to abide until the Lord's coming. Abiding is one of the key words John uses. The focus of his ministry is on what abides. He had spoken of eternal life, and his ministry deals with fellowship with the Father and the Son. These are things that abide, whatever decline there may be in testimony.

The grace that drew and kept these two men, Andrew and John, is beautiful. Their conversion was one of heart-affection. They were won, drawn, attracted. Terror did not drive them; self-interest did not push them. The one influence acting on them was grace. "Come and see" fell on their ears with divine and charming power, and from then on they were captives in the chains of love. But the lips that say "Come" also say "Follow."

Verse 23 teaches us something of great practical importance. It shows how dangerous it is to trust tradition, even the earliest tradition. It also shows how good it is to have the unerring standard of God's written word. The saying spread among the brothers in the days of the apostles. It seemed a most natural conclusion from the words of our Lord — even a necessary one. But we do not do well to accept such a conclusion without question. Still less should we let such deductions draw us into a whole system... Yet those who let in this early mistake were not enemies. They were not fierce wolves. They were not men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. It was "among the brothers" that the tradition, groundless and misleading, spread. Miracles did not stop it, nor gifts, nor power, nor unity. The mistake came from reasoning, instead of holding to the word of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit was jealous for the exact words in which the message was given, yet He left the meaning of those words undetermined. His comment amounted to a serious rebuke: "yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, 'If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?'" So He records again, with something more than a correction, the precise words the Lord spoke. And He stresses once and for all how important the unaltered words are in which truth is divinely recorded.

We ought, therefore, to be very jealous for the exact expressions of God the Holy Spirit. We must not add to His words, as Eve did when she added, "Neither shall you touch it," to what God had forbidden.

It is easy to see how shallow the idea of Augustine and many since his day is. They held that the Lord meant no more than this: John would live to a long and peaceful old age, while Peter would die a violent death in old age, as his own brother James did in youth. Peter was indeed to follow the Lord even in His death, as far as this could be. Not so John, who was to remain hanging on the will of the Lord till He came.

This could not mean that John might live till the end of the world. But neither could it mean that John might go to be with Jesus at his death. In that case, how would he differ from Peter or any of the other disciples? Such a reading would also rob the words of all meaning. It would make them equal to this — "If I will that he lives till he dies, what is that to you?"

The "until I come" the Lord speaks of here is not, I judge, His coming for the Church. It is His public appearing on earth in glory. John himself lived until the end of all that the Lord saw fit to set up in connection with Jerusalem. He continues here in his ministry, until Christ appears to the world. As a saint and servant he plainly lived a long while and served the Lord. His latest writing — the Revelation — carries us up to the return of the Son of Man in glory.

Whatever is the Lord's will for another should not in any degree influence my thoughts about His will for me. Whatever others may do, I am simply to follow the Lord, with an undivided heart. "You follow Me," He says to each of us individually.

He surely meant that He would have that kind of disciple here when He comes again. What kind of disciple? The disciple who leans on His breast, stands by His cross, AND FOLLOWS HIM WITHOUT BEING TOLD.