The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

—John 10:10

One of the reasons I love Simon Peter is because he gives me hope. One moment he’s Jesus’s right-hand man and the next he’s literally making the biggest boneheaded mistake you can imagine. It’s clear from the gospels that Jesus was at work in Peter, but we also see the enemy going after him as well, and as a result, he experienced both the abundant life Jesus came to offer us and the devastation of falling for the enemy’s schemes.

One of the places where Peter experiences both of these extremes is in Matthew 16. This chapter is made up of several small stories back to back, but Peter doesn’t become the focus until verse 13. 

Starting in verse 13, Jesus takes His disciples to Caesarea Philippi. According to ancient belief, the actual gates of Hell were deep in a cave near this city that was involved in horrible pagan worship of the god Pan, and probably others. That’s the backdrop against which Jesus asks the disciples two very important questions: “Who do others say I am?” and “Who do you say I am?”

Peter, impulsive as ever, is the first to speak up and through the revelation of the Father he gets the answer right— “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (verse 16). As a result, Jesus changed his name from Simon (One who Hears) to Peter (the Rock). He goes from a student listening to His rabbi to part of the foundation Jesus is going to build His church upon. 

What a mountain-high experience! Jesus gives him the keys of the kingdom of Heaven and power over things on earth and in Heaven. At that moment, he was experiencing life in abundance. He had intimacy with Jesus. He had become part of the foundation on which Jesus would build the church meant to bring people to life in Christ. He’d been given amazing power. Things are going great! Until we move from verse 20 to verse 22.

Just two verses later, after Jesus begins telling the disciples that He will have to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die, Peter trips over his own big mouth and decides rebuking the all-powerful Creator of the universe is a good idea. Jesus’s response? “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Talk about whiplash. Two verses ago Peter was being blessed by Jesus! And now he’s being called Satan. The intimacy, at least for a short time, is broken, and the name he’s being called now brings death rather than life. 

I imagine Peter was incredibly confused, hurt, probably angry too. I’m sure he never meant to fall prey to the enemy’s attacks. More likely, he wanted to continue in the closeness he experienced with Jesus in Caesarea Philippi.

I think most of us who know Jesus experience both of these moments as well—the abundance of life that comes with intimacy with Christ and the pain and devastation of falling for the devil’s schemes—which is why Peter gives me hope. He messed up a lot, but he never stopped running after Jesus and God used him in mighty ways.

While I believe God will use all of us who truly seek Him despite our mistakes, it’s worth noting that there is danger here. When Peter was focused on Jesus and who He is, he experienced the abundant life he was made for, but all it took was a shift in focus to make a huge change in Peter’s relationship with Christ for the worse. By the grace of God it wasn’t a permanent change, but it was a painful one.

When Peter began to focus on his own will, his own plan, maybe even the power that had been granted to him a few verses before, it created a huge divide between him and Jesus. That’s how the enemy works. 

In John 10:10 we’re told the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. That in and of itself seems bad enough, but there’s more to the word kill than meets the eye. It’s not just killing for killing’s sake. It refers to a religious sacrifice. The picture is that the devil steals the hearts of the people God loves and sacrifices them on his own altar.

He did this with Peter by deceiving him into thinking he was in control, that he had the power, and as a result, Peter tried to act in authority over Jesus. He basically tried to change God’s plan, and I’m so thankful he didn’t have that power.

As we go through this week, be wary. Be watchful for ways the enemy is shifting our focus toward ourselves or away from Christ and others. He doesn’t just want to harm us. He wants to sacrifice us—our joy, our relationships, our intimacy with Christ—on his own altar. We can’t stand by and let him do that, so we must keep our eyes on Jesus.