To Encourage You

Matthew 10:34-36 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

Have you noticed the ways in which so many people try to create God in their own image?  So often we hear people, including Christian leaders, talk about what Jesus would do or not do or say or not say, but in reality, those things have no resemblance to the truth.  We are told that Jesus loves everyone, which is true, that He is merciful to sinners, which is also true, and that He is kind, compassionate, patient, and even a friend of sinners, all statements which are, likewise, true. However, what is so often missing in these statements is the fact that He is God, the same Almighty and Holy being that we read about in the Old Testament, Who calls believers to be separated from this world and the sin that so characterizes it.  In so many quarters today we see the attitudes and opinions of this world that are antithetical to all that Jesus is and taught being embraced within the church, and we are told that this is what Jesus would do! 

We see this currently in the controversies going on within the United Methodist Church.  Just check out some of the video statements by those leaders on YouTube, particularly in the American Methodist churches, as they apologize for the “traditionalist,” i.e., true biblical view of sexuality, that the international church adopted at its international conference.  It was the large contingent from the African churches that helped carry this vote, and many of the American leaders were up in arms about it.  You could see that the church split that has occurred was inevitable. And the language of many of the American Methodist leaders is steeped in their view of how Jesus views this issue.  What is missing from many of these arguments is a true biblical view of Who Jesus is. 

Jesus said some very hard things in His teachings. One such hard teaching is found in the verses above in which Jesus said clearly that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  But isn’t Jesus all about peace and harmony?  Isn’t His message one of unity, especially within the church?  Well, in one sense this is true.  He did speak often about peace. In fact, He is called the “Prince of Peace” in Isaiah 9:6.  He also spoke about unity within the body of Christ.  It was a main theme of His high priestly prayer in John 17.  However, this peace and unity was not a peace and unity at all costs.  When He spoke about peace, it was peace with God and the inner fruit of the Spirit that is a result of that peace. When he spoke of unity, it was that “they (i.e., the Church) may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you (John 17:21).”  That oneness is rooted in holiness and purity, and never in sin. 

When Jesus spoke the words recorded in Matthew 10 above, He was teaching His followers that to follow Him would mean a great separation from the world – separation that would result in one’s closest friends and family, in some instances, becoming so separated from them that they would even be considered enemies by them.  And that is exactly what’s happening right now in the Methodist Church. It’s what has also happened or is currently happening in many other denominations today.  The Bible foretold this in Jesus’ words to John regarding the seven churches in Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3.  Of those seven churches, five were rebuked by the Lord for such things as false teaching, spiritual deadness, and toleration of sexual immorality. How is this any different from what’s going on in so many churches today?  Surely it is no different, and the warnings of Jesus to the churches in the book of Revelation are meant as warnings to every church in every age since that time. 

In John 8 we have the story of a woman caught in adultery that was dragged before Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees who called for her to be stoned.  Here we see Jesus’ love for this woman as He rebuked the religious leaders for their own sin and showed compassion toward her.  What a wonderful example this is of Jesus’ teaching that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).  But where many in the modern church miss the mark in their interpretation of this story is that Jesus then said to the woman as He forgave her, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more (John 8:11).”  For you see, Jesus came to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21), and not to save them so that they would just continue in their sins. 

It is to ambivalent and even permissive attitudes toward sin that Paul said the following: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-4).  However, that’s surely not what you hear from so many so-called “Christian” leaders in the Church today.  They want a Savior, but they also want their sin.  But Jesus won’t have it that way.  To follow Him means to turn to Him and turn from sin. That’s His work of separation in a life. That’s the sword He brought to earth.  It’s a hard reality, and a hard truth, but it is the truth, from the Truth incarnate, who also said this to those who would truly follow Him: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easythat leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).

So, which way are you following?  If it’s the way of this world, it is most surely the wide gate that leads to destruction and not the hard way that leads to life.  May God keep us on the narrow way, for it is the one and only Way of Truth.