Again and Again

“You Follow Me!” John 21:22

These words are all we need to hear. But we need to hear them again and again.

Peter needed to hear them again. We see in John 21 that v. 22 was the second time our Lord said this to Peter. He had just told him the same thing a moment before: “Follow me” he commanded, in verse 19. But already, Peter needed to hear these words again.

So Jesus said it a second time, only more emphatically: “You follow me!”

Aren’t we just like Peter? We need to hear God’s words to us again and again.

And like Peter, sometimes we need to hear them again, right after we’ve heard them!

Because of the envy in our hearts that can lead us away from God, we need to hear these words over and over again.

This is why we must daily pursue the spiritual disciplines. They are a means of grace whereby we hear the Lord say to us again: You follow me!

This is why we need to regularly gather for corporate worship and the preaching of God’s Word—because this is where we hear the Lord say to us again: You follow me!

This is why we must continually pursue biblical fellowship with other believers—so they can remind us again of our Lord’s words: You follow me!

So let us put away all envy and follow hard after Christ.