Why would Peter, who had seen all sorts of miracles from the Lord and who loved Him, deny the Savior three times?
Christ gently reminded Peter before he had actually denied Him:
“When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” (Luke 22:32)
WHEN thou art converted.
To me, that crucial word “when” means that Peter’s conversion hadn’t quite happened yet.
Of course, Peter KNEW that Jesus was the Christ.
But when he was suddenly thrown into a stressful situation where people were accusing him, his basic instincts kicked in.
And Peter’s basic instincts put self-survival above love for the Savior.
I think that’s a big test of conversion!
We can “know” things and testify about them.
But when it comes down to it
When life really gets hard
When we are put in awkward situations with friends
When we risk offending people…
What do we revert to?
Do we still find ourselves rooted in Christ?
That shows the difference between simply believing and being truly converted to the Lord.
But don’t despair if your love for your Savior hasn’t quite sunk into your soul yet.
Because the cool part is that as we keep reading the New Testament, we will learn that Peter DOES become wholly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He puts his love for the Savior above his personal safety.
He puts his love for the Savior above his own life.
So if we aren’t truly converted yet, if we panic when we have to say what we believe, if we worry more about what other people think than what God thinks…
We’ve always got time to learn about and love Jesus even more!
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
