"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword" ~ Matthew 10:34
What a strange thing for the Prince of Peace to declare! But tap this "clear stone" lightly under the direction of the Holy Spirit and we find that He did not come to send peace, He came
as peace. He came declaring that He is our peace, and that outside of Him there is none. No peace anywhere. For anyone. "Think not that I come to send peace on earth ..." "... On earth, peace, good will toward men."
These do not contradict themselves except to the heart still shut away in darkness. "I came not to send peace, but a sword." And then Jesus goes on to explain that He will set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother. But this is the scalpel act which must come before true peace can come. If Christ came merely saying: "Now, dear children, let us all get along with each other and act peaceful, no matter how much selfishness and sin remain in our hearts ... let's spoil our mothers and pamper our fathers and lavish gifts upon our children to show we are good sports, even if we disagree about God and His claims upon our lives ..." --- if Christ came sending this kind of "psychological" peace, he would be a fiend.
Being God, He knows that there is no eternal peace outside of obedience to God. And so He came, not to get us all to agree with each other by agreeing with us Himself. He came to declare the heart of God and the claims of God and to show
true caring and
true compassion toward us by making it very clear that there can be no compromise between us and Himself for the sake of the family. If we remain true to Him, then we can trust Him to handle the family. He did not come to reconcile us to each other, or Himself to
us.
"... God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ..."
These do not contradict themselves except to the heart still shut away in darkness. "I came not to send peace, but a sword." And then Jesus goes on to explain that He will set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother. But this is the scalpel act which must come before true peace can come. If Christ came merely saying: "Now, dear children, let us all get along with each other and act peaceful, no matter how much selfishness and sin remain in our hearts ... let's spoil our mothers and pamper our fathers and lavish gifts upon our children to show we are good sports, even if we disagree about God and His claims upon our lives ..." --- if Christ came sending this kind of "psychological" peace, he would be a fiend.
Being God, He knows that there is no eternal peace outside of obedience to God. And so He came, not to get us all to agree with each other by agreeing with us Himself. He came to declare the heart of God and the claims of God and to show true caring and true compassion toward us by making it very clear that there can be no compromise between us and Himself for the sake of the family. If we remain true to Him, then we can trust Him to handle the family. He did not come to reconcile us to each other, or Himself to us.
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