<p>22:61 <i>And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter- </i>The &ldquo;day of <i>visitation</i>&rdquo; is coming for us all (1 Pet. 2:12). The Greek is related to the word describing how after the denials, Christ turned and <i>looked</i> upon Peter (Lk. 22:61). This was for him his day of judgment, which we must all pass through. He called down Divine curses <i>upon himself</i> if he knew Jesus of Nazareth- and thus brought the curse of God upon himself (the record of his cursing and swearing refers to this rather than to the use of expletives).</p><p><i>And Peter remembered the word of the Lord that he had said to him: Before the cock crow this day</i>- &quot;Peter remembered&quot; the Lord's words.<i>&nbsp;</i>The letters of Peter urge his readers to &ldquo;be mindful of the words which were spoken before&rdquo; (2 Pet. 3:2). Yet this is evidently alluding to the frequent references to the disciples being slow to &ldquo;remember&rdquo; s.w. &ldquo;mindful&rdquo; the words which their Lord had &ldquo;spoken before&rdquo; (Lk. 24:6,8; Jn. 2:17,22; 12:16). Indeed, the same word is used about Peter &lsquo;remembering&rsquo; s.w. &ldquo;be mindful&rdquo; all too late, the words which his Lord had &ldquo;spoken before&rdquo; to him (Mt. 26:75). So Peter was aware that his readers knew that he had not &lsquo;remembered&rsquo; the words his Lord had &ldquo;spoken before&rdquo; to&nbsp;<i>him</i>- and yet, knowing that, he exhorts his readers to &lsquo;remember&rsquo; or &lsquo;be mindful&rsquo; s.w. of words which had been previously spoken. His readers likely had memorized the Gospels by heart. And yet Peter asks them to learn from his mistake, not to be as slow to remember as the disciples had been, and he especially. This is the basis of powerful exhortation- a repentant life, not an appearance of sinlessness.&nbsp;See on 2 Pet. 1:12.</p><p>Appreciating the extent of Peter's devotion to the Lord's words enables us to more fully enter into the man's spiritual and emotional tragedy when he denied the Lord. He paid no attention to His words of warning concerning Peter's own spiritual weakness. After that third cock crow, &quot;Peter remembered <i>the word&nbsp;of</i> the Lord, <i>how</i>&nbsp;he had said unto him...&quot; (Lk. 22:61; &quot;how&quot; may refer to the physical manner in which Christ spoke to Peter, as well as to the content of his words).&nbsp;</p><p><i>You shall deny me three times</i>- Pliny records how Christians were asked to make a threefold denial of Christ (<i>Epistles</i>&nbsp;10.97). It has been suggested that the account of Peter's threefold denials of Christ has been included in the Gospel records as an encouragement to those whose faith failed them that still there was a way back to restoration with the Lord Jesus, just as there had been for Peter. When Peter encourages his persecuted brethren to resist the &quot;roaring lion&quot; of Roman / Jewish persecution (1 Pet. 5:8), he is therefore to be seen as writing against a background in which he had actually failed the very test which his brethren were facing. Yet he can therefore even more powerfully encouraged them, because he had also experienced the Lord's restoring grace.</p>