Is it our opening prayer every day: ‘Enable me to pursue holiness of life, witness for thee, and worship and love Christ’? ‘And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.’ This time he really means it all. ‘Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.’ Take a lowly position; be a shepherd, a feeder of the lambs and the sheep.
What do we learn from this? Repentance is not a light thing. Sometimes even evangelists treat it too lightly, they say, ‘All you have to do to be saved is kind of sign on the dotted line; say quickly to the Lord, “I am sorry I sinned.”’ Oh no, says the Lord, tell me a second time, tell me a third time, Lovest thou me? Repentance must be sincere. If Peter is going to be given his commission, ‘Feed my sheep’, there must be a triple declaration.
If we think that there is a significant difference between the word that Christ first uses for love, and the word that Peter responds with, then it is surely significant that the third time Christ asks the question, he uses Peter’s lesser word, as if to say, ‘Do you even have affection for me that you say that you have?’ This would be an even greater challenge to Peter, which would explain his being grieved the third time.