Mark 8: 31-38
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
A Thought
The temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness, Peter along with all believers are tempted in a similar manner. Satan had offered Jesus the power of the earth without having to suffer the death of the cross to pay the price for our penalty of sin. Even though Jesus paid the price for our sin, we have an obligation to surrender our lives to him and to stop sinning. We must keep our mind on Christ and in his word, how we can please him and do not try to please men. The cares of this world–such as the love of money, power, possessions–Satan will use to trap us in adultery and sin that will make us ashamed of God and his Son.
