Faithful in Pastoral Love

Editor's Note: At the Reformed Baptist Network's 2026 General Assembly, Dr. Ismael Miranda gave our Wednesday morning devotional. A powerful message on pastoral love from the life of the Apostle Peter, we have decided to make it available as an article. If you would like to watch his devotional online, it is available on RBNet's YouTube channel.

Let me speak to you as Christian ministers. I pray that this topic would be used by the Holy Spirit to draw us closer to Jesus Christ and for us to realize the incredible privilege and responsibility we have as undershepherds of Jesus Christ. Consider two Scriptures: Matthew 26 and John 21.

In Matthew 26:31–35, the Word of God says:

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

Then in John 21:15–17:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

The Need for Pastoral Love

We live in a time when pastors have an incredible wealth of resources. I can find vast material on preaching, counseling, sermon illustrations, commentaries, and other such topics. I even have it on good authority that I can go to Amazon and, for about $10, buy a book of 500 sermons. At least, I heard that yesterday.

Yes, there's a lot of resources for us, but I struggle to find relevant material on the topic of pastoral love for the sheep.

I find this to be both curious and heartbreaking. And it is heartbreaking because we seem to give far less attention to something so essential to our calling: loving the people that Christ loved so deeply, the people that He was willing to incarnate for and die. We all know that Christian love is vital. And we see the call to love throughout the entire Scriptures, especially the New Testament.

The New Testament teaches all Christians that one of the clearest evidences of genuine Christianity is how we understand and live out the first and second great commandments that Jesus Christ gave to us. We know that Christians must love God with all their heart, their mind, and their strength. But we must also love our neighbor, and especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, with genuine and sacrificial love.

Jesus Himself tells us that the world will recognize us, His disciples, by our love for one another. The Apostle John likewise teaches that we cannot claim to love God while refusing to love our brother. Such a person, John says rather bluntly, is a liar, and the truth of God is not in him. Scripture makes the point that love for the brethren is not optional. It is a fruit of salvation.

However, I suggest to you that there’s a real danger that exists in modern Christianity, and in many times in our Christian ministry. That is, we can love sound doctrine, love the preaching of the Word, love theological study, love the work of the ministry, all the while becoming increasingly distant from either God and/or His people.

We must never assume that because our doctrine is sound and our ministry is busy that our hearts are warm and healthy toward God and His people. This, if you remember, was the mistake that the Ephesian church made and for which they were corrected in the book of Revelation.

No! A faithful ministry requires not only that we love the God of truth, and the truth of God, but also that we love the people to whom we minister that truth. By God’s grace, I want us to consider the second great commandment, especially from a pastoral perspective. And I want you to ask yourself one simple question:

“Do I, a pastor in Christ’s church, truly love Christ’s sheep?”

By this, I’m not asking you: “Do I preach rightly to them? Do I spend hours agonizing over the right phrasing and how to preach this with the right inflection and the right love?”

And I’m not asking you: “Are you busy serving them?” We’re all busy. I am sure we can confuse these things with love. Again, like the Ephesian church did, and they were rebuked for it.

No, I am asking something deeper:

“Do I love them as Christ loved them? Am I willing to bleed for them? Am I willing to die for them?”

This is the question before us today as ministers. The church desperately needs shepherds who model Christlike love. If our people in our churches do not love each other as they should, if they are not willing to decrease so that others might increase, if they are unwilling to love their brother as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, if they are unwilling to die so that others might live, if they are unwilling to sacrifice so that the needful brother might have, then they have not understood Christianity nor Christ well.

This is where the pastor’s example, our example, is so vitally important. We are undershepherds. We cannot simply tell our people to love one another. We must show them Christlike love like Paul. We must be willing to say to them, “Follow me as I follow Jesus Christ.”

Especially in this area, we must teach our people how to love God and how to love one another by the way we live among them. If we want our people to love one another, they need to see us loving them as Christ loved His disciples to the very end. If we want them to forgive each other, they need to see us forgiving them as Christ forgave His tormentors from the cross. If we want them to bear with one another, they need to see us patiently bearing with them as Christ bears with all of us. And if we want them to sacrifice for one another, they need to see us willing to sacrifice unto the point of death as Jesus Christ did from the cross.

Our example in the church absolutely matters. Our people need more than pastors who preach about love. They need pastors who, by God’s grace, live the very sermon they preach and show them what this love looks like.

Consider the Apostle Paul's love. We read about it in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, where he says:

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Do we love the way the Apostle Paul loved? Are we gentle among them like a mother who loves her children? Are we affectionately desirous for them? Do we want to share not only the gospel, which they absolutely need, but our very selves, our very lives for them? Have they become “very dear to us”?

These are not just questions about how we conduct our ministry. They are questions about whether we truly love the people Christ has entrusted to us.

