v 27. the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.
One of the great, and plainest of writers of the Victorian age was the Anglican Bishop, J. C. Ryle. Today, read what he wrote about this passage.
How weak was the faith and love of the Apostles! How soon, in a very few hours, they were buried under a cloud of unbelief and cowardice! These very men whom Jesus commends for loving and believing, before the morning sun arose forsook Him and fled. Yet, weak as their graces were, they were real and true and genuine. They were graces which hundreds of learned priests and Scribes and Pharisees never attained, and, not attaining, died miserably in their sins.
Let us take great comfort in this blessed truth. The Saviour of sinners will not cast off them that believe in Him because they are babes in faith and knowledge. He will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax. He can see the reality under much infirmity, and where He sees it he is graciously pleased. The followers of such a Saviour may well be bold and confident. They have a friend who despises not the least member of His flock, and casts out none who come to Him, however weak and feeble, if only they are true.
We need not doubt that the profession of the eleven was real and sincere. They honestly meant what they said. But they did not know themselves. They did not know what they were capable of doing under the pressure of the fear of man and of strong temptation. They had not rightly estimated the weakness of the flesh, the power of the devil, the feebleness of their own resolutions, the shallowness of their own faith. All this they had yet to learn by painful experience.
Whatever your own experience of success or failure in following Jesus, He will go on loving you as the Father Himself loves you.
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