‘He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked on him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John, you will be called Cephas (which is by interpretation, Peter)”.'

‘He brought him to Jesus.' What a multitude of meaning lies in those words. Humanly speaking the great Peter owed his conversion to Andrew. And it is a reminder that that is what we are to seek to do. To bring men to Jesus.

So Simon comes to see for himself, and on seeing Simon, Jesus declares that one day he will be renamed Peter (petros in Greek, cephas in Aramaic - meaning a stone). Already He sees in Simon the raw material of an effective, spiritual leader. This renaming is mentioned again in Matthew 16:18, but in both cases the change has the future in mind. Jesus never actually addresses Peter as such by this name until Peter's acts of betrayal, when He wishes both to warn him and to encourage him (Luke 22:34; Mark 16:7). His becoming ‘the rock-like one' is yet a long way off.

When we remember how Peter so often got things wrong, and how he failed Jesus at the last, it is an encouragement to us all to know that God knew what he would become in the end. In the same way God knows too what we will become. Once we are in Christ He does not judge us as we are, but as what He knows we will become.

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