Not peace, but a sword

Today, as always, Oswald Chambers has a powerfully relevant message for preachers, and I cannot thank the Lord (and my friend B.P.) enough for pointing me to these devotionals.

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What Jesus says in Mt 10:34, is

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

This saying is where Chambers draws on his reasoning here:

Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him. God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One.

We should never dull the sword of the Lord, but keep it very clean and sharp. If we would let the sword do it's cutting, we cannot pretend to give peace to someone who has no peace with God, as by flattering and agreeable words. The message "repent" was never liked by those who had no mind to repent. So peace is destroyed as long as sin reigns. To really help people as a pastor is to give them the hard words. I love Misn. Sarah Barry, because she always exemplified this "mind of Christ". Whoever went to her to complain about someone else was rebuked first. For whether we have failed to forgive the person or harbor hate, justly or not, we are in the wrong. Hidden sin, likewise, loves to find fellow sinners to share company with. If we don't "hold high the standard of Jesus" to people, we cannot give them HIS peace, but only the superficial peace of this world, whereas

"Jesus Christ came to `bring . . . a sword' through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself."

Wielding this sword is hard and painful to us, as to those who must suffer the blow to their false peace. But this is the spiritual warfare we are truly engaged in, and we shepherds must not shrink back.

As for me, dealing with my children may be the hardest place to apply this. They do not want me, as their father, to make them feel bad when they harbor spiritual enmity in their hearts. If the young generation does not even HEAR Jesus' message of repentance and faith, what chance do they have to follow it? So we must not lower the standard as parents, nor as pastors. To carry both crosses is perhaps not so bad when we consider that they are one in the same, only the pastor cares for ALL children, not merely his own.

Lord, give me the grace and truth that filled your Son Jesus, and enable me to hold up his standard, faithfully, fearlessly. Move those you want to save to hear and obey.