The Failure of a Shepherd’s Love

This then brings us to our first passage. If love for Christ’s people is such an important evidence of genuine faith, and if pastors are called to model that love, then we must consider what happens when a shepherd fails to love the sheep as Christ has loved them. And we have such an example in Matthew 26.

You know the story. Peter swears that he loves the Lord, that he would never deny Him. And then he goes on to deny Him.

We ask ourselves, when exactly did Peter fail the Lord? Was it when he denied Him three times, even cursing and swearing that he did not know Jesus? Was it when he repeatedly fell asleep instead of praying, not watching as he was asked to do? Was it when he warmed himself by the fire of those who hated our Lord? Or was it when he rebuked Jesus and insisted that he would never deny Him, even if it meant his own death?

When did Peter fail our Lord? As we can see, Peter failed the Lord in many ways. But I submit to you that his greatest failure began long before any of these things happened. It began on the roadways, when they were talking and communing and eating.

Peter’s greatest failure was his constant argument with the other disciples about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God. Peter’s greatest failure was refusing to wash the disciples’ feet because he did not want to serve them. He didn’t want them to see him as being under them. He wanted them to see him as the leader.

And consequently, by not serving them, he refused to wash Jesus’ feet. He admits this later when the Lord comes to him to wash his feet.

“Are You washing my feet? I should be washing Your feet.”

“Well, why haven't you?”

Because it meant washing their feet. He didn’t want to wash their feet. He wanted to love Jesus without the people that belong to Jesus.

We see this same great failure in the way Peter elevates himself at the expense of his brothers. Peter did not love the sheep of God with Christlike love, at least not at this point in his life.

Now, Peter swore that he loved Jesus more than anyone else. He swore that he was faithful, fully obeying the first great commandment. He swore that he loved Christ so much, he was willing to die for Him.

But all his boasting was untrue, because at the time that he was swearing that he loved God in this way, he was actively violating God’s second great commandment.

He claimed to be better, more committed, more devoted to Christ than his brothers. He put them down to make himself look better. He looked at them as we have a tendency to do when we are hurt—as unfaithful men who were beneath him in love and devotion to God.

Do you see Peter's sin? I am sure that Peter was orthodox in many ways, and perhaps even orthopraxic. But his orthopraxy was all wrong.

As pastors, we must possess all three. We must have right doctrine. We must have right practice. And we must have right affection for God—and for His people.

Because Peter did not love his brethren biblically, at least at this point in his life, he was unfit for ministry. He could not shepherd like Christ because he was not willing to sacrifice for the sheep, suffer for the sheep, or die for them.

This is where Satan saw an opportunity in Peter’s lovelessness and self-importance. He demanded permission to sift him and to afflict him.

Luke 22:31-32 says: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Every pastor must confront the satanic temptation to minister with a cold heart—a heart that has been hurt, wounded, calloused, and scarred. It is in those times that we start looking at the sheep of God as the ones who have done these things to us, and we see ourselves loving God more.

A cold heart always leaves the door open for satanic affliction. We can begin to look down on the sheep, to see ourselves as better than them. We must not allow the difficulties of ministry to harden our hearts toward the very sheep Christ has entrusted to our care.

This is where Peter failed. And God gave Satan permission to sift Peter like wheat—not for Peter's destruction, but for his needed humiliation. Peter needed to stop seeing himself as better than the other disciples. He needed to see himself for what he was, what the sheep always are, what you and I are: Sinners in need of grace every single day.

Yes, God allowed the sifting of Peter. But the Bible tells us that Christ, in His love, prayed for Peter, that his faith would not fail.

We must notice how different Christ is than all of us. How different Christ is than even Peter. Jesus showed Peter the pastoral love that Peter had failed to show his brethren. Peter saw weakness in others and despised them for it. Jesus saw weakness in Peter and prayed for him and loved him and brought him before the throne and interceded for him.

Christ is always the example of the great and good Shepherd. Even though the sifting must have been very painful, Jesus tells us that the end result would be worthwhile. Peter would learn a new humility. The humility that must mark every pastor.

The Transformation of a Humble Heart

This new humility would produce in Peter a change. He would begin to love the sheep.

To what extent? That Peter would be able to now strengthen his brothers, strengthen those he had once minimized and put down, strengthen those whom he thought were beneath him.

He would care for them. He would pastor them. This is an incredible truth, isn't it?

We see a dramatic change in Peter because of the affliction that was allowed upon his life because of his lovelessness. And that change has become more and more evident in John 21.

Peter had spoken boldly about his love for Christ. Now, after his humiliation, Christ asked Peter three times: “Do you love me?”

Peter affirms his love for Christ, but he does so much more humbly this time than before.

