[blue-duncan]

"No matter how one understands Peter’s blessing in Matt 16:19, we ought remember that Jesus’ parting commandment to Peter was to feed His sheep"

What we continually forget is that one of the last words of Jesus to Peter was, "It's none of your business."

If Peter was to have leadership of the apostles and the church you would think what was happening to one of his charges would be his business.

Jhn 21:21, "Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what [shall] this man [do]? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what [is that] to thee? follow thou me."

[Quix]

Great point

[Mad Dawg]

Well, actually, as a shepherd, I didn't necessaarily tell the one or two people that sometimes worked for me what was going to happen to the sheep. What I wanted was for them to follow me to the barn or the feed shed or the hay storage or the handling chutes and to do as I asked.

As to the one person who worked with me for a while, I did begin to discuss the destinies of various sheep with her and let her advise me about their care. But as a rule it wasn't like that.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for that insight and passage!

I see an additional Truth there, that being treated equally is a concept of man - not God.

Sadly, a desire for equity (actually, a desire for the same break as the next guy) is one of those things that IMHO causes people to anthropomorphize God. He thinks he has a better understanding of "right" and "wrong" than God.

I'm not saying that Peter was anthropomorphizing God, but I do think that tendency causes a lot of false "divisions" in the body of Christ.