<p>14:31&nbsp;<em>And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand</em>- Peter again reflects his experience of personal salvation in his witness to others- for he likewise stretched out his hand to the lame man, and again with &quot;immediate&quot; effect, as here on the lake that night (Acts 3:7 s.w.). Peter felt that all the work he did by his own hand was effectively the Lord &quot;stretching forth His hand to heal&quot; (Acts 4:30). He realized that&nbsp;<em>his</em>&nbsp;hand was now the hand of Jesus, the same hand which had stretched forth [s.w. Acts 4:30] to save&nbsp;<em>him</em>&nbsp;on the lake that night. Our experience of salvation simply has to be re-enacted by us towards others. There is great emphasis in the Gospels upon the hands of Jesus- so often stretched out to heal, save and bless; the hands out of which no sheep can be taken, the hands into which all power has been given by the Father, the hands which were nailed through by men in their ignorance and rejection of God's salvation. And those hands are our hands. Think through this again- the Lord &ldquo;stretched forth his hand&rdquo; to save Peter (Mt. 14:31); and this is the very phrase used by Peter in Acts 4:30, speaking of how the Lord&rsquo;s hand is &ldquo;stretched forth to heal&rdquo;. Peter saw himself on the lake as typical of all whom the Lord saves. Yet, it was&nbsp;<em>Peter</em>, not the Lord Himself, who stretched forth his hand to do the Lord&rsquo;s healing work&nbsp;on the lame man (Acts 3:7). Again, Peter is thinking back to the incident on the lake and perceiving that he is now Christ manifest as he had intended to be then. Thus it was the principle of God manifestation which inspired Peter to reach out of his comfort zone so dramatically; and properly appreciated, it can motivate us likewise. &nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And took hold of him and said to him</em>- The writer to the Hebrews twice uses the same Greek word. First, in describing how the Lord Jesus 'caught hold' of all the seed of Abraham in His saving work (Heb. 2:16), and again in speaking of how God &quot;took&quot; [s.w. &quot;caught&quot;] Israel &quot;by the hand&quot; and redeemed them from Egypt (Heb. 8:9). Peter is thus presented as everyman in Christ. He was saved out of condemnation, drowning in the waters for turning away the little ones. There is surely in each of us, looking back upon our lives, the sense that we were in His grip, and still are; He took hold of us, to save us. And there is a mutuality in this- for we too desperately catch hold of the hope of the Kingdom (s.w. 1 Tim. 6:12,19).&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>O you of little faith</em>- A word used five times by the Lord, four of them recorded in Matthew (Mt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31;16:8). It's as if Matthew loved to emphasize in his preaching how weak their faith had been.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Why</em>- The&nbsp;<em>eis tis</em>&nbsp;construction means far more than &quot;why?&quot;. The simple sense of &quot;why?&quot; could have been expressed in one word. This little phrase is elsewhere translated &quot;to what purpose?&quot; (Mt. 26:8; Acts 19:3). The idea would then be: 'You know you need saving. To what purpose is doubt? Will doubt save you? No. So, seeing that lack of faith will not save you, and you need saving, then totally believe in My ability to save you'.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Did you doubt?</em>- A form of the Greek for 'twice' or 'double'. James surely has the incident in mind when he warns not to be a double minded man, wavering in faith &quot;like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed&quot; (James 1:6,8). He is holding up Peter- leader of the early church to whom he was writing- as the example of how&nbsp;<em>not</em>&nbsp;to be. This is no evidence of any tension between James and Peter; rather is it typical of what Peter himself does, in drawing attention to past weakness and development from that weakness as the sign of real spiritual strength and the basis for legitimate respect. James is clearly telling his readers not to be like Peter. It is easy for our reaction against Catholic extremism to lead us to under-estimate the high status of Peter in the early church. Here was James, also a respected elder, telling the flock to take a snapshot of their great leader Peter in his moment of weakness on the lake- and not be like him! Leaders of worldly organizations have a way of telling the flock that all their fellow leaders are as spotless as they are. But this wasn&rsquo;t the case in the early church. It was Peter&rsquo;s very humanity which was and is his inspiration. &nbsp;</p>