We may be doing Satan's work.
J.R. Miller, Daily Bible Readings
in the Life of Christ, 1890. Then Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him. Oh no, Lord, this will never
happen to you. But he turned and told Peter,
Get behind me, Satan. Matthew 16, 22-23. It was Peter's love for Christ
which made him so rebel at the thought of such a dire fate for
him. In his love, he sought to hold
the Master back from so throwing away his life, but in doing this,
he was acting the part of Satan in seeking to tempt Jesus away
from his great work of atonement. This way of the cross was not
an accident. It was the way marked out for
Christ. To swerve from it would be to
fail in His mission. Our best friends may become our
tempters in the same way. In their love for us, they may
seek to keep us from entering paths of duty which will lead
us to great sacrifice. Mothers may seek to restrain
their children from going to foreign mission fields. Any of
us, in the warmth of our affection for our friends, may seek to
dissuade them from perilous or costly service, which it may
be their duty to undertake. We need to guard ourselves at
this point. The path of true success does
not always lie along the sunny hillside. Sometimes it goes down
into the dark valley of self-sacrifice, and if we try to hinder any from
entering upon hard duties, urging them to choose easier ways, We
may be doing Satan's work. We may be plucking the crown
from the brow of our friend by holding back his feet from the
way of the cross. We all need to guard, too, against
the counsels of friends who would restrain us from costly or perilous
service. In matters of duty, we must know
only one guide and follow the call of only one voice. We are
not put in this world to have a pleasant and easy time. We
are not put here to consult our own inclinations at all. We are
here to go where Christ leads, to follow Him, to sacrifice and
to death, if He leads us in these paths. we dare not allow ourselves
to be turned aside by any tenderness of human love. It is the way
of duty, however hard, that takes us home to heavenly glory.