Rev (Dr) Quek Suan Yew

Jesus says, I Bring a Sword and Not Peace!

Matthew 10:34 “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

Introduction – Home is a bastion of peace and tranquillity that all loving parents will try their best to provide for their family. They desire to keep it safe, and trouble free. This is in contrast to the world which is a place of danger and harm. The world will hurt and destroy families. Children’s as well as adults’ lives have been ruined because of the terrible world that we live in. The drugs, vices and lusts that consume and destroy lives are innumerable, and home is meant to be the place that shields and protects from the dark and evil world! The family feels safe and secure in the home. This is what every home ought to be. Parents are the heads of every home providing care, love, discipline and protection and the children who grow up in such a safe environment will become mentally, emotionally and physically strong. Family relationship is therefore the dearest and most important to us. Families are the backbone of every society. Therefore when the Bible says that Christ came to bring a sword instead of peace to the family relationship, it is shocking! Why would God send Christ to bring a sword to destroy a family instead of building it up with peace? 

Faulty Thinking (Matt 10:34) – The family unit has always been of utmost importance to God. He saved sinners to bring them into His eternal family. He taught them to call Him “Abba Father” in prayer. Therefore family is always important to God. Then why did God send Christ to bring a sword and not peace? The reason is that the home without Christ is a home marked for death. Everyone in that home will be separated by death and end up in hell when they die in sin without Christ. Anyone who thinks that it is a good thing to spend eternity in hell together as a family ought to think again, for this twisted view or perception is as good as saying that it is all right that everyone in the family watches one another cry helplessly in great pain! 

The following is the testimony of one who died in his sin and went to hell, and his one and only great desire was that his family would not join him in hell: Luke 16:27-31 “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Everything else in life on earth that once mattered became irrelevant. The only thing he wanted for his brothers was that they believe before they die and be saved from hell. He even requested that Lazarus be sent back from the dead to minister to them. But the reply was that they had something better than seeing a resurrected person. They had the perfect and powerful Word of Life, the Bible. 

Therefore the LORD began by telling everyone to not begin to think that Christ came to bring peace; He came to bring a sword. The peace that the world has, which is without Christ, is false. It is based upon sin and death given by the god of this world, the devil. He has blinded the minds of everyone who is in sin (cf. 2Cor 4:4). They cannot see. Christ came to open their blind eyes so that they can see. This peace and blindness is found in every home too. The peace that sinners have in the family that is without Christ is false. It ends at death. The family needs a peace in the home that cannot be destroyed by death. For that to happen, one of them has to believe in Christ so that the gospel might be brought into the home. Without a child of God in the home, everyone in that home cannot see the kingdom of heaven. The moment there is a believer in that home, the whole family will be brought to the entrance of the kingdom of heaven. They can also see the life of a citizen of heaven living in their midst. His life has been transformed. The stark difference is real. They would be shocked to see the change. But this change is characterized by holiness. This means that he will no longer do all the sinful things he used to do. This will result in rifts and quarrels in the home, at least in the initial stages of his holy life. 

Destroy to Rebuild (Matt 10:35-36) – The rift in the relationships that Christ will bring into the home is real. “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.” The Christian will now honour his parents in the Lord. This means that he will obey as long as it is holy and righteous to do so according to the Bible. If it is not, then he will not obey. For example, he used to eat food offered to idols but now he will have to refuse. This will surely mean arguments in the home that were not there before. The Christian will be seen as disrespectful but he has to pray, endure and trust in the Lord to work things out eventually. The initial stages will be the most difficult as the rest of the family try to accept a child of God in the home where the things of the god of this world used to be the norm. Because of the Christian there is light shining in the darkness. Darkness will not want to be pushed out by the light. The resistance is understandable. This is a spiritual warfare for the souls of the unsaved loved ones in the family. 

