A little boy who fell out of bed in the middle of the night explained why he fell: “I guess I got too close to where I got into bed.”
It’s the same reason we become spiritually corrupted: we get too close to where we came in. That’s what happened to Peter, and he ended up warming himself by the fire of the enemy.
Peter was trying to hide as a disciple. Matthew 26:57–58 says, “So those who arrested Jesus took him to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered. Peter followed Jesus from afar into the high priest’s courtyard” (NLT). John’s Gospel tells us that the garden guards were standing around a charcoal fire, and “Peter was standing with them, warming himself” (18:18 NLT).
At this point, Peter was exhausted, defeated, weak, and defenseless. He was following Jesus, indeed, but from a distance. As a result, he was drawn to the heat of the enemy’s fire.
Why was he there in the first place? The rest of verse 58 gives us the answer: “He went in and sat with the guards to see how everything would turn out.”
Peter had forgotten all that Jesus had said about the resurrection from the dead. He just waited for the end: the end of Jesus’ life, the end of Jesus’ dream, the end of everything Jesus held dear.
But it wasn’t the end. It was a new beginning.
Peter’s problem was that he was in the wrong place with the wrong people, doing the wrong thing, and that’s what happens when we fall into sin. We’re always in the wrong place with the wrong people, doing the wrong thing.
If you hang out with the wrong people in the wrong place, it’s only a matter of time before you do the wrong thing. We need to get smart.
Psalm 1 says, “O blessed are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, nor stand with sinners, nor associate with scoffers! For their delight is in the Lord’s law, and they meditate on it day and night” (verses 1-2, NLT).
Have you ever noticed the progression in these verses? First, you follow. Then, you pause. Then, you join.
Have you ever tried to be a secret Christian? It’s like the man who only goes to church at Christmas and Easter. The pastor greets him at the door and says, “You know, I only see you about twice a year. You need to join the Lord’s army.”
The man leaned in and whispered, “I’m with the Secret Service.”
Are you? Are you a Christian in the Secret Service?
For Peter, the issue wasn’t the fire itself, but the people around it who were trying to get warm. In the same way, when the passion in our hearts begins to die out, our passion for Christ also dies, and we start looking elsewhere for warmth.
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