Bible Discussion Thread

Continuation in Matthew, (Part 19):

Matthew 16:22 - Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

Literally from the Greek: Peter began to rebuke him saying, have mercy on you Lord, this shall never happen (Double Negative) to you. It would be equivalent to our English saying, "God have mercy on you for saying that!"

Matthew 16:23 - 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.

Here it is literally: He turned, and He said to Peter get behind me, and that is an important word. Jesus will always emphasize that whether it's Satan, or people, or whoever it is. The proper position is behind Him, never alongside of Him, never in front of Him, always behind! He says, "Get behind me Satan."

He's speaking to the influence over Peter. It is Satan that says there will be no suffering in the flesh, and that there will be no hardship in the flesh. Satan is the great defender of the flesh. And through human reason and logic, he will oppose any doctrine that will present the fact that if you follow Jesus, there will be suffering and persecution.

Now the word offense is SCANDALIDZO which is where we get our English word scandal from. A SCANDALON in Greek was actually a rock that you tripped over. So, he says, Satan you are throwing a rock in my path to keep me from reaching my goal.

And the word "savourest" comes from the Greek word PHRONAY which means the frame of mind.

Please notice that Jesus is telling Peter that his frame of mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of man. When we hear about suffering how do we react? Peter's reaction was, and his frame of mind was to defend and protect the flesh. We need to be careful of that in the church. Our frame of mind must be on the things of God, not on the things of man, or the things of the flesh.