Posted on 04/09/2021 5:10:41 AM PDT by metmom
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword’” (Matthew 26:52).
It is wrong to violently take justice into our own hands, even to defend or promote the name of Christ.
The Body of Christ does not grow and strengthen itself by physical warfare. Every time it has endeavored to do so, the name and cause of Jesus Christ have been harmed. Such wars as the Crusades in the Holy Land or later religious wars between Catholics and Protestants in Europe served no scriptural purpose. As Jesus taught many times, and as Paul reiterated to the Corinthians, “The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor. 10:4).
Peter, in his usual headstrong fashion, had not yet understood this principle the night of Jesus’ arrest. That’s when Peter used his sword and cut off the ear of one of the high priest’s prominent slaves. But the impulsive disciple’s reaction was all wrong. Peter no doubt took Christ’s earlier statement, “Let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one” (Luke 22:36) much too literally. Our Lord was actually speaking of preparedness for spiritual, not physical, warfare.
Jesus therefore had to instruct Peter to put away his weapon. In effect, He was saying, “Peter, no matter how unjust My arrest is, you must not respond with vigilante action. If you do that and kill someone else, your own life will justly be forfeited as punishment.”
Christ’s power has been demonstrated many times—in person to Peter and through Scripture to us. It is incredible that any of us should think He needs the puny help of a sword, a gun, or any other human device. Christ’s battles are won in the strength of His sovereign power alone, as He pointed out to Peter: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions [72,000] of angels?” (Matt. 26:53).
Suggestions for Prayer
Ask God’s forgiveness for times when you’ve been too quick to seek your own justice during arguments or conflicts.
For Further Study
Read 2 Kings 19:14-37.
How did King Hezekiah respond when God’s people and land were threatened? How did the prophet Isaiah support Hezekiah’s actions? How did God finally respond to the Assyrians’ threat?
Studying God’s Word ping
Is it not so that Our Lord performed a miracle by replacing that ear when being taken ?
I also heard it preached that Jesus came to this world to die for our sins and He wanted His crucifixion to proceed without anyone stepping in in anyway. In Luke 22: 35-38 He tells folks what to take with them at the point when it’s time to run. One item, and it appears to be an important one, is a sword. He didn’t say this for the fun of it. He once said that there is a time to kill. Also, during His ministry and when He was on the cross, I don’t remember Him condemning any of God’s warriors in the Old Testament, such as Moses or King David.
It is wrong to violently take justice into our own hands, even to defend or promote the name of Christ.
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Luke 22:33-36
33And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. 34And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. 35And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 36Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
Ecclesiastes 3:8
“A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
Each in it’s own time
I suppose this is one of those areas of disagreement.
Peter was undaunted in his courage, eyewitness to thousands of miracles, the first confessor that Jesus is the Christ.
In the same night that he drew his sword to stand alone between his Lord and a cohort of hardened soldiers, a lowly servant girl scared him into publicly denying that he even knew the Lord, cursing and swearing as he ran away.
And yet the Lord knew Peter’s heart and restored him. Once saved always saved, Peter.
Romans 8:35 New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995)
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Thanks, Metmom! Your faithfulness to post is appreciated.
“It is wrong to violently take justice into our own hands, even to defend or promote the name of Christ.”
It’s wrong to do it to defend or promote the name of Christ. I agree up to that point. I don’t know how Mr. MacArthur can say that Jesus meant it as spiritual when He said to buy a sword. You can’t purchase anything from God.
While I mostly always appreciate his commentary, he missed on this one.
narrow thinking and selective history.
What about South and Central America and Mexico? Strong bastions of Catholicism over several centuries. Waning now due to corruption of the Catholic Church.
The crusades was not a war of conquest by one of liberation. The areas of Turkey and Egypt especially, were very strong bastions of the Christian faith but were brutalized under the conquest of Islamic warfare. The crusades were to free the people of Israel and Jerusalem from Moslem oppression.
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