Peter didn’t. As we draw to the end of his letter we find something beautiful about Peter. He didn’t hold grudges. He spoke well of a fellow apostle who had even criticised and rebuked him publicly. Paul records the incident of Peter’s compromise in Galatians 2:11-21 and how he had to correct Peter and yet years later look what Peter calls him…
“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him…” (2 Peter 3:15)
‘Dear brother’!
Paul called him a hypocrite! Years later Peter calls Paul ‘dear brother’ or ‘beloved’.
Would you be able to say ‘I love that person’ when that person had hurt you years earlier? Or would you write that person off. Burn the bridge. Never to let that person near you ever again. You might be forgiven for thinking like that. But not Peter. He loved Paul.
That doesn’t just happen does it? It takes a deep self-awareness; facing the truth and maybe even admitting to the truth and changing one’s way because the truth can hurt before it sets you free.
Are there any prisoners in your heart today?
Missions Paul 