Intentions: The Things Of God

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Mark 8:33

Jesus began to teach His disciples that He must suffer many things, that He must be rejected and killed, and that He would rise again. He made it very plain to them.

But Peter took the Lord aside and began to rebuke Him over it. He was not concerned with the mind of Christ, but the want of his own mind—to not to lose his Friend and Master to a gruesome death. Peter was filled with good intentions, but not God’s intentions. Jesus focused Himself on the things of God; Peter vacillated between the things of God and the things of man. We all do.

Do we have in mind the things of God or the things of men? If Peter couldn’t tell the difference, how can we?

Jesus loved Peter. He gave Peter special recognition and position because of his abiding faith and deep commitment. But Peter was a mere man, as we are mere men. And his mind was sometimes seized by good intentions. Good intentions are high risk. They are built on the uncertain sands of the mind of man, not on the rock of the mind of Christ. There is a huge difference between good intentions and God intentions.

Instead of wanting to know the mind of Christ, Peter wanted to instruct the Lord about the mind of Peter. We do the same. We instruct the Lord how this or that idea would be of great benefit to Him and us. We implore Him to allow it, to bless it. But we “do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” God has an agenda—a purpose and a plan, yet we are not working on His agenda, but our own.

A Withering Rebuke

Immediately after Peter gives the Lord “a piece of his mind,” the Lord issues the most withering, harsh rebuke in all of Scripture. To this disciple He loved, He said, “‘Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men’” (Mark 8:33).

There is our key, then, to God’s pleasure or displeasure. Do you have in mind the things of God, or the things of men? “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

Jesus did not pronounce His judgment upon Peter as a permanent condition. Peter was not a Satan for all time, but only for the moment in which he was focused on the things of men and not the things of God. Where have you focused on the things of men, rather than the things of God? What plan isn’t working out? What good intention preoccupies your mind that doesn’t occupy the mind of Christ?

Do you hear His stern, withering rebuke? His fury is directed at your wrong thinking—your mind—not at your soul. He loves you, but He wants to winnow out the sinful mind. His reprimand is not permanent but is intended to restore us.

The things of God are urgent, immediate. God cannot allow our minds to stray to the things of men. He rebukes us sternly so that we might abandon our own ideas, our own plans. He is building a Christian army, one that will conquer this tired, broken, worn-out world. But first He must suffer, He must be rejected, die, and then raised from the dead. These are the things of God.

Do you make allowance for Jesus to suffer? Will you let Him be rejected? Are you ashamed that your Master was crucified dead? These things He must endure. They are the things of God. The army He is building has in mind the things of God. The world is the theater where His battle will be fought and won, not by the good intentions of man but by the power of the risen Christ.

He had to die. It was so that our mind of sin might also die. The mind of sin which consumed us has been regenerated into the mind of Christ. Now we must concentrate not on the things of men, but the things of God, so that His withering rebuke will not pierce our hearts like an arrow. How can we tell the difference between the things of God and the things of men? The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. But the secret ambitions, the hidden motives, the impure desires of the sinful nature disguise themselves. Peter presumed his rebuke of Jesus a good thing; it instead turned out to be the opposite.

The secret lies in living by and for the Spirit, not by and for the sinful nature. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5). It is putting on the mind of Christ and forsaking the desire to persuade the Lord toward the things of men. It is to surrender to the things of God.

I SURRENDER

Lord Jesus, I have erred. I have dared to utter my own good intentions about how You should manage my life. I have been pursuing my plan and not Your plan. I have vacillated between the things of God and the things of man. Your withering rebuke of me is fully deserved. I surrender to the things of God. Enable me by Your grace to live no longer according to the sinful nature, but by the Spirit. Amen.