What Is That to You?

What Is That to You?

“Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.’” John 21:21-22.

Peter was to follow Jesus in the works that were prepared for him. Jesus responded quickly to shift his focus. This is also a blessed and helpful message for us, because much unrest comes when we get involved in what others are doing. “Why are they doing that?” “Why were they asked to do that?” “Why didn’t they ask me?” etc. Jesus gives us a clear answer: “You follow Me.” I am to be faithful and grow where I have been placed, as we are often exhorted.

“. . . speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.” Eph. 4:15. Here I can follow Jesus on the way He went, and grow up in all things into Him, regardless of what happens around me, or what the others do or don’t do.

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 12:15-16, “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body?” Of course it is! The foot and the hand and the eye and the ear have very different tasks but all belong to the same body. He writes further in verse 18: “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” How can I not be completely satisfied with this—that God Himself has placed them in the body just as He pleased?

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.” 1 Pet. 4:15. It is amazing that someone who mixes themselves in other people’s matters is mentioned in the same verse as a murderer, a thief, etc., but that is the case. It’s a matter of life and death to stop completely with meddling in other people’s matters, and flee from it! Then I receive my orders from the head, Christ.

How good it is to keep Jesus’ words in my heart: “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”