Jesus did not come to bring peace on earth!
Matthew 10:34-36 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
1. Jesus did not come to bring peace on earth.
2. Jesus did not come to bring peace but war.
3. Jesus came to set a man against his father.
4. Jesus came to set a daughter against her mother.
5. Jesus came to set a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
This is a very confusing verse especially since the angels heralded "peace on earth, good will towards men" regarding the birth of Jesus.
5 comments:
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Here's what ApologeticsPress.org has to say on this subject:
Did Jesus Come to Bring Peace—or Turmoil?
Paul
The Jews had problems when they read the prophecies referring to the Messiah as both the suffering servant and the victorious king. They simply didn't understand that He was coming twice. In a similar fashion, it seems your confusion stems from not realizing the results of Jesus' coming to earth in the "short" term - strife and division - versus the long term - peace on earth, goodwill to men. You know, the doctor tells the cancer patient that chemotherapy is beneficial, but when it starts, the patient is throwing up his toenails and losing all his hair!
What is peace? Peace is complacency. Peace is letting things stay the way they have been so as not to cause any commotion. Jesus did not come to say, "Keep on doing what you're doing." He came, in part, to correct Israel and all of us.
The sword is not a physical sword but a spiritual one. Truth hurts. And truth can cause turmoil when there is an unwillingness to accept it.
"On earth" is the key to the scripture. Jesus did not coe to bring peace ON EARTH, but a sword. Jesus came to bring peace between man and God, spiritual peace which allows the yoke of condemnation to be removed and the yoke of love and communion with God to be taken up. He accomplished this with a 'sword', the cross. The message of the cross is what penetrates our souls and reveals are inner most thoughts. This same sword destroys our fleshly nature and replaces them with a new and re-born nature, with living waters (love) flowing out of us. Do not start another new year with a yoke that even God's people, the Jews, could not bare. When Christ said "it is finished', he was proclaiming the end of the chasm between God and man.
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