Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill
For millennia, millions if not billions of believers have wrested with the specter of dualism. Wedged tightly between Romans 7 and 8, we find ourselves desiring to be radical disciples, yet all too often failing the test of complete commitment.
Thankfully Scripture records just such a battle waged and won by none other than Peter himself. Far from being the odd man out, often we find in Peter the quantum entanglement of humanity and spirituality.
Modern Christianity enjoys talking to God. At least in small doses. Yet really talking with God can be an entirely different matter. It’s one thing to sing about a lovely garden stroll where “I walk with Him and I talk with Him and He tells me I am His own. And the love we share as we tarry there no other has ever know.” The again, even John the Beloved found it can be quite another matter seeing to Whom we casually speak:
“And in the center, the Son of Man, in a robe and gold breastplate, hair a blizzard of white, Eyes pouring fire-blaze, both feet furnace-fired bronze, His voice a cataract, right hand holding the Seven Stars, His mouth a sharp-biting sword, his face a perigee sun. I saw this and fainted dead at his feet. His right hand pulled me upright, his voice reassured me…” Revelation 1:13-16 The Message
In some sense it hardly matters. When it comes to prayer, most prefer the shallow end of the pool, if they’re even willing to get their feet wet. Solomon himself warned of going to deep. Of course, given his perpetration of massive scale idolatry during his later years, it didn’t end all that well for Solomon. Nevertheless, he raises a valid point. Serous prayer can be lonely business. Just try it. Honest confusion and doubt, sorrow and guilt, takes it’s toll. As Kermit the frog attests, “It ain’t easy being green…”
Nonetheless we must not only try, but try harder. Those of us reluctant to daily shoulder our cross need to admit we can and should do better. As in so many ventures, secular as well as sacred, it all comes down to cost. How much is our relationship with God worth? Hopefully more than ten to twenty minutes of daily undivided attention. Then again, what if the discipline of the Holy Spirit insists on taking a trip out to the woodshed? Now that’s one “still small voice” easy to ignore.
In this regard, Peter’s post crucifixion conversion with Christ arguably qualifies as the greatest cross-examination in human history. Just imagine yourself Peter. Tormented, you watch helplessly as Christ's Passion unfolds. God the Son dies, hanging on a cross for the sin of all mankind. Including yours. Resurrected, the Lord you denied three times during the night of His suffering appears to you twice. Tentatively all seems forgiven as joy begins to swallow despair. Then, Jesus knowing you're strong enough, asks the all important eternal question. "Do you love Me?"
Peter is touted as the Bible’s best example of the tension between absolute dedication and double-mindedness. Previously, he famously confessed Jesus was the Messiah, for which he earned Christ’s greatest compliment. A major reason for his name upgrade from Simon to Cephas or Peter. Yet, literally within a few verses, Jesus issues an equally stinging rebuke, calling him Satan.
For millennia, millions if not billions of believers have wrested with the specter of dualism. Wedged tightly between Romans chapters 7 and 8, we find ourselves desiring to be radical disciples, yet all too often failing the test of complete commitment.
Thankfully Scripture records just such a battle waged and won by none other than Peter himself. Chosen as one of the twelve, among millions of Jews and hundreds of millions of Gentiles, he rises through the ranks to become one of the three most entrusted disciples. Yet, as modern Christianity is want to do, having prematurely declared his undying love and commitment to Christ, he fails the test by denying the Lord three times that very night! A dismal track record, mirrored by the interview of all interviews:
“After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.” Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, “Follow me.” John 21:15-19 The Message
Jesus begins by using the word for the greatest form of love, Greek: agapao.
Peter responds with a word denoting what may be a weaker form of love, meaning brotherly affection or friendship, Greek: phileo. Face to face and eye to eye with God the Son, Peter for all practical purposes answers, "I obviously don't love you as I previously boasted.”
Jesus probes again, repeating His first question.
Peter replies in kind.
