January 15

GENESIS 31:17-32:12

MATTHEW 10:24-11:6

PSALM 13:1-6

PROVERBS 3:16-18

Jesus brings a sword.

In Matthew chapter 10 we find Jesus saying some things that always got me to scratch my head.  I understood some things but others seemed a bit harsh.  Verse 34 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." That verse and the verses that followed always had me wondering and thinking.  Until I finally understood what Jesus was talking about.

In the time of Jesus the people thought Christ came to give them wealth and power in the world.  Christ says "no" He did not come to give temporal peace or an outward appearance of peace.  Peace with God- yes. 

Then Christ says he came to bring a "sword".  I understand that to be the sword of the Word.  That same sword which His disciples fight against the world.

Then verse 35 really blows my mind.  "For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household."

I realize something else, the effects of peaching the gospel is not the fault of the gospel, but of those who do not receive it.  

When some people believe the things that are spoken and some do not, the faith of those that believe condemns those that do not believe, and, therefore, they have enmity against them that believe.

Christ tells His disciples what they would suffer, and these were hard things to deal with.  But if they, if we, could bear these things, then we can bear anything.  

I love how Christ deals with His disciples very fairly and faithfully, he tells us the worst that can happen in our following of Him, so we can then count the cost and see if we would truly be faithful to Him.