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What turns a fiery, sword wielding disciple into the writer of a
love song? Remember Peter? He claimed a love for the Lord above all
the other disciples. He drew a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane to
defend Jesus against arrest. And yet, before it was all over, he
denied Christ three times.
By the time he wrote his second epistle, some thirty or thirty-five
years later, Peter was a different man. It wasn't the maturity of
age. Peter experienced a seminal event seven weeks after the
resurrection of Christ.
Pentecost, the Advent of the Holy Spirit, and the birth of the
church changed Peter forever. At that moment he experienced
something never known to the disciples before--the indwelling,
baptizing, sealing and filling of the Holy Spirit. It was this new
Spirit-driven Peter who preached that marvelous sermon that brought
three-thousand believers to Jesus Christ (Acts 2).
This helps explain two things that happened in his life. The first
was his encounter with Jesus at the Sea of Galilee after his
three-fold denial. Jesus asked, Do you agape (love) me more than the
rest of the disciples? Peter, knowing that his earlier claim to love
was just an ignorant boast, said, Lord, I phila (have affection for)
You. Twice Jesus asked about agape love and twice Peter replied with
a confession of the lesser phila love (Jn. 21:15-17).
Then Jesus asked, Do you phila me? Do you really have affection for
me? The heart-broken Peter cried, Lord, you know all things. You
know I phila You (Jn. 21:15-17). Jesus accepted that and said, Feed
my sheep. But we need to understand what was happening here and
later in Peter's life.
Phila love was a legitimate love. It is the love of inclination or
affection. In Greek culture it was used to describe the love that
brothers and sisters have in the immediate family. But God took it
one step further--giving the disciples a brotherly love for someone
outside their immediate family. We see this in John 16:27 where God
the Father has phila for the disciples because they phila His son,
Jesus.
But phila fell short of what Christ was looking for at the Sea of
Galilee--agape. This is the will to love, in spite of circumstances.
This was the love that would fill Peter at Pentecost, at the Advent
of the Holy Spirit.
At the Sea of Galilee, Jesus accepted phila love because He knew
that soon, the Holy Spirit would bring into the world a new and
abiding work of God. The grace-given work of the Holy Spirit in the
heart of Peter at Pentecost would add to his faith in Christ the
agape love that Jesus sought.
With this in mind, we can understand the second event in his life.
The inspiration to write his second epistle and the love song he
opens with:
Add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to
knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to
perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and
to brotherly kindness, love (2 Pet. 1:5-7).
The Greek word translated "add" is from the Greek root choros from
which we get our word "chorus," a mingling of voices in harmony.
Faith carries the tune, the song of our redemption. But wait. Look
at the musical score. One by one, seven other voices join in
harmonizing with faith. They don't stand separately from faith as
additions to faith, as though there is another song to be sung about
our redemption. Our redemption starts with faith in Christ, but oh,
the beautiful voices that join in as the years pass and that faith
grows. They fill out a grand chorus called the Christian life that
lifts its voice in harmony with that fundamental song of
redemption--our faith in Christ.
But the last two voices that are added to the chorus are undoubtedly
the most beautiful part of the harmony for Peter, which I call his
love song. They are the voices of brotherly kindness (phila +
delphos) and love (agape).
When Peter writes this he understands what Christ was asking of him
at the Sea of Galilee. Yes, Jesus valued the fact that Peter rose
above Greek culture and had phila love for someone outside the
family.
But now Peter, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and filled with all the
fullness of God, faces martyrdom. To walk the final mile would
require more than phila, an affection for Christ. He would need the
will to love, to agape his Savior, in spite of the terrors ahead. By
the power of the indwelling and filling of the Spirit he now could
give to his Savior what he could not give on the shores of Galilee.
Now he could go to martyrdom. His love song was complete.
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