John 21 - CSB Spurgeon Study Bible

21:12 “‘Come and have breakfast,’ Jesus told them. None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord.” I cannot tell how our Lord provided that fire of coals, or how he procured the fish broiling on the fire. But there was the fire and there was the fish, and these men were in a needy condition. They were wet, cold, and hungry, besides being weary from a night’s fruitless toil. And so, in the Lord’s own way, it will be seen that the Lord will provide. He who taught us to say, “Give us today our daily bread” (Mt 6:11) did not teach us an empty phrase. Those whose need presses so closely as even to make them acquainted with hunger may see how Jesus pities them and look to him for aid, for he is the same now as he was by the lake of Galilee. And as Jesus is so careful of the condition of his people that he will have their bodies fed, we may be sure that he will nourish our souls.

21:15-17 “Feed my lambs. . . . Shepherd my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep.” Fishing is not all, as many seem to think. It is a great part of our service, and would God, it were more attended to. But after it has been attended to, shepherding comes in and is a work of equal weight. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have his servants attend to this second task with all their hearts. If souls are converted, they have been brought up from the depths of sin, and the scene changes. We see a flock, “the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood” (Ac 20:28). This flock needs as much care as any other. Yes, it needs to be tended with the utmost labor and watchfulness. The Lord Jesus himself is the good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep (Jn 10:11), the great Shepherd who is brought again from the dead (Heb 13:20), and the chief Shepherd under whom he has appointed shepherds to watch for the souls of men (1Pt 5:4). He will have those of us whom he calls to his service to shepherd those who are converted—leading, protecting, feeding, comforting, and helping them. He will call us to account if we neglect this charge, for he will require his flock at our hands, saying, “Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?”

21:22 “What is that to you? As for you, follow me.” The main thing we have to do in this world is to seek after Christ until we find him as our Savior; or, in other words, the first thing for us to do is to look to him, to trust in him. We live in vain if we do not live for God, and if we do not live by faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior. It is better for us never to have been born than to live and die without faith in Jesus Christ. We must make our souls our first concern, for what will it profit us if we gain the whole world and lose our souls?

After we are saved, the main business of our lives is still to follow Christ. When sin is pardoned and the eternal safety of the soul is ensured, the next thing is to seek the purity of the soul and to secure a character that will be worth having throughout eternity. There is no character worth having that is not fashioned according to the character of Christ. He is absolute perfection. In him is nothing redundant, and from him nothing is omitted that ought to be there. To be perfect, we must be like Jesus. “Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2), we are to conquer sins and wrong desires and, in the power of God’s Spirit, cultivate grace and virtue. If I am a Christian, I am to mold my doctrinal opinions, my thoughts, words, character, and acts after the model of Christ’s.