16但还不止于此。在约翰福音,主说过信之后,又要我们爱祂。祂告诉我们:“爱我的必蒙我父爱他,我也要爱他,并且要亲自向他显现。……人若爱我,就必遵守我的话,我父也必爱他,并且我们要到他那里去,同他安排住处。”(十四21、23)在这里,主耶稣不是说“信我的”。信主是一回事,爱主是另一回事。信是接受,但爱是享受你所接受的。所以在最后一章,主三次问彼得说,“你爱我……么?”借此,主给彼得看见,他既接受了主,就必须学习借着爱主而享受主(李常受文集一九七二年第一册,三○三至三○四页)。
16But this is not all. In the Gospel of John, after speaking of believing, the Lord Jesus appealed for our love. He told us, “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (14:21, 23). In these verses the Lord Jesus did not say, “He who believes in Me.” To believe in the Lord is one thing, but to love Him is another. To believe is to receive, but to love is to enjoy what you have received. So in the last chapter of John’s Gospel, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” By this, the Lord was showing Peter that, as one who had received Him, he must learn to enjoy Him by loving Him. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” pp. 231-232)