John Calvin opened his most famous book with this line: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.”
The opposite must then be true: Foolish and destructive choices happen when we don’t really know God or ourselves.
In the second half of John 13, Jesus predicted that two of his closest followers were about to fail in colossal ways. One failed because he didn’t ever really know Jesus, and one failed because he didn’t really know himself.
Judas didn’t really know Jesus. He wanted Jesus to be a certain kind of Messiah and he willingly followed him until it was clear Jesus wasn’t going to meet his terms. It was then that he decided to get out, while collecting what he could for betraying Jesus to the authorities
People today can join in with Jesus like Judas did. They’ll consider Jesus as a means to an end. But they abandon him when he doesn’t act like they expect him to act, or when they discover Jesus taught something they don’t like, or when the prayers for health and wealth aren’t answered.
If Judas failed because he didn’t really know Jesus, Simon Peter failed because he didn’t really know himself. He swore he would never abandon Jesus, but he did just a few hours later. Three times, in fact.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” It's only when we know ourselves to be weak and vulnerable to spiritual failure that we’ll take steps to avoid it. We’ll depend on God in prayer, we’ll ask our spiritual brothers and sisters for help, and we’ll avoid situations that could lead to our defeat.
We’ll study the failures of Judas and Peter this Sunday in hopes that we won’t repeat them. Read John 13:18-38 ahead of time, and then join us on campus or online at 10am!
--Tom
Tom serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter. If someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, sign up here to receive Tom’s weekly devotional in your email inbox.