John 1:40-42, Peter Meets Jesus

40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called “Cephas” (which means Peter).

Andrew and Peter first knew Jesus at the Jordan River before they moved back home to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee where they were in the fishing business. There Jesus called them to follow him and become “fishers of men.” They did not drop their fishing nets and blindly follow Jesus, but had a few days, if not several weeks, to consider who he was and why they might leave all behind to follow him. They had a prior relationship with Jesus before he asked them to leave all behind and follow him. For me, this helps me understand what was going on – they didn’t have a “blind” faith but one that is informed.

Each of us must consider what an informed faith means. One aspect of being created in the image of God means we can think about, communicate with, and relate to him in a real relationship. When I asked my wife to marry me, it was not the first time we had met. She had known me over three years. We had dated for four months. She did not say “yes” immediately to my proposal of marriage, but she thought about it and what it would entail. She was informed before agreeing to leave her single life behind to make a life-long covenant of marriage with me. We have grown together for more than thirty years. We are not the same young twenty-somethings at the start of our marriage.

Having a relationship with Jesus is similar. When Jesus first met Simon, he renamed him Peter, an act of asserting his loving, divine sovereignty over him. They entered into a new relationship. Peter thought about, communicated with, and related to Jesus before he agreed to follow him as a disciple in a dedicated, life-long relationship. Like a marriage, that relationship grew Peter and changed him over time though with all the ups and downs any intimate relationship has.

Like Peter, our relationship with Jesus has its ups and downs as we grow in him. God uses these to mature us. Think about your history with Jesus, reflecting on the ups and downs. Do you see his track record of faithfulness in your relationship with him, even when you were perhaps not faithful to him? I can, and this moves me to praise him as my Savior. Will you praise him right now as your faithful Savior?