JW subtitle extractor

The comment today is about forgiveness,
as you have seen,
and it has to do with forgiveness
as it concerns the apostle Peter.
Now, it’s easy to see why Jesus
chose Peter as one of the Twelve:
because Peter was decisive,
he was humble, and he was warmhearted.
Peter was decisive.
He was quick to get involved in things.
For example, when Jesus invited him
and his brother Andrew to be his disciples,
they didn’t have to take time
to think about it.
‘Well, you know, there’s the family.
We have to think about all these things.’
The Bible says: “At once
they abandoned their nets and followed him.”
Later, when Jesus was walking
on the Sea of Galilee,
Peter wasn’t content
to simply look on in amazement.
He had to get out there and try it himself.
Now, some of you
are just like the apostle Peter.
You’re anxious to try new things.
You don’t hesitate.
You enjoy life; you enjoy it to the full.
‘Parasailing?
‘What’s that?
Oh, that’s what it is.
I’m in.’
That’s the way you are.
The rest of us
are a bit like the other apostles
who are quite happy to watch you
from the safety of the boat.
Can you see where Peter’s decisiveness
and his readiness to try new things
would be useful to him when he was assigned
to use the two “keys of the Kingdom,”
the second and the third keys of the Kingdom?
Now, what did that involve?
It involved something new.
He was going to have to consider
the Samaritans
and the Gentiles as his brothers.
Now, you wouldn’t want to assign
a traditionalist to that,
someone who says: “I don’t know.
I’ve been a Jew all my life.
I don’t think I can do that.
You’d better find somebody else.”
The Bible says that Peter
followed through without objection.
Peter was ready to go.
He was ready to try new things.
So Jesus chose the right man for the job,
someone who is quick to adapt to new things.
Now, we see evidence of Peter’s humility
on many occasions.
For example,
he wasn’t afraid to ask questions
if he didn’t understand something.
I think all of us have been very reassured
by Jesus’ statement
that ‘if we leave father, mother,
sister, brother, house, field,
we’ll get a hundredfold.’
Now, Jesus made that promise
in answer to a question by Peter.
And who isn’t grateful that Peter
asked the question:
‘Lord, how many times
should I forgive my brother?
Up to seven times?’
No, it’s Jesus answer that we’re grateful for
because Jesus helped us see
that we shouldn’t keep track
of the number of times
our brothers have sinned against us.
And why is that reassuring?
Because it assures us that he and his Father
are not going to keep score on the number
of times that we sin against them.
By the way, what was Jesus’ answer
to Peter’s question,
‘How many times
can my brother sin against me?’
Did Jesus say you should forgive him
up to 77 times
or up to 70 times 7?
That is quite a difference—isn’t it?—
between 77 and 70 times 7 (that’s 490).
Now, why do we even ask?
We ask because the King James Version
has Jesus saying,
‘You should forgive your brother 70 times 7.’
Now the Greek allows for both translations.
It could properly be translated 77 times
or 70 times 7.
So the translators have to make a decision.
Now, way back in the late 1940’s,
when the New World Translation
was being translated,
the committee had to make a decision.
Which is it: 70 times 7 or 77?
The reasoning was interesting.
They took into consideration
the way Peter used the word “times”
in his question.
Peter wasn’t brushing up
on his multiplication.
When Peter asked the question,
‘How many times
should I forgive my brother?,’
he was saying: “On how many occasions
should I forgive my brother?”
And the committee reasoned Jesus
would have probably used the word “times”
the way Peter used it in his answer.
And so Jesus would have said up to 77 times
and not 70 multiplication times 7.
So it really gives us confidence
in the New World Translation.
Now, Peter’s humility was also on display
in the way he dealt
with his personal shortcomings.
When Jesus reproved him
in front of the other apostles,
Peter didn’t take umbrage.
He didn’t say: “Well, I don’t like
the way this counsel is being delivered.”
He didn’t stop attending meetings.
He took it like a man,
and he kept on serving.
Now, if you’ve ever been ashamed of the way
you reacted when you were counseled,
I think you’ll agree that it takes courage
and it takes humility.
Well, why did Jesus reprove Peter
in front of the other apostles
rather than taking him aside
and doing it in private?
Our publications
have suggested a possibility.
Because they note that the Bible says
that when Jesus was reproving Peter,
he was looking
straight at the other apostles.
And so they’ve suggested the possibility
that the apostles
were thinking what Peter was saying,
and that’s why Jesus looked at them.
And when Paul reproved Peter in Antioch
over his treatment of Gentile Christians,
Peter didn’t pull rank, as if to say:
“I’m one of the Twelve.
“I’m your overseer, Paul.
How dare you counsel me?”
Those in responsible positions
aren’t above receiving counsel.
And sometimes those who work closely
with us notice weaknesses
that should really be respectfully brought
to our attention.
When Jesus told his disciples
that he was going to suffer and die,
Peter must have been shocked.
‘That can’t be.
‘You’re the Messiah.
‘You’re going to sit
on the throne of David your father,
‘and there’s going
to be no end to your Kingdom.
You just can’t die.’
So, what did Peter do?
He reproved Jesus.
Now, what does that incident
tell you about Jesus?
He was so approachable.
He was so easy to be with
that Peter momentarily stepped out of line.
He forgot
that he was talking to the Son of God.
Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever gotten
a little bit too familiar
with someone you respect a lot?
Maybe you ask a question that was rude,
personal, or intrusive,
and later you ask yourself,
‘What was I thinking?’
It happens.
Well, Peter evidently forgot
that he was talking to the Son of God
who had an important mission to accomplish.
And although he was moved by compassion
and perhaps by a mistaken idea
about what the Messiah was going to do,
this was not the time for Peter
to try to dissuade Jesus
from doing what he needed to do.
Peter was warmhearted.
When Paul went up to Jerusalem
as a newly converted man,
the only one who would take him in was Peter.
The other Christians
didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
Peter was warmhearted.
Well, at times we do review
the mistakes that Peter made.
Our comment does that today,
and our comment is focusing
on the forgiveness of Christ.
And what a wonderful,
amazing quality forgiveness is!
But we don’t define Peter’s life
by the mistakes he made
any more than we want our lives
to be defined by the mistakes we make.
We view Peter as a zealous,
self-sacrificing servant of Jehovah
who was faithful to the death.
He’s one of our overseers today.
Now, if you’re an overseer,
how would you like those who serve with you
to view you and your service?
In Peter’s life story,
we see much that is good,
much we could learn from.

David H. Splane: Learning From Peter’s Good Qualities (Ps. 86:5)