John 13:6-8 (NIV) He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.” Is it possible that Jesus knows what He is doing? Jesus told Peter that he wouldn’t understand at the moment but he would later. But Peter went right on resisting Who Jesus is and what He said.

When Jesus does something, He does it with incredible knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and power. Peter had seen Jesus heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, calm a storm, multiply bread and fish, walk on water, turn water into wine, and silence some of His greatest critics. But, that didn’t impress Peter, he still felt like he knew whether or not Jesus should wash his feet. It is easy to see why Jesus needed to do something to heal these attitudes and character traits in Peter.

Mat 16:21-23 (NIV) From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Peter didn’t just try to talk Jesus out of dying, he took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. Just a little time prior to this event, Peter established the fact that he knew Who Jesus is: Mat 16:15-16 (NIV) “But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Yet Peter felt free to rebuke the Christ, the Son of the living God. There had to be a real spiritual problem in order for Peter to be willing to do that.

Mat 26:31-35 (NIV) Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me, for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown Me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Jesus just said: This very night you will ALL fall away on account of Me. And Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.” Then Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown Me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You.” Peter wasn’t getting better; he was getting worse. His treatment of Jesus was pretty much an outright indication that Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about.

Luke 22:31-33 (NIV) “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with You to prison and to death.” Why would Jesus pray that Peter’s faith may not fail? Why wouldn’t He pray that Peter not have to face the temptation in the first place? Why let Satan try to destroy Peter and not prevent it from happening? Peter needed discipline!

Heb 12:5-8 (NIV) And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

You are a child of God; just like you had to be trained on how to grow up, act your age, be taught how to get good at doing mature human things, and become skilled at some kind of human trade, you must learn the same things in the realm of God. Life is challenging; and the challenges give us opportunities to learn how to apply our training to those challenges. If your life isn’t challenging enough, there will always be someone giving you assignments to make it more challenging. These challenges mature you.

Eph 6:10 (NIV) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Why do you need to be strong? Can’t you just pray to Jesus and Him bail you out of the situation? It is true that your strength comes from Jesus; but, you have to cooperate with it. Phil 4:13 (NIV) I can do everything through Him (Jesus) Who gives me strength. It is Jesus who is providing you with the strength. It is Jesus Who is providing you with the training. It is Jesus Who is supplying the training system. And it is Jesus Who is providing the discipline.

Gal 4:1-2 (NIV) What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. In order for you to learn how to resist through love, you will have to submit to Jesus’ training system. No matter how old you were when you were born again, you started out with God as an infant who had just been born again. Even though you knew a lot of things about how to be a human. They won’t work in your child of God life.

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I WANT to do I do not do, but what I HATE I do. This is what you experience when you try to apply human reasoning, human training, human skills, and human effort to the life of a child of God. It would be like trying to apply the training, skills, and systems of a plumber to brain surgery. Just because you were the world’s best plumber wouldn’t automatically make you qualified for doing brain surgery.

The only human things that work in Christianity are things like knowing how to walk, read, talk, study, and establish relationships. Where you walk, what you read, what you say, what you study, and what kind of relationships you establish all fall into the category of child of God training. Prior to Christianity, you, the world, and the devil decided where you walked, what you read, what you said, what you studied, and what kind of relationships you established. Now they are all being reestablished through the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and Jesus.