Follow Me comes after listening to a sermon on John 21 where Jesus is leading Peter to start on His road again. As it frequently happens, I hear something and a thought pours in. My extra thought was when Jesus first called Peter with the words “follow Me”. I went to Matthew 4:19, which is also Mark 1:17, and got a surprise when I found that the Greek may be translated as ‘follow me’ but there is a better way to think about what He said. (I will put several links below for further study.)
Jesus has started on the Road the Father planned for Him that will take Him to pay the Bride’s price for His Church and will bring Him back again. Holy Spirit has led Him to the wilderness and then to Nazareth and now He is inviting others to join Him on this Road.
The phrase here is deute opiso egō, which could say, ‘come behind Me’. Then in Matthew 4:20 and 22 the men followed Jesus, the word here is ēkolouthēsan which is a form of Strong’s Greek: 190. ἀκολουθέω (akoloutheó) — To follow, to accompany; another way to think of this word is ‘get on the road’. So, I see this as ‘Come behind Me on the road I travel’.
Please, go all Berean and join me in the study of these Greek words.
- Egō Strong’s Greek: 1473. ἐγώ (egó) — I, me This word will show-up again in one of its forms in an important verse.
- Deute Strong’s Greek: 1205. δεῦτε (deute) — “Come,” “Come here,” “Come now”
- Opisō Strong’s Greek: 3694. ὀπίσω (opisó) — Behind, after
My ink and leaf version of Strong’s list these three words in the Appendix.
The ‘follow Me’ we think of is first used by Matthew in Chapter 8 and is Greek Concordance: Ἀκολούθει (Akolouthei) — 16 Occurrences Yes, this is the form used in John 21:19,22; here is a highlight list.
- Matthew 8:22 is the disciple who wants to go bury the dead.
- Matthew 9:9, Jesus calls Matthew the tax-collector.
- Matthew 19:21 is the invitation to the rich man to become His disciple.
Matthew 10:38 is Jesus instructing us about being on the road with Him and carrying our cross. akolouthei Follows opisō After mou Me (one of the forms of ego)
“The Way” Jesus traveled is also our Road. In John 21, we can learn from Peter that it is not about our job, friends, food, or rivals; it is me FOLLOWING JESUS.