Here, for the first and only time in Scripture, Jesus lowers the bar in light of the broken hearted, humble confession from His fractured disciple. He does so by restating His previous questions. Only this time Jesus uses the lessor word for brotherly love or friendship when asking if Peter loves Him.
Peter, clearly having failed the test of agapao love, humbly stands his ground in declaring his phileo love for Jesus.
Jesus, satisfied with the honesty of Peter's confession, assures that he will indeed one day love Him so much as to be His faithful martyr.
QC acknowledges there are differences in opinion as to the ancient Greek meaning of agape vs. phileo. Nevertheless, the above version seems to fit the facts of the case. Clearly Peter failed miserably to live up to his previous boast, “I will never desert you no matter what the others do!” Should this rendering be accurate, it is rich with meaning. In Peter's first great confession, "you are the Christ" Peter reveals the truth about Jesus. In his second, "I don't love you but I like you life a friend" he admits something of equal value. The truth about himself. Such a confession was tantamount to being an unworthy washout. Jesus had warned only those taking up their cross and following Him would be worthy of being a disciple. Peter's denials and confession made it clear he was ineligible to be a disciple. Much less an apostle. The meanings of this conversation are exhaustive. For our purposes, the vital concept is that contrary to the contrivances of modern Christianity, Jesus always raised the bar, as clearly indicated in the Sermon on the Mount:
“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.” Matthew 5:21-22 The Message
“You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt. Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.” Matthew 5:27-30 The Message
“Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You can’t use legal cover to mask a moral failure.” Matthew 5:31-32 The Message
“Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.” Matthew 5:38-42 The Message
“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” Matthew 5:43-47 The Message
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” Matthew 5:48 The Message
When Peter exalts his love for Christ he is humbled. When humbled he is exalted. Once again, in an example of spiritual Kingdom inversion, we find the way up is down.
Following this difficult conversation, Peter and his contemporaries waited on God almost two months before being empowered by the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. As would latter be the case with Saul’s transformation into Paul, an extraordinary encounter with the Holy Spirit brought Simon into the fullness of his prophetic name Peter.
Sadly, few today among the rank and file of modern Christianity show the resolve and commitment to Christ of even this wishy-washy disciple. Much less that of the full fledged Apostle. Fewer still find such discrepancies cause for alarm. Reasons for this are many, yet individually and collectively their net effect is producing a bottleneck or spiritual impasse between what Churchianity is and what Christianity was meant be.
Consciously or not, every believer throughout history is having a similar conversation with Christ. By our thoughts and words, attitudes and actions, we reveal the depth of our response to the claims of Christ on our lives. Like Peter, we often presume to be wholehearted disciples, even when having invested far less. With the worst track record in the history of Christendom, modern Christianity continues to declare and sing of loving God with all our hearts, rather than do the hard but all important work of honest evaluation. In addressing this issue QC posits the following assertions:
The average Christian, untrained in the art of honest evaluation, often mistakes presumption for faith and thus considers their commitment to Christ much greater than it is in reality.
Like Peter, and for far less cause, millions of Christian leaders, professional and otherwise, have an overinflated perception of their commitment to Biblical Christianity.
Charismatics are particularly susceptible to charismagical thinking. Tending to imagine lives full of words from the Lord and Divine appointments, without appreciating the subjective nature of what is far more often than not simply wishful thinking.
Even Prophetic Christians tend to underestimate the true toxicity of worldliness and deception, now ubiquitous within modern life. Knowing this, those ruthlessly honest in regards to their commitment to Christ do well to rate themselves less than they otherwise might.
Between the commitment level of much and all is so great a cavern few indeed are willing to take the leap of radical discipleship.
Spiritual defeat or victory, for millions if not billions, rests squarely on the shoulders of those the Spirit is calling to make an uncompromising and strategic commitment to Kingdom of God. Hence Christ’s lament “Many are called but few are chosen.” Why? Because too few choose to answer His call.
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