Peter seems more concerned for another than for himself. So apt are we to be busy in other men’s matters, but negligent in the concerns of our own souls,—quick-sighted abroad, but dim-sighted at home,—judging others, and prognosticating what they will do, when we have enough to do to prove our own works, and understand our own ways. Peter seems more concerned about events than about duty. . .Whereas, if God, by His grace, enable us to persevere to the end, and finish well, and get safely to heaven, we need not ask, ‘What shall be the lot of those that shall come after us? Is it not well if peace and truth shall be in my days? Scripture predictions must be eyed for the direction of our conscience, not for the satisfying of our curiosity.
There is a word here for those of us disposed to compare ourselves with other believers, to look down on those in whom we do not see virtues we believe that we personally possess, or to judge those with temperaments that differ from our own. It would do us a world of good to come to terms with the fact that the Lord has so ordered His church as to reflect a diversity of personalities, spiritual conditions, and temperaments. As we embrace this principle and focus on our own relationship with the Lord, we will learn to love, bear long with, and appreciate what—though not true of us—may be true of a brother or sister in Christ.
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