Answer: Peter, still not understanding that Christ's kingdom was NOT of this earth, and that Jesus must fulfill, or complete, all of His Father's plan for the salvation of mankind, tried to defend, or protect, Jesus. Peter drew His sword and struck out at Malchus, the high priest's servant. He cut off the servant's right ear, (verse 10).
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We can be people who know of Jesus and still not understand His message. We can try to make God's Word fit our demands and fail to surrender to HIS Will. We can see, but not see. We can hear, but not hear and understand. We can deceive ourselves into believing that God does not control all things:
Matthew 13:13-17: [Jesus said,] "This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them." But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the Truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
Philippians 3:20-21: "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body."
Even though Peter was with Jesus for three years, he still failed to understand that Christ's kingdom is spiritual. He failed to understand the spiritual Truths in Jesus' spiritual Words.
In Matthew 16:21-23, Jesus chastises Peter severely for not having in mind the things of God, but having in mind, instead, the things of men:
"From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ‘Never, Lord!' he said. ‘This shall never happen to You!' Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'"
We can do the same as Peter if we do not "have the mind of Christ":
1 Corinthians 2:6-16: "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him'--but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit Who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in Words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual Truths in spiritual Words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ."
