Peter didn’t. We discovered yesterday that he calls Paul a ‘dear brother’ or ‘beloved’ years after he was publicly corrected and himself called a hypocrite by his fellow colleague. But we see more things to show that Peter was not carrying a grudge against Paul.
“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. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
2 Peter 3:15-16
There are 5 things that show Peter was not holding a grudge. If we adopted these 5 things into simply how we respond and view people then whether we get hurt by them or not our world would be a better place.
1. Honour them as servants of God.
He acknowledges the letters of Paul as being wisdom from God. Peter is not jealous so as to be robbed of honouring a fellow colleague. We need to recognise the work of God in each other. We don’t have a monopoly on this.
2. Value their work.
He has read Paul’s letters. Peter obviously had taken the time to read the letters of Paul. These churches in what is now Turkey had already received letters from Paul covering the same topics as Peter and he had read them. Peter wasn’t so consumed with his ministry that he didn’t value someone else’s.
3. Generous acceptance of God’s inspiration in their life.
He calls these letters the ‘Scriptures’. Even in Peter’s day the letters of Paul (13 altogether) were being used as Scripture from God. The Bible as we know it was being formed as early as this time. In time Peter’s 2 letters will be used in the same way.
4. Honesty is better than smooth talking someone.
He says some of Paul’s work is ‘hard to understand’. SOME but not ALL of the Bible is hard to understand and Peter recognises that the wisdom Paul is at times tough to grapple with. His honesty revealed that even Peter was still a learner. Aren’t we all? So let’s say so when we can.
5. Defender of people
He calls the enemies of Paul ‘ignorant’ and ‘unstable’ and are heading to their ‘destruction’. He defends Paul and judges those who don’t hold to the infallibility of Scripture. Those who distort what has been written or said need to be challenged. We need to defend people when they are not in the room to defend themselves.
These 5 things prove Peter was not holding a grudge against Paul and we need to adopt them in our lives with people.
Missions Paul 