"But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan: for you savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men."
Everytime I read about Peter in the Bible, actually, I think this goes for anyone who reads about Peter in the Bible, we look at him and his example and think, wow how is it that this guy can mess up so much. He lives with Jesus everyday, and claims to love Him, yet we see him falling short in many different areas. He knows what's right, and he knows what wrong, so why is it that we see him doing the wrong so many times? I mean The Lord told him that He was going to use him to be the foundation of the church, how is it that he was so love by God and yet messed up so much and was even, like we saw in this passage, called Satan!
If there is anyone I would hate to be called Satan by, it would have to be Jesus, not simply for the reason that He is my Lord and Savior and I would hate to have God mad at me, but because He has actually had face to face experiences with the devil, He actually has been around Satan and knows how disgustingly wicked he is. Know I'm not saying that we have no idea how wicked Satan is, but just holding on to the simple truth that Christ knows all, I think He knows a whole lot more about the devil than anyone else. But let's take a look here, why does He call Peter Satan? Jesus says because "you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." This stopped me for a minute, because this would qualify me as Satan. Jesus says in the next verse that "whoever will come after me must deny himself; take up his cross and follow me." If we are wanting to be a follower of Christ we cannot be holding on to anything that is of the world. The Lord will bless us if we walk with Him, whether that is a physical blessing or not, we will be blessed.
Now let's look back at Peter's walk with The Lord, I mean, my walk with The Lord. Because I do walk with The Lord. There isn't much difference in Jesus physically being in a room and Him being there spiritually. We like to think so, but if you think about it, Jesus was on the earth, and man was still wicked. So when we sit here and say, "man those guys where so lucky! They actually walked and talked with Jesus! It must have so much easier to faith in Him!" We are just talking nonsense because He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. He was with us then, now, and will always be just the same. Anyways, my walk with The Lord, which could simply be put as knowing what was right and what was wrong and doing what was wrong. Pretty much reminds me of Peter. Pridefully I say that, you know I have my moments when all I wanted was Christ, and I lived for Him in those moments. But my pride is quickly squashed when I think back to what I said and respond to myself with, "Moments Jonny? Really? Moments?" I have failed countless amounts of times and just like we see here in the life of Peter, it happens right after I do something out of faith for The Lord. So what is my point, what am I trying to get at. Honestly it's this simple truth, that we cannot possibly grow closer than we are to Christ and still hold on to some sort of garbage that we want to keep from the world. There are going to come times in everyone's walk with The Lord when you are going to be in a place where it's one thing, or the other. The world or Christ. I pray that we will continue to pursue Christ in those times.
Now let's look back at Peter's walk with The Lord, I mean, my walk with The Lord. Because I do walk with The Lord. There isn't much difference in Jesus physically being in a room and Him being there spiritually. We like to think so, but if you think about it, Jesus was on the earth, and man was still wicked. So when we sit here and say, "man those guys where so lucky! They actually walked and talked with Jesus! It must have so much easier to faith in Him!" We are just talking nonsense because He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. He was with us then, now, and will always be just the same. Anyways, my walk with The Lord, which could simply be put as knowing what was right and what was wrong and doing what was wrong. Pretty much reminds me of Peter. Pridefully I say that, you know I have my moments when all I wanted was Christ, and I lived for Him in those moments. But my pride is quickly squashed when I think back to what I said and respond to myself with, "Moments Jonny? Really? Moments?" I have failed countless amounts of times and just like we see here in the life of Peter, it happens right after I do something out of faith for The Lord. So what is my point, what am I trying to get at. Honestly it's this simple truth, that we cannot possibly grow closer than we are to Christ and still hold on to some sort of garbage that we want to keep from the world. There are going to come times in everyone's walk with The Lord when you are going to be in a place where it's one thing, or the other. The world or Christ. I pray that we will continue to pursue Christ in those times.
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