All he claims to be is a witness of Christ's glory and in that glory all human pretension withers. Office is not his obsession. He remembers only too clearly his defection from the Lord Jesus and the terms of his restoration, "Feed my sheep".

He reviles the tendency to lord it over the flock of Christ and recalls the nature of his calling at his reinstatement: When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord", he said, "You know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you will not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!" (John 21:15-19).

Peter was called to be a tender-hearted feeder and not a domineering leader.

The thrice-repeated question matched, and cancelled out, Peter's thrice repeated denial of Jesus. His pain at the interrogation was the sharp remembrance of the weakness of his love for the Saviour. The "follow me" was a call to the cross of self-denial and humble obedience. Love was at the root of Jesus' recommissioning of his errant friend and love was the basis of the Petrine ministry, not personal glory or grandeur. Peter was not all about superiority but servanthood. Peter is mellowed by his frailty and affection for Christ.

He doesn't aspire to being chief among men, but rather being at the disposal of the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4).

When the great trial of Peter's former boastful resolve came at the arrest of Jesus his vaunted loyalty and courage faded away (Mark 14:27-31). Through self-discovery Peter was levelled to absolute dependency on the continuous grace of God.

He commends that consciousness of weakness and reliance to his fellow saints to whom he is writing.

For Peter, it is the God of all grace who will himself restore and resource you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast i.e. present enabling, well established relationship with Christ, and ultimate perseverance - all the things that Peter once so conspicuously lacked in his own nature and character. Peter writes to others not from accomplishment but absence of ability. He directs our attention to where it should always be and to whom it should fix upon - the God of all grace and his comprehensive provision.

God's mighty hand is the locus of all power and the place from which all other powers are derived.

Peter attributes nothing to our capacities. He knows that fallen human nature is bankrupt. This is not an idle theory with Peter, it is a fact disclosed in his person and behaviour. . His helplessness is a matter of self-disclosed record, for Mark's gospel comprises the apostle's accurate reminiscences. Between Mark and Peter there was a strong empathy. Both men reneged on their Lord and were recovered by his unrelenting mercy toward his chosen ones. Peter has messed up too often to be proud (Matthew 14:25 31, Galatians 2:11ff) Once he was bold and brash in the extreme, and utterly self-confident and professionally competent as a mariner on the Sea of Galilee and a merchant of quality sea-food much desired throughout the Roman empire. Now he is subdued and submissive to the Christ he dared to contradict and correct (Matthew 16: 22-23).

Our frailty and subjection to "outrageous fortune" are apt to make us anxious. We are almost always encumbered with cares (so powerfully expressed in African-American Blues in which theological themes can often be detected, such as sin, addiction, and even redemption e.g. the hopeless alcoholic Jimmy Reed calling upon the Name of Christ when lying desperate in his hospital bed.). Since expulsion from Eden and its guaranteed divine protection and provision we are agitated and edgy.

The unbidden rise of anxiety falls not into the category of deliberate sin but into the sin of human infirmity. However, the indulgence of anxiety definitely translates into sin. It fails to recognise the sovereignty and wisdom of divine providence, and the surrender to care denies the fact that God cares for us. There is a mighty hand that lifts us up in due time, and our tendency to self-sufficiency and then panic can only be resolved by humbleness before God and his determinations and ultimate deliverance. Our struggles are common with all the people of God, and we have a common Helper, as Peter intimates, - and a common foe!

Our difficulties are exacerbated by a hate-filled and bitter enemy - the destroyer. Peter knows his wiles only too well. We need to be alert to his unrelenting assaults, tactics, and temptations. His intention is to trip us up and slay us cruelly when we are down. He is constantly menacing and merciless. Satan is ever on the prowl, patrolling his rounds of the people of God, and prepared to pounce. His roar is real - not imaginary. He is a malicious, marauding monster to whom we should give no quarter. He harasses and harms his sought-after victims and he hates the sheep of Christ's flock supremely.

He fooled Peter into craven fear and denial of his Lord. He bothers us and beats up the brothers throughout the world, as Peter observes (v9). Our only and effective refuge is the mighty hand of God before whom Satan cowers and cringes, and by whom he is crushed. We cannot fend off the fiendishness of the evil one, and we are never to negotiate with his approaches. He likes to promote an argument through accusation. We can only resist him with the weapon of faith - the facts of salvation and the promises and intervention of the Lord. Peter exhorts us to stand firm. The firmness can only be conferred by God. To the Lord we appeal, we have no alternative but to rely. The strength in the struggle is all his:

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. (V10).

The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church.