The whole family structure will be turned upside down, as it should be. The peace of the home that was based upon the lie and blindness of the evil one has to be destroyed by the light of Christ’s salvation first before it can be rebuilt – from the foundation up into a home with true peace that is based upon God's holy and life-giving Word. The destruction part will be painful. No one likes what they have been enjoying for so long to be destroyed and to be told that it is sinful and wrong. The pride of man is the greatest resistance to change. The period of change may last weeks or months and in some cases even years until all in the home become children of God. Then only will true peace come. Peace with God in the heart of every sinner in the home must enter first, and then true peace will prevail in the entire home. 

The rebuilding will take time as the Word of God needs to be studied faithfully and diligently with an obedient heart. There will still be differences and stepping on toes but the love and blood of Christ will be more than sufficient to cleanse away all sins, and forgiveness in the heart will prevail. Peace in the home on earth is not the absence of arguments and quarrels but rather the ability from Christ to keep on forgiving and loving no matter how painful the hurt is. Perfect peace whereby there are no more quarrels will only be experienced in heaven when this earthen vessel is replaced with the glorified and powerful body. Until then, all relationships on earth will go through ups and downs but the presence and love of the Lord Jesus Christ in God’s children will endure and is the bond of every believer’s peaceful relationships with his brothers and sisters in Christ.  

Eternal versus Temporal Bonds (Matt 10:37-38) – The peace in every home has to be bound by the blood of Christ and not the blood of the parents! The former binds for eternity. The latter binds till death tears it asunder.  That is why the Lord Jesus Christ says that He brings a sword to cut away the blinders in the eyes of sinners because their relationship that is based upon earth-bound peace is false and it will be destroyed by death. The peace that Christ brings is eternal, for it is based upon eternal truths. 

That is why a truly born again believer must not love his father or mother or loved one more than Christ whereby he is prepared to disobey the Word of God. To do so will result in sin. God’s children and disciples of Christ must love in truth. For the professing believer to love someone on earth more, and thereby sin against God, is to hate that someone, for he has actually condemned that soul to hell. The message to that someone is that Jesus Christ is not his Lord and Saviour and He is not able to save. He has made that someone his god. That is idolatry. That is why Jesus says, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” He does not deserve Christ to be his Saviour. 

If Christ is to be Saviour, Christ must also be Lord. Christ’s disciples must always obey Him and love Him above everything and everyone else! Anyone who is not prepared to displease their loved ones on earth, and would choose to fall into sin because of them, and hurt Christ and His witness, is not a true believer! This is what Jesus meant when He added, “38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” It is better that such a one not call himself a Christian if he obeys Christ only when it is convenient and agreeable to him. 

Salvation always begins with self denial and taking up the cross. The cross is often the life of suffering. No one can choose the size or the nature of the cross he has to carry. It is appointed for him by God. In Christ he never has to carry it alone. But it has to be a life of absolute obedience unto death. All cross carriers must carry their own crosses to be crucified even as Christ carried His cross for our sakes to save us from our sins. He gave His life for us. The cross all believers carry is given to each and every believer by God and Christ. They are to carry it all the way to the end of life. They must follow Christ to the end with the cross on their backs until they see Christ in glory! There is no putting down the cross as it is a lifelong calling. Anyone who is not prepared to love Christ above all other relationships on earth should not call himself a Christian. In this way he does not bring shame to the name of Christ and stumble others. This is the non-negotiable condition for discipleship and salvation that Christ has stipulated. This is the only way for the truly saved. 

Conclusion– The last days are fraught with many false gospels. Many have believed in the false gospels. This means that there are many more false believers today than ever before. Matthew 10:34-38 is an exceptionally good passage to help all believers see through the smoke screen in the many false gospels, in order to make sure of our salvation. This truth of loving Christ above everyone else is a clear line drawn in the sands of time by God to separate the sheep from the goats. The ones who love Christ above all else will always desire to obey the perfect Word of God all the time. They will not pick and choose what to obey or to obey at their convenience. They will obey at all costs even if it hurts them and their loved ones. The reason is that love must be in truth and with eternity in view all the time. To love Christ all the time is to obey the Word of God all the time. This is the only way our loved ones will see Christ in us even though they might be angry with us when obedience to Christ hurts them. This is what true love means for Christ and for our loved ones. Amen.