Verse: 1 Peter 5:10-12
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 12 With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.
Devotion
Have you ever had a passage that you came across that so specifically hits you in the chest and you connect with it on some incredibly deep level, that must have come from God and not just the standard progression of the morning devotions schedule? This passage is not one of those passages. If anything, this may be some sort of nefarious vengeance being played out by Christian for texting him during the message on Sunday morning.
However, we’re at the end of Peter’s first letter, so I want to share a little bit about what makes Peter special.
In verse 12 (above), he gives Silas a shout out for helping him actually write the letter. Many scholars interpret this fully literally, as in Peter dictates and Silas wrote the letter. Why? Peter was a 1st century fisherman, the chances are that he, like most of the disciples, was flat out illiterate. There’s not a lot of use for reading or writing when you spend most of your day in a boat down on the Sea of Galilee. Peter is always the first to open his mouth when Jesus asks a question. And he’s always usually wrong. After Jesus walked on water (where several disciples mistook him for a ghost), he nearly drowned stepping out in faith, walking on water, and then panicking because of the wind (Mark 14:22-33). After traveling with the disciples all throughout Israel, Jesus took Peter and the other two members of the inner circle, James and John, up to a mountainside, revealed his glowy spiritual form, and conferred with Moses and Elijah. Peter declared that they should immediately build a shrine there, showing that he may not have been paying attention despite Jesus’ ministry never including shrine building, and instead focusing almost entirely on going out and spreading the gospel, and heading towards Jerusalem (Mark 9:2-8).
Peter is famous for being the denier of Christ. Here, I just want to focus on how when Jesus prophesied that Peter would betray him, it wasn’t like in the movies where an ancient prophecy comes true and suddenly makes sense. This is a matter of something like four hours. They had dinner, they went to the gardens, Jesus got arrested, one impulsive disciple cut the ear off of basically a bystander to the arrest and none of the major players (you can guess who I think this was), and then outside in the courtyard of the temple, people start accusing him of being one of Jesus’s disciples. How do you not run after the first or second denial (John 18:13-27)? Paul had to confront Peter about making Gentiles follow Jewish customs (Galatians 2:11-14). This was after God had already confronted him about basically the same thing in a dream (Acts 10:9-16). Tradition also holds that when he was to be executed, he asked to be crucified upside down, because he was not worthy to be crucified like Jesus. It’s amazing symbolism. It also kills you much, much, much slower.
Am I being too harsh towards Peter? Definitely. In reality he’s, by far, my favorite apostle. I relate to him as I have spent my entire life struggling to think first, and speak second. I think Jesus actually loved this about him. He’ll run straight into a wall when he should have walked, but look at how much passion he has running. I think when Jesus saw Peter for the first time, down on the shoreline, he got excited. Peter was going to be a mess AND he was going to make Peter the team captain, the leader of the disciples, and the rock on which he’d build the church (Matthew 16:18). They’d just need to outsource most of the writing to Luke and Paul.
I know we like to say “God can use anyone.” It may be more accurate to go with “God wants to use everyone.” You know that thing about you that drives you nuts, that frustrates you to no end? Gods loves that about you. He wants to use you and he wants to use that.
Prayer
God, I wish I could see myself like you see me. I pray that you can teach me to do unto myself, as I can more easily do unto others. I’m ready to fail for you. I’m ready to make the same mistake over and over for you, because I believe you will see things through. In Jesus name, Amen.
Author: Chris Simmons
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