Thinking About Jesus' and Peter's Conversation

So I read last night in the last chapter of John about this conversation between Jesus and Peter. Here it is in it's entirety:

¹⁵When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
      "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
      Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
 ¹⁶Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
      He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
      Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
 ¹⁷ The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
      Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
    Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.

 This conversation between Jesus and Peter (called Simon here) emphasizes the scripture from James (I think) where he says that faith should call us to action. So it's one thing to love Jesus and accept his sacrifice for you, but it's something completely different to see that love and let it guide how you live your life and how you interact with others.

Far too often, we as Christians are very selfish with God's love and Jesus' sacrifice, and I think that comes from the messaging. We're often told "Jesus died for you". 'You' being the word that word that people latch on to - and I think what that does in our mind is kind of creates a laziness. It's like when you're a kid and your mom asks you to clean up your room. That night you get sick and can't do it, so she does it for you. Now, as a child, you can receive that act of love in one of two ways:

1) You can let that spoil you as a child and then take advantage of your mother and her kindness or
2) You can let that love realize itself within you and then pass that kindness back to your mother by proactively cleaning your room next time, or better yet - taking care of one of her responsibilities.

I think we need to change the messaging here then. Instead of "Jesus died for you" we should be saying "Jesus died for you because he loves you. Pass that love on to everyone you meet."

Although that wouldn't fit as well on a bumper sticker, I guess...