Faithfulness, Not Perfection

“Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance.  And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them.  A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, ‘This man was with him.’

But he denied it. ‘Woman, I don’t know him,’ he said.  A little later someone else saw him and said, ‘You also are one of them.’  ‘Man, I am not!’ Peter replied.  About an hour later another asserted, ‘Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.’

Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’  And he went outside and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22:54-62 NIV)

This was probably the lowest moment of Peter’s life.  After proclaiming his willingness to go to prison and die for Jesus just hours earlier (Luke 22:33), here he was now denying he even knew Him!  It was that moment of brokenness, combined with the forgiveness he later received from Jesus (John 21:15-19), which propelled him onto the path of leading the Church.  But he was still not perfect and that is what makes Peter a great example of what it means to follow Jesus.  

Several years after this, Peter was in Antioch where he encountered some Jewish Christians who believed it wrong to associate with non-Jews.  Although he knew better (Acts 10), Peter joined in with their discrimination.  It was Paul who called him out (Galatians 2:11-21).  We are not told how Peter reacted, but we can assume he likely reacted in a similar way as the night outside the home of the high priest. 

What Peter’s life tells us is we will not be perfect in following Jesus.  We will mess up, perhaps sometimes in very big ways.  Yet, the Lord’s grace and mercy covers us.  I think a lot of us struggle with thinking if we can’t live perfectly, then we have failed and so we give up or we just don’t try as hard.  What Peter’s life reveals is faithfulness, rather than perfection, is what the Lord desires.  David failed big time (II Samuel 11), but he is still known as a man after God’s heart. (Acts 13:22)

Today, recognize you don’t have to be perfect in your following of Jesus. Just like Peter, and David, you are going to mess up.  But like them, you are under the grace and mercy of God. Acknowledging your sin and repenting is all that is needed to get you back on the right path again. They weren’t perfect, but they were faithful. That is what the Lord truly desires in us.

© Jim Musser 2018