By Glen Bowman, Minister of 3rd & Kilgore Church of Christ
Jesus gives us peace as His disciples (John 14:27). He taught so that we might have peace (John 16:33) and even wants us to be at peace with one another (Mark 9:50). However, He said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). He clearly isn’t opposed to us having peace on earth but knows that l following Him would cause conflict between people (Matthew 10:35-38). If He truly came to bring a sword, what is this sword supposed to look like in our lives?
In a similar teaching situation, Jesus described it like this, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51). This “sword” is the division caused by some choosing to follow Jesus and some choosing otherwise. If you live in a home where everyone is striving to follow Jesus, you should thank God, because this isn’t the case for everyone!
In Ephesians 6:17, it refers to the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is primary cause of dividing families and friends that Jesus mentioned. Personally, I tried to help my friends and family become Christians after growing a bit in the Lord and learning enough to teach them. However, it was clearly a sword, as I strove to teach the Word of God and they didn’t want to hear it! Even following God’s teachings myself without sharing it with them resulted in difficult situations at times.
We may be tempted to deal with these difficulties by methods that the world would promote, but Jesus forbids this. He even said, “For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52b). One of Jesus’ disciples, probably with good intentions from his perspective, pulled out a literal sword and cut off one of the ears of someone trying to arrest Jesus. We shouldn’t resort to violence, negative speech, or any other methods outside of the love of Christ to deal with conflict or lessen the Spirit’s teachings.
The Bible even compares the sword of the Spirit to a literal sword in Hebrews 4:12, saying that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” While we talked previously about testifying to the truth, we should also allow the Word to perform “heart surgery” on us personally.While this type of surgery and recovery may hurt, it will always heal us if we follow the instructions of the Great Physician!
Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, had this procedure performed on her soul (Luke 2:35), so we shouldn’t think that we’re exempt from needing these operations. In fact, the more of God’s word we take in and the more that we pray, the more likely we are to have a clean heart and right spirit (Psalm 51:6, 10, 17). Why not let our Creator work on us as His creation?
Overall, it comes down to priorities. Jesus said that “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Do we love Jesus most of all? Are we willing to pick up our cross and serve by the sword, even if (and when) it hurts?