As a matter of fact, the first time Christ speaks to him and says, “Do you love me more than these?”, that was his boast. Peter said, “Even if they all failed You, I will never. Not me. I love You more than anyone else.”

Peter now refuses to compare his love with that of the other disciples. He even ignores part of the question.

“Do you love me more than these?"

“Lord, You know that I love You.”

That’s all I can talk about. This is me. I’m not even going to compare myself to my brothers. I have learned how much grace I need in my own life.

He does not put them down. He loves them.

We know that he loves them, because three times Christ connects Peter’s affirmation of love, which is the first great commandment, with his love and care of the sheep, the second great commandment.

This is a remarkable thing, because we learn that pastors must show their love for Christ by how they love and care for His sheep.

Christ has forever joined these two commandments together, hasn’t He? Did He not tell us that the whole law hangs on these two great commandments?

I suggest to you that our pastoral ministry also hangs in the balance of our keeping these two great commandments: loving God and loving His people.

So Peter’s fall and subsequent recommissioning should inform our pastoral theology and should warn us. Our passage teaches us that love for God is love for Christ, and that love for Christ is demonstrated by love for His people.

In other words: To love Christ is to love the sheep of God.

Peter must now live out these two commandments as a pastor. He could no longer claim, as he had just done before, to love the Shepherd while refusing to love and care for the Shepherd’s sheep. That’s an impossibility.

We see this truth in Christ's commands to Peter.

“Do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Then do.”

“Do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Then do.”

“Do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Then do.”

Do what? Love the sheep. Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my people.

The sheep belong to Christ. He loves them. And therefore, because He loves them, He gives them faithful undershepherds to protect, feed, and love them.

Peter is such a man now. And what Peter was to do, we are to do. This is our role. This is pastoral calling. What Christ says to Peter, He says to you and me:

Love them. Feed them. Tend to them. Sacrifice. Die for them.

They are Mine. I've entrusted them to you. You will give an account for them.

At this point, I must remind you that it does not matter whether they, the sheep, love us in return. They should. It is commanded. But it does not matter if they do or not.

Paul teaches us this by his own example. The people he served did not always love him in return. Yet he continued to love these wayward sheep.

No better is that expressed than in 1 and 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 12:15, Paul says: “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”

Did you hear what he said? I am gladly spending my entire life for you and will spend it until there’s nothing left. I will give all for you, but the more I love you, it seems, the less that you love me. The sheep's failure to love Paul did not give Paul permission to stop loving the sheep.

And in the same way, as pastors, we must keep loving the sheep, even when that love is not returned. A while ago, I spoke with a frustrated and hurt pastor who told me he was stepping down from the ministry, the church that God had called him to lead. When I asked him why, he said the sheep had become increasingly difficult to minister to. They had not loved him rightly. They had not shown gratitude for all that he and his wife had sacrificed for them.

And they had sacrificed a lot. He and his wife were burned out. He had convinced himself that stepping down from ministry was actually God’s will for him.

I tried to talk this pastor down from the ledge, but I must report to you sadly that I failed. I wish I could have said to him then what I have learned now and what I’m about to say to you.

Yes, the sheep are to love the shepherd. But even if the sheep do not love us rightly, so what?

I don’t mean to sound hard or callous, but our calling is to tend to them, feed them, love them, and teach them the right way. Their gratitude or lack of it does not determine our calling. And we should neither seek their gratitude nor live for it.

It is wonderful when the sheep love their shepherd. I’ve experienced it. It is a wonderful blessing. But I've also been on the other side of it, and it’s hurt.

And I have to ask myself, why am I feeling this way? Because I feel that they should appreciate all that I’ve done for them. Just like we should always appreciate all that Christ has done for us.

So we learn that love does not demand reciprocity.  1 Corinthians 13:7 says: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This is Christ’s heart. It is what He did and what we must do.

Christlike Love in Pastoral Ministry

Brothers, we are undershepherds of Jesus Christ, and we represent the One who never fails to love His people.

Even when His people fail to love Him, let us remember all the disciples abandoned Him to save their own lives. They all scattered because they were afraid. They all turned their backs on Jesus Christ. Yet Scripture tells us just before that after supper had ended, Jesus, because He loved His disciples, loved them to the very end.

He is so different. We must follow His example and love the sheep. We cannot paint a picture of Christ abandoning His people. We cannot paint the picture of Christ failing to love them or being indifferent toward them or having our heart hard because we are hurt. We dare not misrepresent Jesus Christ and His love for the sheep as undershepherds.

I remind you of Moses who misrepresented God in front of the people and the severity of God that fell upon him. I remind you of King Uzziah who misrepresented God in front of the people, entering into the temple and saying, “I can sacrifice. I can come to God based on my own good merits,” and God’s severity came upon him. Here we have Peter and the severity of God.

