'That's none of your business'

"Peter asked Jesus, 'What about him Lord?' 22 Jesus replied, 'If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow Me."    

                                                                             John 21:21-22   New Living Translation 

Jesus had just restored Peter following his denial of Him before the crucifixion. Following on from this, He revealed to Peter what type of death he would receive, being a follower of Jesus. Peter seeing John walking by them and, Peter being Peter, said to Jesus, 'What about Him, Lord?' From one point of view, this was quite reasonable, after all Jesus had foretold the details of Peter's death so, why not John's. The answer Peter received was not one he expected. Paraphrased, Jesus was saying to him, 'That's none of you business, you do what I tell you and I will take care of what happens to him.' Sometimes, it is not easy following Jesus. He loves us but, He doesn't hold anything back; He tells us straight. 

We do tend to be more interested in what happens to other people at times. We may see their lives and, with a tinge of judgement in our hearts, say to God, or to anyone who is with us, 'I thought they were supposed to be Christians. The leadership needs to do something about this.' We may go further and when a sermon is being preached, we can glance over to them thinking, 'I hope they're listening to this. I hope they are going forward for prayer.' How dare we do this. Don't we realise that the finger gets turned around and points at us?

This is why Jesus says, 'That's none of your business.' He knows our heart and he knows all we do and say. There is nothing that we can hide from Him. We may feel we have it all together and then suddenly, we let our guard down. Seriously, we all have the tendency to be this way. We do read or hear something and allow a picture of someone to come into our minds in a form of criticism and judgement. It's wonderful that Jesus deals with us the way he does. He could so easily cast us from His presence when we are like this. But instead, He puts us right, straightaway. Thank goodness.

Be encouraged, He may say this to you when you are in error but, in the same manner He will say it to someone who is saying things about you also, because they do. It is in our fleshy nature. This is why Jesus requires us to shed off the old self and put on the new. Yes, it may take a life time to accomplish properly but, you can do it, 'For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength'  Philippians 4:13 NLT. 

One thing you need to remember, Jesus loves you more than you could imagine. You are His friend and He knows that you are weak. The thing is, your are strong in Him (2 Cor 12:9-10). 

So get stuck into Jesus and His Word. Read it and live it.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle 

Check it out

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084G9S4FD/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2