by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
“As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch, and a rooster crowed. The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!” But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.” But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep<\/em>” (Mark 14:66-72).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To those venomous unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, gathered that early morning around the fire, it seemed to be a strong inference that Peter was associated with Jesus. His speech was Galilean in style and enunciation, and Jesus was Galilean. Who among Galileans would be up and present here at this hour? Thus, an inference is that “this is one of them” (troublers) and “your speech shows it!”<\/p>\n
I wonder if being a disciple of Jesus was a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict us? Would our speech show it? Is our speech so unlike the world? Holy? Non-vulgar? Never any profanity or coarse jesting? Never any taking of the Lord’s name in vain? Do you talk about moral issues and righteousness a lot? Does your speech avoid gossip, and contain a lot of thanksgiving? Does your speech show faith, hope, and love? Do you speak of Bible knowledge and love for Jesus? Does your speech show that you are a real disciple of Jesus? Or, does your speech hide the light? Does it fit with the world? Or does it fit with Jesus? What does your speech make others conclude about you? More importantly, what does God know about you? Serious reflection now can do us eternal good!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton “As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[492,1558],"class_list":["post-61483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-profanity","tag-speech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61486,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/this-is-one-of-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":61483,"position":0},"title":"This Is One of Them","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, \"You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.\" But he denied it, saying, \"I neither know nor understand what you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21016,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/restoration\/","url_meta":{"origin":61483,"position":1},"title":"Restoration","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Fancher I. Restoration of Purpose, Zeal, and Love John 21:1-9 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself:2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in, Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28406,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-all-petered-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":61483,"position":2},"title":"I\u2019m All Petered Out","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant The sun was sinking, and the day's work was done. The farmer shut off his tractor, walked to the house, and into the kitchen where his wife had his coffee waiting for him. As he sat, he wiped the sweat off his brow and said, \"I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/tired-300x256.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":94485,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-the-church-disappoints-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":61483,"position":3},"title":"When the Church Disappoints You","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Jesus' twelve apostles disappointed Him at times. Sometimes they would look at Him with a bewildered look of \"what are you talking about?\" as they failed to grasp the meaning and application of what He said. Sometimes, he would plainly say something simple like, \"We are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47301,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-struggling-with-the-ideas-of-foreknowledge-and-free-will\/","url_meta":{"origin":61483,"position":4},"title":"I’m struggling with the ideas of foreknowledge and free will","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for all your articles and answers. They are beneficial. I have recently been struggling very much with the idea of foreknowledge and free will. I have always believed that we have free will and that God can simply use whatever our decisions are to accomplish his will.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49474,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-using-god-as-a-curse-word-not-taking-the-lords-name-in-vain\/","url_meta":{"origin":61483,"position":5},"title":"Is using “God” as a curse word not taking the Lord’s name in vain?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Firstly, thank you very much for the very informative site and the work that you do. I recently had someone totally shock me by stating that \"God\" was a generic term and questioning whether it constituted using the Lord's name in vain. His argument was that \"God\" was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}