“So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” — John 21:21-22 NASB
Too many people today, even in Christian circles, are focused far too much on the people around them. They’re overly concerned with what other people think and what other people do, trying to use the actions and opinions of others as a confirmation of their own. They look to others for approval, trying to put Proverbs 11:14b (…, in the abundance of counselors there is victory) into practice. And they should look to other Godly people for counsel and guidance. “Should I be doing this? Should I not?”
But what about when God calls you to something? There will be times when God talks directly to you and gives you a command to obey. Looking back a couple verses, we see that God told Peter “Follow me!” (vs. 19). In verse 20, Peter looks around and sees John “the disciple whom Jesus loved…” John started to follow Jesus and Peter. So Peter turned back to Jesus, “What about John? Should he be coming too?”
Now I’ll clarify something here. John was a very Godly man. He loved Jesus and would follow Him anywhere, do anything He commanded or requested. John was a man that I would love to have as one of my counselors (Proverbs 11:14). But the issue here is this. When God said those words “Follow me!”, He wasn’t talking to John. Jesus was talking to Peter and only Peter.
Jesus answered that question with another thought provoking question. (I have noticed in my reading that almost all of Jesus’ questions were thought provoking questions. He almost never gave a “yes” or “no” question.) Jesus asked Peter, “Why do you care? Why should you be concerned with what I asked him to do? I wasn’t talking to John, I was talking to you. Forget about John for a while and YOU follow me!”
I know that’s using more words than the scriptures uses, but you get the point.
When God calls you or talks to you directly about something, don’t get so hooked up on what other people are thinking or doing. If you know beyond even the shadow of a doubt that this is from God, then you obey it without hesitation. God will bring others along eventually, but don’t concern yourself with that. God wants you to be obedient to His voice and only His voice.
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