After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. - Matthew 17:1
These three disciples belonged to the inner circle of our Jesus' friends. There must have been something in them that particularly endeared them to Him. We know that Peter was a leader among the apostles, and also a bold witness; that John was “the disciple who Jesus loved”, and that James was the first of the band to die as a martyr. It is very encouraging to look at Peter who was a man with many faults, who made so many mistakes, who even denied Christ, and yet as we see here was one of our Lord's closest friends. It gives encouragement to us that, with all our faults, we may yet be very dear to Christ.
It does not seem so strange that John was allowed to enter the inner circle. His disposition was gentle and friendly, very much like the Master's. Yet it is probable that John owed his sincere and gentle character to being close to Jesus. It could be he was not always a man of love. There is a Persian fable of a piece of clay made fragrant by lying on a rose; the perfume of the rose passed into the clay. So it probably was with John. Jesus' spirit of love and gentleness passed into his life and transformed it. Likewise we have a lesson also from John: constant and loving communion with Christ will change us into His likeness.
The lesson from this choosing of three out of the whole band for particular privileges is that while Jesus loves all His friends, there are certain ones whom He takes into closer confidence than the others. There are degrees of nearness to Him, even in this world. Should we not strive to be among those who, by disposition and by service, win their way to the closest places? We must remember that those who serve most are esteemed more highly.
Apply This To Your Life Today... How can you draw closer to Christ and serve Him more sincerely?
No comments:
Post a Comment