Yes, Hebrews 13 makes it clear that some sheep are easier to love than others. Some may cause us to sigh and even groan before the Lord. “Oh God, why have You blessed me with this person?”

Some may cause us to sigh before the Lord and cry. But nevertheless, we are to love them all. Because if they are Christ’s sheep, they were redeemed at the greatest price. Jesus Christ became a man and came to die for them. He bled for them.

We were redeemed not with gold and silver and trivial things, but by the blood of Jesus Christ. And Christ makes no mistakes.

If the sheep do not know how to love rightly, teach them. That is your job. Teach them with a rightly spoken preached Word of God. Teach them by your example. And teach them by the warmth of your affections.

We must show them Christ’s love. We must lay down our lives for them. We must intercede for them. We must cry before the throne for them.

They must become absolutely precious in our sight because they are precious in His. The thought of losing just one of them should overwhelm us. The thought of abandoning them should never ever cross our minds.

I have failed in this area. How about you? There have been moments in my life where the fleeting thought has come into my brain. It's like, “You don't need this. You’re bi-vocational. You already have a job.”

Brothers, we cannot think this way. Consider the words of Christ in John 10:12-13: “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”

Lovelessness. We were never meant to be hired hands, but undershepherds. We represent Jesus. We are to stand in His place. They are to see in us the love of Christ who would never abandon them.

Yes, ministry is hard. And lovelessness is easier than we might think.

I once heard a pastor joke that ministry would be much easier if it weren’t for those sheep. As if you could be a pastor without sheep. What a tragic thing to say.

Some men just want to preach and minister with minimum involvement with the flock. It is easier that way. It’s easier to protect your heart. It’s easier to protect your family, your wives, and your children. It’s easier to protect ourselves from the real hurt that happens in ministry.

But I don't want to be just a preacher or a teacher or a theologian. I want to be a faithful pastor. I want to fulfill God’s call upon my life. I want to love God’s people because Christ loved them and gave Himself up for them. And I pray that your hearts are saying amen.

Love the Sheep of God

When we minister in our churches, let us remember Peter’s failure to love which led to his great fall. Let us remember that God will not allow us to stand at the pulpit and preach and preach and preach what is right and yet not love the people of God. He will discipline any such shepherd, and He should.

But let us also remember the recommissioned Peter who was ready to love the sheep and did so for the rest of his life, leaving us a wealth in the two epistles that he writes and in one of the Gospels that comes from his perspective.

In the epistles, he says, in essence, “I remind you of these things that you already know, and it is right for me to remind you of these things that you already know because you need to be reminded of these things that you really need to know. I know that I’m going to leave. And when I leave, I want you to be reminded of these things that you already need to know because I care for you. I love you. Once I am gone, I still want to shepherd your souls.”

He’s a different Peter. And it all started with his fall and Christ coming and saying: “Peter, do you love me?”

The Bible records that at the third time, Peter was grieved for obvious reasons. “Lord, You know everything. You know that I love You.”

Christ does not correct him and say, “You don’t love me.” Christ says, “I know you love me.”

And each time you tell me you love me—the first great commandment—I point you to keep the second great commandment.

Love them. Feed them. Tend to them.

Brothers, this is vital. Do you hear Him? Do you hear Jesus? “Do you love me?”

And if we are to say yes to the Lord each and every time that He asks us, He will immediately say: “Feed my sheep.”

John 10:11 says: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

May the severity of this verse fall upon us today. If we are undershepherds, then we are to live in the same vein. May Christ ever remind us that His servant can never be greater than their Master.

If Jesus laid down His life for His sheep and calls us to be undershepherds, we must be willing to do the same. This is what faithful pastoral ministry looks like.

It’s loving Christ's people like He loved them—to the very end, until there’s nothing left. Spending and spending all of our lives gladly doing so. Even if we love them and they do not love us.

This is the call. This is what Christ has called you to as a shepherd of the sheep.

I close with this one thought: Go forward and love the sheep of God. Love His people. Seek their well-being. Lay down your life. It will all be worthwhile.

Remember, one day you will stand before the throne and Christ will ask you for an account of every single sheep that He gave to you.

And these things will not work:

“But you know how difficult he was.”

Yes. Just as difficult as you were at times.

“You know how loveless he was.”

Yes. Just as loveless as you were at times.

“You know how hard he made my life, Lord.”

Yes. I know what difficulty and loving through difficulty means.

There will be no excuse.

This is why the Scripture promises you a great prize for being a minister. But it also says not many of you aspire to the office of pastor, because this carries a higher weight of severity behind it.

I often tell my church that one day I want to enter into heaven holding hands with all the people that God has given me—with all the people that I’ve loved, whether they’ve loved me or not.

Brothers, may you do the same.