The Sword Of The Lord
Or
The Ever-Dividing Word Of God
Sunday May 31, 2020
Scripture To Consider:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 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; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”
“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. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 10.34-39
Something To Consider:
Jesus made what on the surface appears to be a shocking statement when He said; “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” Jesus was speaking to Old Testament minded Jewish disciples. From a New Testament mindset, peace carries with it the sense of an individual heart being at rest, a true internal peace.
Jesus, in John 14.27 declared; “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” The world attempts to give an external peace that is here today and gone tomorrow. Jesus gives individual internal everlasting peace. His peace is a peace that the world cannot give and therefore cannot take away!
We must keep in context this lesson of a lifetime teaching of Jesus. Matthew chapter 10 began with Jesus physically, mentally, and spiritually preparing His twelve disciples to be sent out preaching, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus knew they would meet with resistance, persecution, and an outright rejection of the gospel of the kingdom. Therefore, He told them their mission, and He’s telling us, that our mission will not always be met with peaceful acceptance.
Something Else To Consider:
Therefore, Jesus informed them and us by reporting; “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” We must keep in mind the biblical definition of the sword of the Spirit given us by Paul in Ephesians 6.17; “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The sword of Matthew 10.34 is also the Word of God of John 1.14; “And the Word became flesh [in the person of Jesus] and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
These Old Testament thinking Jewish disciples, who were also leaders in training, were faced with a change in how peace was to be perceived from then on. They were also being made aware of the dividing nature of the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. And that same lesson of a lifetime is being transmitted twenty centuries later to true believers of this 21st century end time generation.
The very important issue is, what will we do with this divine and illuminated truth Jesus has shared? For according to Jesus, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” For some, this statement of Jesus may bring confusion. To others, this truth brings with it the eternal understanding that we must first receive the piercing and dividing effect of the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. And then, and only then, are we able to receive the true peace of God that passes all human understanding.
But, that is what divides all of humanity in every generation. According to Jesus, the sword of the Lord and the ever-dividing Word of God is never truly received or submitted to by the many who attempt to enter the kingdom of God by an unauthorized entrance point! And the guilt of that eternal fact will be placed at the feet of both the student and the teacher of false doctrine and false messages propagated by false end time prophets. How shameful!
Something More To Consider:
The author of Hebrews 4.12 brings to our attention the dividing ability of the Word of God, by stating; “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.” Jesus, the Word of God, did not bring political or religious peace to the earth.
Jesus did not bring earthly peace to nations, families, or individuals who reject Him as the Prince of Peace. But He did bring the peace of God that always passes all understanding to individual hearts and minds who both submit and surrender themselves by taking up their own cross and following after Jesus while denying their own ambitions and our own human desires over His.
Yes, following Jesus at times leads to our enduring hardships. But that is what enduring to the end truly means. If there were no hardships, afflictions, trials, or tribulations, what would be the reason for Jesus instructing us to endure to the end to thereby be saved? But, because the sword of the Lord is the ever-dividing Word of God, we are admonished to endure to the end!
A Few Final Words:
But what did Jesus mean when He declared, “He [or she] who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he [or she] who loves son or daughter [or family] more than Me is not worthy of Me”? The key of course is the word more! Jesus would not and was not advocating our not loving our father, mother, son, or daughter. What He was commanding was that first and foremost our love for Him was to exceed our human love for our family members or anyone or anything else.
And until we truly love God in and through our truly loving Jesus, we really cannot rightfully love our father, mother, daughter or son, or any other human being. Deuteronomy 6.5 instructs us by stating; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might [or strength].” And loving God means we are willing to keep His commandments.
According to 1 John 5.2; “By this we know that we love the children [or family of God], when we love God and keep His commandments.” Keeping the commandments of God and observing all that Jesus taught, is according to the Word of God, undeniable proof that we truly love God and that we truly know Him and not just know of Him!
Therefore, what have we learned concerning the sword of the Lord and the ever dividing Word of God that we may not have already known? For the spiritual leader in training understanding the difference between physical peace on earth and spiritual peace in a person’s heart, is both required and learned knowledge. Therefore, according to Jesus, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”
In Closing This Sunday May 31, 2020:
Due to current events in America, I must declare for those of whom have not yet seen the hand-writing on the wall. America is no longer a shining light divinely set upon a hill. It has become the habitation of all kinds of evil spirits and ungodly enacted laws that greatly go against God’s written and eternally preserved Word of God. We need only to watch the evening news to realize the abounding lawlessness Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 is upon us!
And for these atrocities and for the many infiltrated into society iniquity stained false religious traditions and unbiblical false doctrines, America has become divided more so than during the Civil War of this country’s darkened history. And therefore, the sword of the Lord’s ever-dividing eternal Word of God has been unsheathed!
Are you spiritually prepared for the future takeover of the Antichrist? Are you physically prepared for the requirement of the receiving of the mark of the beast in order to buy and or to sell? If not, why not? The end is at hand. The Word of God will not return void.
We in America, as several cities are being burned and business establishments are being looted in major American cities, and the people of America are being programmed by political mandates, the biblical based foundation of this nation is crumbling. Choose you this day who you and your loved ones will serve!
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, may the sword of Your Spirit, the Word of God, pierce through our hearts, dividing us from earthly entrapments that will eternally ensnare us. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 