What is that to thee?

[claude]

Joh 21:21-23 KJV Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? (22) Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. (23) Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

A couple of thoughts,

1. We do not particularly need to know what another man's job is or where his path will lead him, it's none of our business.

2. Never assume that what is "in the wind" is true, even among the church.

Moffatt states it a bit clearer;

Joh 21:21-23 Moffatt NT (21) So, on catching sight of him, Peter said to Jesus, "And what about him, Lord?" (22) Jesus replied, "If I choose that he should survive till I come back, what does that matter to you? Follow me yourself." (23) This started the report among the brotherhood that the said disciple was not to die. Jesus, however, did not say he was not to die; what he said was, "If I choose that he should survive till I come back, what does that matter to you?"

I imagine it was a rather innocent question on Peter's part and the Lord eloquently told him to mind his own business, and secondly, check your rumors against the facts.

YMMV

[Thundarstick]

I see it as Jesus simply saying, focus on me and everything else will take care of its self. Were not all in the same place in our journey at the same time. Judge not, that you are not judged harshly.

[Blackwater]

I often think that one of the hardest things for Christians to learn, especially in their developmental years, is to let others be, and not be "busy bodies." Being a "busy body" may well be founded in good intentions, but .... well, put the shoe on the other foot, and consider how much YOU like others prying into your affairs. THEN, it becomes clearer why it's often, if not almost always, MUCH better to "live and let live" rather than inquire too much about what others are doing or what's going on in their lives. Not all things that are common to modern and domestic life are pleasant to talk about, and if folks find their OWN answers, they generally work MUCH better than those that are offered by others. Outsiders don't very often know the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to call it, and thus, their offers of advice are often inadequate to the situation for the simple reason that they don't know ALL the story, and thus, can ONLY offer partial "solutions."

And life here on this mortal coil will ALWAYS be a matter of learning things, much of them "the hard way." Those are the lessons that, however much we may not WANT them to be as they are sometimes, mean the most and that we learn the best from. IF we learn from them at all.

Oftentimes, the only thing folks who are suffering or who are dismayed by a situation, only need to know that you care and have faith that it'll work out good in the end, if we do our part. We live in a time of excesses in almost everything. Long ago, folks left others alone to work things out on their own, and people largely benefitted from this, and learned to think for themselves, and trust God for the rest. Now, we have huge throngs of folks ready to tell us what WE need to do! And most of it is jibberish and nonsense! To solve ANY problem, FIRST we have to understand it, whence it comes and how to un-do whatever needs to be undone. THEN we can give really good advice. I've come to, instead of offering a "solution," just asking THEM, "What do you think you can do to change it?" This usually is much more well received, and gets them thinking. And when folks THINK, they can solve or at least get through almost anything. God didn't give us these big brains just to take advice, but to THINK our way through tough times. It's best that we use them, and that we be circumspect before offering a lot of advice and "solutions," especially when we don't often understand the whole of the problems involved. Trusting folks to solve things themselves is really, in a way, a great compliment to them, is it not?

[claude]

Thundar, thank you.



Blackwater,

Nice to see you back!!