Fear of Disapproval
We see three types of fear in the denial of Simon Peter who followed Jesus from afar after he was arrested. First of all we see an unexpected fear, a servant girl accuses Simon Peter of being one of the followers of Jesus and Simon Peter said “I am not” the first lie of fear. This shows how we must decide in advance as fears can come upon us unexpectedly. Secondly we see an understandable fear. Simon Peter joined people gathered around the fire, “are you not also one of his disciples?” He is caught in the classic peer pressure situation, one person being intimidated by the group which produces the second lie. The third time makes the most sense, an unsurprising fear. Peter wasn’t afraid in cutting off the right ear of one of servants in the garden of Gethsemane, but it was now going to complicate matters. The scripture records that one of high priest’s servants (a relative of one whose ear he had cut off) said “didn’t I see you in the Garden?” Peter stuck to his lie and immediately the rooster crowed. We need to replace our fear of approval of others (which can be unexpected, understandable and unsurprising in its nature) with our acceptance by God. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.