Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Matthew 16:22-23

And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Mark 8:32-33

As I mentioned yesterday, we do not know the exact reasoning behind Peter attempting to rebuke the Lord, but we do know that it was a bad idea!

Peter pulls Jesus aside privately, but Jesus rebukes him in front of all the disciples. This tells us that what Peter has said is very bad. Jesus is making sure that everyone understands that what Peter has done, should not be done!

I do not believe Satan was actually possessing Peter and making him say these things, but the influence is definitely from Satan so Jesus rebukes the source of the evil words. 

Jesus’ says sets a contrast between the things of God and the things of man in His rebuke. This means that Peter’s desire to not have Jesus die is contrary to the will of God. Satan desired that Jesus not die because he knew that if Jesus died we would be saved!

Our will is not as important as the will God, no matter what we think. In fact, our will doesn’t matter at all if it is not 100% in harmony with God’s will. This is such an important thing to understand that Jesus says that this is the influence of Satan! With this in mind, it should give us great pause if our system of salvation places any importance on the will or decisions of man. 

Our doctrine and practice should reflect God’s desire and will only. There are some things that we are at liberty to adjust. Things like what time church will start or how long it will last are within the scope of liberty for us to decide. We can also choose which hymns we will sing. However, we need to make sure that those hymns are doctrinal or we are attempting to rebuke the Lord. Details such as these are not what is under consideration. But I will say this, many times (if not most of the time) there are errors in practice that accompany errors in doctrine.

Let us each examine our worship practice and doctrinal content. Let us compare what we believe and do to what the word of God says because it is our only rule of faith and practice. Let us not be so arrogant in thinking that we are right and can contradict the Lord.

Remember, that didn’t go so well for Peter.