the Disciple Who Denied His Lord
Peter loved Christ truly, but miscalculated his strength. Be very careful not to adventure yourself into the midst of temptation. If God leads you thither, that is another matter. We do well to remember Psalms 1:1-3. Let us beware of warming ourselves at the world's fires. It was the firelight falling on his face that revealed Peter, and his brogue that betrayed him.
If, even at that hour, however, He had looked to God, a way of escape would have been found. “He delivereth and rescueth, and worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth,” Daniel 6:27. But Peter sought to save himself from the results of his folly and sin; only to land deeper and deeper in the morass.
What a look that must have been, Luke 22:61! But, even now, when we sin, Christ looks at us from out of His holy heaven, with such mingled pity and love, that these constitute the worst torment. There is no need of literal fire to make hell. Disappointed love is hotter than “coals of juniper.”