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This week we continue our discussion of chapter 22 of Luke’s Gospel. Please read verses 54-62 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 22:54-55 (Youngs Literal Translation – YLT)
‘And having taken him, they led and brought him to the house of the chief priest. And Peter was following afar off, and they having kindled a fire in the midst of the court, and having sat down together, Peter was sitting in the midst of them,’
Over the course of these devotions, I have talked a lot about what it was like as a young child growing up in a Christian family. I’ve also mentioned what life in the church was like and about the various ‘traits’ that were prevalent. One verse from scripture sticks in my mind probably because it was quoted so many times. It’s from 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 17: “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.”
I heard so many sermons that would hammer home the concept of ‘The Church’ and ‘The World’. They were two distinct entities and were mutually exclusive. You couldn’t mix and match your preferences and I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t have ‘one foot in the world and the other in the church’. I was more than a little confused in some areas because I had to go to school ‘with the world’ and was encouraged to make friends with people who were ‘in the world’. However, I wasn’t allowed to do anything that they were doing for fear of putting one foot in the world! The whole ideology of ‘Separation’ didn’t make a lot of sense to me as a young lad especially when I observed leaders who were saying one thing and doing another. They would prophesy in church on a Sunday and yet swear like a trooper on a Monday. The more I tried to be separate, the more conflicted my life became. I was being bound by a teaching that should have been used to release me into the full purposes of God. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been so blessed to realise afresh that His Church isn’t about legalism, it’s about life. The letter does indeed kill, but the Spirit brings life. Just to be clear, I’m not advocating anyone ‘doing as they please’ and abandoning all good and decent Christian morals and values. God is a holy God and wants His people to be holy. Grace is a wonderful thing and is the means of our Salvation. I believe that grace is also the mechanism for us to move into a deeper relationship with God. This focuses our attention on moving into His presence and less on moving away from ‘the world’. If we keep our eyes on what we shouldn’t be doing, that’s the very thing we’ll end up doing. Instead, keep looking at Jesus and follow His example.
What does all this have to do with our verses today? Quite simply, we see that Peter was following afar off and then ‘was sitting in the midst of them’. It’s easy, when we follow the rule of separation, to condemn Peter and say that he shouldn’t have been sitting there. This is true. The denial of Christ was only possible when Peter was in the presence of the soldiers/guards/servants. If he’d stayed away from them then the temptation to deny Jesus wouldn’t have occurred. However, in John’s gospel we read that John was the means by which Peter entered the courtyard. John was there with Peter although it doesn’t seem that he was actually sat with them. Peter denied Jesus but John did not. They were both in similar circumstances but reacted differently. Why? I’m not entirely sure but perhaps as we said yesterday, Peter started looking at his circumstance instead of keeping his eyes on Jesus. Both John and Peter were in the same place and yet the outcomes for them were very different. It’s possible to be ‘in the world but not of it’ but my advice would be to stay away from places where there’s a risk of falling. It’s not a case of how close to the cliff-edge I can stand. It’s better to walk as far away from it as possible!
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