Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 16; Mark 8; Luke 9:18-27.
Immediately before promising to build His church, Jesus taught His disciples an important lesson about what to believe.
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’” (Matthew 16:13-17).
It was helpful to recognize what others were saying about Jesus. Many people had misconceptions about Him, just as many people do today. But while it was important to be aware of this, the goal of Jesus’ instruction was not merely to point out the erroneous views that His disciples might encounter. It was also vitally important that the disciples themselves believed the truth about Jesus.
So Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” The world is going to give various answers about Christ, His church, what constitutes good works, etc. But Jesus’ question here implies two important points.
- The world is not our standard. Regardless of what others were saying, the disciples needed to believe what was revealed to them from above (Matthew 16:17). In the same way, we need to believe the word of God – no matter what others might think about it – because it is our standard (John 12:48).
- We will often differ from the world. People in the world are going to believe what they want to believe. We, as Christians, need to believe what we find in God’s word (Romans 10:17).
We must be very careful not to conform our thinking to the world (Romans 12:2). Jesus made it clear to His disciples here that there would be a difference. We need to believe the truth, no matter what others say about it.
Tomorrow’s reading: Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9:28-62
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
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