Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 16:23

"But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." — Matthew 16:23 (ASV)

Notice the contrast between the 18th verse and the 23rd. In the 18th verse (Matthew 16:18), Christ had said, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church; and here, in the 23rd verse (Matthew 16:23), he is saying, Get thee behind me, Satan. I do not understand our Lord to have called Peter Satan, but to have looked right through Peter, and to have seen Satan standing behind him, and making use of the apostle to be his spokesman. The best of men may sometimes serve the devil's turn better than a bad man would. He may speak, through those who love the Lord, words which are utterly contrary to the mind of Christ. So Christ sees Satan lurking, as in an entrenchment, behind Peter, and he says, Get thee behind me: thou art an offence unto me. (Matthew 16:23). The idea of pitying himself—the thought of shirking the task he had undertaken—was offensive to him.

There was a savor about it of the things of men—of self and of self-saving, instead of self-denial, and generous, unselfish, Godlike self-sacrifice.

Oh, that we would always speak, as Christ did on this occasion, whenever anything is proposed to us by which we should avoid the cross that he intends us to carry! When anyone wants us to moderate our zeal, or to tone down our opinions, lest we should have to suffer for our faithfulness, let us reply, Get thee behind me, Satan.

What has a soldier of the cross to do with avoiding the battle with evil? He should be ever ready for the good fight of faith. What has an heir of heaven to do with the saving of himself? Let him say, with the apostle Paul, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8).

Our Lord was superior to the temptation that grew out of the very love of His friend. He would no longer remain aside with Peter; He turned away from him. Seeing the devil using Peter as his instrument, He addressed Satan himself, and Peter too, insofar as he was identified with the evil suggestion. Get thee behind me, Satan. The attempt was made to put a stumbling block in that path of self-sacrifice which our Lord intended to pursue, even to the bitter end. He perceived the hindrance and said, Thou art an offense unto me. His dearest friend became His worst foe when he tried to dissuade Him from His life's work.

The devil thought to succeed through our Lord’s newly appointed foreman, but Jesus made short work of the temptation. He threw the stone out of the road and cast it behind Him, so that He would not stumble. The essence of the error was that Peter looked at things from the point of view of human honor and success, and not from that grand standpoint where the glory of God in the salvation of men swallows up everything.

A marvel is here. A man may know what only the Father can reveal, and yet he may not savor the things that are of God. Unless he accepts the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, he has no savor for divine things.

He who does not heartily rejoice in the atonement does not discern that sweet savor of rest which the Lord God perceives in the great sacrifice, and therefore he has no fellowship in the things that are of God. He does not know the taste, the aroma, the essence of spiritual things, and however much he may honor Jesus in words, he is an enemy, indeed, a real Satan toward the true Christ, whose very substance is His work as our atoning sacrifice.

Those who today revile the substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord are fonder of the things that are of men than those that are of God. They are loud in their claim to be great philanthropists, but sound theologians they are not. Humanitarians they may be, but divines they cannot be. They may be the friends of man, but they are not the servants of God. How sorrowfully do we write these words when we think of the many preachers to whom they apply!