Jesus’ Sword of Division
Matthew 10:34-37 Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Oh my these are SHOCKING words from the Lord but they are truth we must live by. God commands us to love Him with ALL our heart. Not even family comes before God. You can argue it all you want but this is the word of God. We either follow Jesus or we lead a life of rebellion, the choice is ours to make.
Conflict will always arise where those of true faith are gathered with non-believers or those with a pretend faith. When we are living for God we will not be seeking the approval of men and we should be preaching truth and righteousness and more importantly living it. Those that lack understanding of God’s Word will reject and repel such speech or behavior and inherently begin to reject the faithful disciple. We saw this in Jesus’ ministry with even the “religious” crowd of Pharisees. The truth came against their religious systems and their spiritual blindness. Sides were taken and many wanted to stone Jesus and the plots to kill Him eventually succeeded. We are told it will be like that for us as well as the words of Jesus pasted into this post will attest.
The fact is Jesus brings conflict, hence the use of the word sword in the above passage. This passages does not contradict the passages that speak to the peace of Jesus, as He is indeed the Prince of Peace. We have peace individually in our hearts when we walk with Christ. Jesus never said He would bring peace to the world, He brings peace to us individually when we walk with Him in true faith, giving God our whole heart. But outside in the natural world, following Jesus brings anything but peace. The sword Jesus brought is not referring to a physical war, it is referring to the division that occurs when the Word of God is made manifest. This sword divides things, splits things in two, separates truth from fiction, the wheat from tares and the sheep from goats. The Gospel of Luke records Jesus in a way that brings clarity to the issue:
Luke 12:51-53 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but DIVISION. 52From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Jesus used the example of dividing families to show just how serious and separate a true walk with God would be from the world and even those who “believe” but are not led by the Spirit of God. The true sons of God will indeed be separate. This division that we must overcome is part of our call to suffering as Christian. This may not sound loving or logical, but it is a spiritual truth of God’s Word. All faith is tested, that is how we come thru the fire of tribulation and are made pure. We must love God with ALL our heart, anything less and Jesus is relegated to being an idol. Our God is a jealous God and shares His glory with nobody. Jesus told us just how high the bar has been set for us to clear. We clear this high bar supernaturally, by the grace of God, but clear it we must.
Luke 14:26-27 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
We must bear a cross to follow Jesus. He is LORD, GOD ALMIGHTY, He is not our buddy that co-exists with other idols in our heart. We can try to explain all these verses away but we show our rebellion to the truth and God when we try to do so. Jesus must be first, even before our families. Makes sense when you consider God gave us our families, they are blessings from Him. If God is not first, we are worshipping a different Jesus, following a different gospel and kid ourselves about our faith and our salvation. That is the role of the serpent who has blinded many to the truth of the gospel. We must get our hearts right with God to finally see the truth.
Jesus by no means said not to love our families so do not try to pervert the Word by claiming that. We are to walk in love with our neighbor, that is the Royal Law and it certainly includes our families. In fact the roles of husbands, wives, mothers, fathers and even children are all spoken of in the Scriptures and we are given specific guidance as to how live for God yet fulfill God’s obligations to our family. We walk in love by the power of God but He must be first and have our whole heart. The Word of God will wash us and purify us to prepare us for His coming and it will divide the things in our lives.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Thank you brother Pete,
First, thank God for the sword. Paul says, the sword of the spirit is the WORD of God.
I always liked the story of Joshua going through the promised land destroying the godless fleshman with the SWORD.
If God would have told Joshua and the childern of Israel to go through the land barehanded to fight those godless fleshmen , they still would have gotten the victory by simply obeying his WORD.
It seemed strange to me years ago , how God could give the childern of Israel, land that was already occupied.
How can you give something , that someone else has possesion of?
It dosen’t make sense to a natural mind , untill we look at it with the spiritual eyes that God can give.
God keeps putting his childern of obedience at odds with the childern of disobedience.
It is the main event , Abel vs Cain, Ishmael vs Issac, Jacob vs Esau, David vs Goliath, and the list goes on.
We as childern of God are born on this planet to contend with the man of flesh, but , these are shadows of the internal spiritual struggle within us between our flesh and spirit.
A good example of this battle that we fight , is the struggle between Jacob and Esau within the womb of Rebeckah (the BRIDE ). She asked God , why all this turmoil ? God said ” Two nations are within thy womb, and TWO manner of people shall be seperated from thy bowels: and the one people shall be stroger than the other people : and the elder shall serve the younger.
The child of faith , and the child of the flesh, war againist each other. One is taken away ( Child of flesh ) and one is left behind , given the birthright to rule and reign .
No one but Jesus , who is our sword of the spirit, (which is the WORD of God ), can destroy this internal man of darkness with the brightness of his coming.
Those pure living waters of life, coming into our spirit, consume this man of flesh like the red sea drowning pharoahs armies, the flood in Noahs days.
The pure waters ( Gods WORD )are life to the spiritual man who operates by faith in Gods WORD, and death to the godless fleshman.
It has to be the PURITY of Gods WORD to destroy our internal godless fleshman within our land
Example : God allowed us to buy a piece of property to put our home on. We hired someone to drill a well. When it was finished , I went to the well with a clear drinking glass to get a sample from the spicket. I raised the glass up and saw with my NATURAL eyes that the water was crystal clear. I went to my wife and showed her the water, she said ” you better get it tested “. I said , look , it is as clear as a bell,
After we had been in our home for a couple of weeks we noticed STAINS in our showers, toliets, water pictures etc.
everything the water had made contact with got STAINED because it was not PURE.
I then had the water tested , the results came back that we had what is called “clear water rust”.
My friends,we must have the purity of Gods WORD, this SWORD of the spirit, to destroy this godless fleshman within. We must test this WORD like the water from the well by faith in him.
The only way to receive it, is to be 100% dependent upon him by faith, connected to him and not man in these days of deception.
Luke 8:11 says ” the parable is this , the WORD is the seed of God.
Sometimes within our garden (spirit ) we think we have a good crop to eat from, but, we need to TEND and KEEP our spiritual garden by being dependent upon the father .
Sometimes we allow weeds( leaven , false doctrines ) to take root and it can ruin the purity of what God has established within our hearts.
Let us go foward in his wonderful name with this, one of a king SWORD, rooting out the fleshly things within
God bless Jer 33:3
Thank you and God Bless. I am encouraged to see the faithful at work in Sweden.
I put your very good article here: http://alertsweden.blogg.se/?tmp=03194812
Hope it is okay?