True love without authentic faith is impossible, and without biblical faith, biblical love is impossible to sustain. Absent the power of faith, love is left to depend on its' own strength, and self-sustaining love will collapse every time when the world, the flesh and the devil lay a siege upon it. This, I think, it was happen to Peter in those pre-dawn hours, when he was standing among strangers in the temple courtyards, the night Jesus was arrested.
Up to that point Peter's love for Jesus was a moral and religious one that had always worked for him in the past. But Jesus knew that the kind of love Peter would need was radically different than what he had. If we are going to be used by God we are going to have to surrender that love that has always worked for us, for that love that works for God. And love that works for God, that is approved by God, is love that must be established on absolute confidence in God. During the dark and confusing early morning hours when Jesus was arrested, Peter would be shown the truth about his own love claims, something each of us must go through if we truly want to know and follow Christ. Peter's love failed because his faith failed, and who of us hasn't been there?
In those moments when I deny my associate with Jesus it is usually because I am not confident that if I am seen standing on biblical claims, God will support me. And it is in those moments that we discover about us what God already knows...that our love is much more about us than it is about God. Sooner or later all claims to love will be tested, because they must be tested. Everything that claims a strength has to be tested before it can be put to use. No reputable contractor is going to work with steel to erect a multi-story building unless he is confident that the steel has the strength to support the structural requirements of the design. God does not test our love so he can discover what it is made from, he does so in order that we can know. God wants us to know about ourselves what he already does and always has.
If our love is faulty and we manage to get into a place of service that requires more strength of love than we currently have, what will happen? The failure of love has the potential to bring down more than just our own faith. The faith that some have in God can be terribly damaged or even destroyed by the collapse of the faith of a single person's that they have been looking up to. The LORD knew about Peter what Peter didn't know about himself...he wasn't ready yet to step into that place God had prepared for him, and often neither are we.
I remember when one of my daughter's was learning to drive. After several weeks of practice she starting talking about scheduling her road test, and since I had been through this with four other kids, I knew where this was headed. Every parent knows there is a fine line between encouragement and discouragement, and in many situations, the truth is not what our children are ready to hear. I knew about my daughter's driving skills what she did not. She honestly thought she would ace the test, I knew, at least I hoped, she wouldn't. She was not ready, but was not willing to hear that from me, it would take a qualified "professional" to "explain" it. As I had secretly hoped and feared, the qualified professional did indeed "explain" it to her differently than I had. I thought he would because I knew she wasn't ready, and I feared he would because I knew she would cried all the way home. I had tried to save her from the embarrassment and disappointment of the moment, from having to return texts to friends excitedly asking if she passed, but she was not ready - she had to be tested, she had to fail. She simply wasn't ready for the open road, an often and predictably dangerous and hostile environment.
Sooner or later all claims to love will be tested because they have to be. Everything that claims a strength has to be tested before it can be put to use. To put love into a place that puts more weight on it than it can bear, does not demonstrate love on the part of the One in charge of the project, especially when the project involves the hearts and eternal souls of people. It is much better to fail a test, knowing that it can be rescheduled, than to be killed or to kill another or to seriously injure ourselves or others in a collision that experience could have trained us avoid.
The LORD loved Peter, so he allowed him to fail, but after Peter's failure Jesus gently and wonderfully restored and strengthened him just as He had promised He would. In the end Peter grew to love Christ more and his love was founded in a confidence that his LORD knew from the beginning what was best for him. After the dark and dismal misery of a complete failure of love, came the dawn of the truth that lite up the rest of Peter's life. He who has called us is faithful.
Up to that point Peter's love for Jesus was a moral and religious one that had always worked for him in the past. But Jesus knew that the kind of love Peter would need was radically different than what he had. If we are going to be used by God we are going to have to surrender that love that has always worked for us, for that love that works for God. And love that works for God, that is approved by God, is love that must be established on absolute confidence in God. During the dark and confusing early morning hours when Jesus was arrested, Peter would be shown the truth about his own love claims, something each of us must go through if we truly want to know and follow Christ. Peter's love failed because his faith failed, and who of us hasn't been there?
In those moments when I deny my associate with Jesus it is usually because I am not confident that if I am seen standing on biblical claims, God will support me. And it is in those moments that we discover about us what God already knows...that our love is much more about us than it is about God. Sooner or later all claims to love will be tested, because they must be tested. Everything that claims a strength has to be tested before it can be put to use. No reputable contractor is going to work with steel to erect a multi-story building unless he is confident that the steel has the strength to support the structural requirements of the design. God does not test our love so he can discover what it is made from, he does so in order that we can know. God wants us to know about ourselves what he already does and always has.
If our love is faulty and we manage to get into a place of service that requires more strength of love than we currently have, what will happen? The failure of love has the potential to bring down more than just our own faith. The faith that some have in God can be terribly damaged or even destroyed by the collapse of the faith of a single person's that they have been looking up to. The LORD knew about Peter what Peter didn't know about himself...he wasn't ready yet to step into that place God had prepared for him, and often neither are we.
I remember when one of my daughter's was learning to drive. After several weeks of practice she starting talking about scheduling her road test, and since I had been through this with four other kids, I knew where this was headed. Every parent knows there is a fine line between encouragement and discouragement, and in many situations, the truth is not what our children are ready to hear. I knew about my daughter's driving skills what she did not. She honestly thought she would ace the test, I knew, at least I hoped, she wouldn't. She was not ready, but was not willing to hear that from me, it would take a qualified "professional" to "explain" it. As I had secretly hoped and feared, the qualified professional did indeed "explain" it to her differently than I had. I thought he would because I knew she wasn't ready, and I feared he would because I knew she would cried all the way home. I had tried to save her from the embarrassment and disappointment of the moment, from having to return texts to friends excitedly asking if she passed, but she was not ready - she had to be tested, she had to fail. She simply wasn't ready for the open road, an often and predictably dangerous and hostile environment.
Sooner or later all claims to love will be tested because they have to be. Everything that claims a strength has to be tested before it can be put to use. To put love into a place that puts more weight on it than it can bear, does not demonstrate love on the part of the One in charge of the project, especially when the project involves the hearts and eternal souls of people. It is much better to fail a test, knowing that it can be rescheduled, than to be killed or to kill another or to seriously injure ourselves or others in a collision that experience could have trained us avoid.
The LORD loved Peter, so he allowed him to fail, but after Peter's failure Jesus gently and wonderfully restored and strengthened him just as He had promised He would. In the end Peter grew to love Christ more and his love was founded in a confidence that his LORD knew from the beginning what was best for him. After the dark and dismal misery of a complete failure of love, came the dawn of the truth that lite up the rest of Peter's life. He who has called us is faithful.
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