When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Matthew 16:13-15
An instrumental element of the disciples' training was to witness Jesus encounter and respond to His adversaries. Two religious groups called the Pharisees and Sadducees challenged everything Jesus said and did. Some questions are conscientious in nature, and are welcomed by God. He does not want or expect blind faith; God wants us to choose Him based our understanding and agreement with the principles He stands for. Conscientious questions diligently seek truth.
But other questions are contentious in nature, seek no truth, but endeavor instead to discredit any other principles than the ones that uphold the person's authority, status or wealth. Understand that the Pharisees and Sadducees hounded Jesus with their, oftentimes nonsensical, disapproval because His authority threatened their ability to retain their own (which was considerable). They had a lot of power and influence... and wealth, and the more people that joined Jesus' righteous congregation, the more people left their corrupt one.
It was after one such confrontation that Jesus asked His disciples: Who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Jesus wanted them to be perceptive about the atmosphere around them while also able to discern their own thoughts. At worst Jesus' adversaries declared Him to be a blasphemous fraud (John 10:33-38). At best, they declared Him to be a prophet, rather than an authority made and established by God. And though some admitted that He was at least a prophet, we know from scripture that prophets were not highly regarded (after all, Elijah was sentenced to death, his fellow-prophets gathered and systematically killed, and Jeremiah was threatened, mocked, and imprisoned).
The point is that there are a lot of opinions in the world about God's existence and character. People will have different motives, barriers and reasons for their beliefs or lack thereof. Indeed you and the world will often have conflicting declarations about God; therefore Jesus wants you to be able to discern between the two voices: your own and the world's. Because the voice you listen to will propel you through life. He wants you to have your own, fully informed declaration because what you declare will matter and hinder or assist in the course of your life.
- THE FOOL IN HIS HEART
The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.
Psalm 14:1
A portion of the world is agnostic, undecided or unsure about the existence God. Another portion staunchly disbelieve and oppose the philosophy of God; Psalm 14 refers to this portion. Everyone has encountered such a person as described in the first verse of the Psalm: a person who, usually callously, denies the existence of God and uses that presumed-absence for their own corrupt lifestyle.
In fact, the denial of God can prove quite convenient to a selfish and/or deceptive person. For the denial of God is also the denial of an established system of justice and of repercussion as well. In such a world, a person would be free to pursue any desire by any means. There are no limits to their behavior, no need to modify of soften their words. They can ignore the conscious and also their responsibility to humanity.
Even people who say or believe that they believe in God sometimes act in negligence of God's commandments. When Jesus asked his disciples: whom do you say that I am? He meant: whom do you declare that I am? Because a declaration has depth and commitment attached to it. "Believers" are just as surely breaking God's commandments when they neglect to follow them as non-believers are. So when Jesus says: who do you say that I am? It needs to be a question we can readily, confidently answer because otherwise, we are probably not adhering meticulously enough to what we say we subscribe to.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were supposed-believers in God, but corrupt motivations altered the purpose of their faith and therefore the quality and validity of it as well. Was each member of each group consciously aware of their deviation from pure and righteous faith? Probably not. If we are not careful, we can lose the objectivity, impartiality, humility, and selflessness God's word teaches us to have and retain. Our own motivations can cause us to steadily disengage from genuine, fastidious faith.
When we say that we believe in God, we need to know what precisely it is that we believe about Him. God has established commandments and made promises, He has explained truths and prophesied eventualities. He has made decisions, chosen paths and people, created, destroyed, esteemed, demeaned... He has done and declared so much and we need to know all about all of it in order to truly be able to say who He is.
Without a comprehensive understanding of who God is, there is foolishness in the heart. For if God is not occupying every space in your heart, you are like this fool spoken of, as there are places in your heart where there is no God.
- BECAUSE HE HAS HEARD
I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
I believed, therefore I spoke, ...
Psalm 116:1-10
Contrarily, a steadfast relationship with God results in a life comprised of the same informed faith expressed in Psalm 116. The Psalmist is able to declare their believe in God based on concrete experience with Him. This Psalmist's faith is quality because it is familiar with God who God is.
The Psalmist declared love of God because God listened to Him. In order for God to hear and listen to the Psalmist, the Psalmist must have first spoken and trusted that God would answer. The Psalmist declared trust in God because he was surrounded and captured then freed and delivered by God. In order to be freed and delivered, he must first have called on God and believed in His refuge. He was able to rest in the bounty of blessing... but could not have done so if His faith had not provided an avenue through which those blessings came! He was given life, dried of tears, and upheld in when walking and therefore He believed and spoke of God. What he believed and what he said were in alignment, and of quality, because he knew God, had developed a relationship with Him.
A personal relationship with God is different from the type of faith the Pharisees and Sadducees had. They understood God as the God of Moses, of Abraham and David. They understood Him as the God of commandments and religious traditions, rather the present, continuous spirit existing with us now, even in this exact moment.
In scripture we have the books of various people: Samuel, Matthew, Timothy, etc. We do not see our own book, with our own name, written in ink within the Bibles pages but we have one. When we endeavor to know God, trust Him and follow Him, we have moments in our own story when He, essentially, enables us to walk on and through water. We have our own experiences of being delivered from fear and enemy. We have our own prayers heard and answered, our own tears dried and bodies upheld. How we live in faith determines what our story says: are we like the people who never called, who never asked, who never sought? Or are we like Abraham and Moses and David who were, like all people, flawed and sometimes fearful but who, like few people, knew Who to trust with those things?
You see, someone who knows God knows that Moses was not the only one whose sea was split. Joseph was not the only one freed from prison. Shadrach, Mehsach and Abednego were not the only ones to survive a fire. It was not only that one woman who met Jesus by the well. And therefore when that someone-who-truly-knows-God is asked by Jesus: whom do you say I am? They have a definite answer corroborated by actual, tangible experience.
- KEYS OF THE KINGDOM
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 16:16-17
Simon Peter answered and according to Jesus, correctly and authentically. Simon Peter did not just say the correct answer. His genuine, fastidious faith caused God to reveal that correct answer in his heart. He knew who God was not because it was taught but because it was earned, garnered steadily through a committed relationship with Him.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:18-19When you know God you receive the keys to His kingdom... the refuge, the haven, the fortress, the storehouses of blessing. Because by endeavoring to know God, you have committed yourself to love and righteousness.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8
If you know God, He knows it is because you tailored your lifestyle to His principles. If you tailored your life to His principles, you determined yourself to evermore become kind and generous, patient and merciful, observant and humble, just and compassionate, studious in His word and obedient to His will. And if you lived a life so closely connected with Him, He is pleased to know you as well and to give you the kingdom:
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luke 12:32
Jesus wanted to disciples to be aware of their own heart's voice so that they could disentangle it from the world. Amid the opinions, rumors, disagreements and declarations around you, endeavor to have and live your own. Jesus' asks, 'Whom do you say that I am?' we who know Him say, 'you're the One, Christ, the Son of God, who met me by the well.'