The Sword

 12/19/2020

Matthew 10:34 “I come not to send peace, but a sword.”

I am just finishing up a book by Lisa Bevere called Girls With Swords: How to Carry Your Cross like a Hero. It is written for woman, but I have wound up sharing a lot of its wisdom with my husband. The way she breaks down the parts of a sword and fencing techniques into actions that we can take as believers is fascinating. It has helped me visualize how to become bolder in my walk with Jesus; for boldness has now become my calling. I am weary of a secular word that wants to keep God’s people quiet.  “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” Matthew 10:32-33

It is interesting to me that Chambers’ study uses this verse a mere week before Christmas day. Matthew 10:34 in the NIV reads, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” During this time, we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Christmas is all about The Gift, about joy, and about peace, so why use this verse? This Gift was born for all mankind, but many do not accept this precious Gift. We get in our own way and refuse to give up or release the areas of our lives that are not of God.

This is where the sword comes into the battle. The evil one does not want our focus and attention to be on Christ, even during the Christmas season. He diverts us as we fall into the many secular trappings of this time. We refuse to look internally and release that which destroys us to Almighty God. Chambers writes, “People want the blessings of God, but they will not stand the thing that goes straight to the quick.” The very thing in us that the sword needs to cut out, we refuse to release. Hence the cycle continues.

 Our message, as believers, must always start and end with the Sword of Truth, which is the Word of God, during Christmas and all the year through. Peace without Christ is a hollow peace, and one that will not last. I will leave you with these profound words from Chambers, “Thousands of people are happy without God in this world. If I was happy and moral until Jesus came, why did He come? Because that kind of happiness and peace is on a wrong level; Jesus Christ came to send a sword through every peace that is not based on a personal relationship that is not based on Himself.”