and in like manner also on James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Fear not; henceforth thou shalt be catching men.
Peter has just fallen at Jesus' knees and begged Him to leave, and the same catch of fish has stunned his partners, James and John. The Lord does not argue with Peter's confession — He answers it with a word that removes fear and a promise of new work.
Peter had asked the Lord to go away from him. What he got instead was the opposite.
Here was the divine response to the cry of a contrite heart. The wound was deep, but the grace was deeper still. Simon was not only convicted, but converted. He saw himself as a man full of sin, but he saw the Saviour full of grace. His sin could never be beyond the reach of that grace.
The Lord does not soften Peter's view of himself. He takes away only the one thing that would have driven Peter off.
Fear had taken hold of Peter, but the Lord never allows fear to exist in His presence. He speaks and banishes the fear, because He is the Lord of grace. He allows everything else to remain — in no way weakening the effects of the work in the soul — but He removes the fear. "Depart from me." No, the Lord will never depart. He says, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men" — if I had not met you to save you, I could not save others through you. He does more than make Simon Peter happy. He gives him a fresh blessing and promises him service. So instead of remaining a sinner, Peter becomes a servant.
Fear can even grow at first as God's Spirit works. Only Christ has the right to end it.
He banishes the fear so natural to the heart where sin is, which is even increased at first by the action of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit only removes fear by the revelation of Christ, His work, and His word... Our Lord was about to bring in that great redemption by His blood. On that ground He could righteously say, "Do not be afraid." This was the divine way of forming a man who would later become a fisher of men. He had to know the blessing of grace himself before he was fit to tell others about it.
Peter has just declared his own unfitness. The promise that follows rests on the other Person in the boat.
"And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid." That means, "It is not what you are, Simon, but what I am; not what you can be to Me, but what I can be to you; not your efforts, but My grace." He added, "From now on you will be catching men." A man only has to own the truth about himself, and the Lord does the rest.
An earlier meeting with Jesus changed Peter's name. This one changed his trade.
He was down in the depths of repentance and self-judgment, completely broken before the Lord. There he learned His grace in a very special way, as Jesus said to him, "Simon, do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." In effect He said, "I changed your name last time; I shall change your occupation now."
Scripture uses the same phrase elsewhere, and not in a good sense. The work it describes also takes more than one shape.
In Jeremiah 5:26 we read of leaders in wickedness who "catch men"; here we have Simon commissioned to catch men for Christ and for heaven. For this great work God acknowledges no other means than the gospel... In Acts 2 we have an example of fishing with a net: three thousand souls were blessed. In Acts 8 we see a man fishing with a hook — Philip landing one man, the eunuch, for Christ. Both public and individual work remain open to us today.
The verse names James and John as Simon's partners. The word spoken to Simon did not stay with Simon.
There is a season for everything, a time to fear and a time not to fear. Nor is this peculiar to Simon. It is for every believer in Christ. Until we know Him by faith we do well to fear... But when grace makes Him known to us, "Do not be afraid" is as truly for us as for him. And so it was for James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. The word addressed to Simon they took for themselves believingly; and they were right. It was written for us, that we might believe and have the blessing with the same assurance. Perfect love casts out fear.
- Conviction — Peter cried that he was unworthy. Christ did not correct him; He answered him. The wound was deep, the grace deeper still.
- Comfort — Christ takes the fear away and leaves the self-knowledge in place. The redemption He was about to bring in by His blood gave Him the right to say "Do not be afraid."
- Commission — the promise rests on what Christ is, not on what Simon is. Peter is no longer only a sinner; he is a servant.
- Change — one meeting changed his name; this one changed his work. He would catch men, not fish, by the gospel alone — with the net of Acts 2 or the hook of Acts 8.
- Company — James and John, his partners, took the word spoken to Simon as their own. Scripture records it so that every believer can do the same.
And having run the ships on shore, leaving all they followed him.
Verse 11 closes the scene at the lake. The men walk away from the best catch of their lives. Two questions follow: what made that possible, and what it asks of believers who still have jobs to go to.
The leaving was not a decision squeezed out of them by duty. It was the effect of a Person who had grown too large in their eyes for the boats to matter.
Such was the power of grace. It made everything little in comparison with Christ, and with what Christ becomes to the man who believes in Him.
That is why there is no hesitation in the record — no weighing of Christ against the trade.
There was no halting here, at any rate; no wavering between Christ and present things. Boats, nets, fish, natural ties — he surrendered them all, without hesitation and without reserve. This was not cold duty or legal service. It was the grand and necessary result of having seen the glory and heard the voice of the Son of God.
The timing is the sharp edge of the verse. They abandon the business on the one morning it had never done better.
Most people would have thought Peter very reckless. They would have said he had better take his fish to market first. But Peter answered the call, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." He gave up everything that had captivated him until then, on the day when it was at its brightest and most prosperous. He had a heart to be for the Lord, and the Lord only. Christ outshone everything in his soul, and he leaves all to be near that Saviour, to be His companion and His servant as He passes through this scene.
The catch was not just his own success. It was a gift from the One he now followed.
The Lord bestowed a great temporal blessing upon Peter. He gave him the biggest catch of fish he had ever had. It was a blessing beyond what nets and boats could hold. Yet in that very gift the Lord revealed Himself to Peter in such a way that He became greater in Peter's eyes than the blessings He had given... If ever there was a catch of fish that Peter had a right to keep, it was the catch the Lord had given. But he forsook the blessings to follow the Blesser.
The Lord did not send Peter out untrained.
This was the divine way of forming one who was afterwards to become a fisher of men. He had to be in the experience of the blessing of grace himself before he was fit to be the witness of it to others.
The same voice that calms Peter also sends him.
The Lord does not leave him in doubt about the grace that can take up the sinful. "Fear not," He says to Simon; "from now on you will catch men." The grace shown here is not simply the reception of sinners. When Christ is known in the heart like this, He joins the redeemed to Himself in His message of mercy to men.
Commentators answer this plainly.
But perhaps you say to me, Do we all have to give up our business to become Christians? Certainly not. That is not at all necessary, nor is it the point here. The picture before us is of one who turns his back on what had been his world.
Yet no one is left without a share in His service.
The Lord may not call us to give up everything, as He called the disciples when He was present on earth. But we can serve Him only as He becomes, in spirit, the blessed Object before the soul. Not all are called to give up their daily work. That, in fact, is the path of only a few. Most of God's people are clearly told to stay in their earthly calling (1 Cor. 7:20). Still, the Lord has some service for all... This service means giving up everything that would entangle us in the affairs of this life, and we can carry it out only as we keep near to Him.
- Grace first. Before Peter left anything, he heard "Fear not." Grace met the sinner where he stood.
- Grace shrinks things. It made everything little next to Christ. Boats and nets did not feel like a loss; Christ outweighed them.
- Grace at its costliest. They left the biggest catch of their lives — a catch the Lord Himself had given. They left the blessings to follow the Blesser.
- Grace commissions. Christ does more than forgive Peter. He joins him to His own message of mercy to men.
- Grace today. Few must leave their trade. Everyone must drop whatever entangles them and stay near to Him.