Peace or War

“Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword.” (Mat. 10:34).

How true are those words uttered by our Lord almost two thousand years ago. Even though the main thrust of His message was one of peace and comfort, in this discourse in Mat. 10 the Lord is definitely warning us of strife and division. All we have to do is look around us today and see what is going on in our world, there is mayhem and confusion, strife and military conflict everywhere. There is no peace on this earth. Yet, Jesus says in Jn. 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”

So, is Jesus here contradicting what He said in Mat. 10:34? I think not. I think that Jesus was talking about two kinds of peace. The peace Jesus is talking about in Jn. 14:27 is the peace that we enjoy in our hearts and minds, the inward peace we receive through faith, in our walk with the Lord and a close relationship with God, the Father. It is the peace of God, that passeth all understanding, as pointed out by St. Paul in Phil. 4:7. Through this peace we can and will be at ease and comforted in even the most difficult and perilous times and circumstances. It is in effect a spiritual peace, a peace of heart and mind, the inner peace. Whereas the peace that our Lord was speaking about in Mat. 10:34, we should view as a physical peace, a peace that we may or may not enjoy in our daily lives, depending on the circumstances that we may find ourselves in. For example, we here in North America live in relative peace, whereas our Israelite brethren in South Africa are not nearly as fortunate.

How though, can we obtain this peace that Jesus was and is talking about in Jn. 14? This peace we experience when we commune with our God in prayer and supplication every day and at every opportunity, when we gear our daily lives around the Commandments of our Lord, and walk according to His Statutes, also when we commune with brethren of like faith, when we help the needy and the sick. All these things will give us peace, if we do them, not out of duty, but out of love. For in such a way our Lord Jesus Christ ministered onto the lost sheep. Love! In 1Cor. 13 St. Paul tells us that whatever we do without love is in vain. So, love is the catalyst for peace. Oh, that we may possess that love and so find that peace.

So, let us now go back to Mt. 10:34 where Jesus said, “I came not to send peace, but the sword”. In the same discourse related in Lk. 12:51 it is called division. Either way we can understand that it does mean discord and strife. And what does discord and strife bring? More often than not, discord and strife brings war. But war does not necessarily always mean armed or military conflict. St. Paul tells us in Eph. 6:12 “For we wrestle (fight) not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world.” And that is, my friends, where you and I find ourselves in this time in history, in the Western Christian Israelite world.

Our applecart, so to speak, has been overturned. Our Christian way of life has been totally disrupted and is slowly but surely being destroyed. Our Israelite nations are being overrun by immigration of non-Israelite peoples, who bring with them their own customs and religions. Our courts and our politicians are constantly making new laws and statutes that are detrimental to our Christian way of life, but favourable to the stranger for these new laws inevitably undermine all our Christian values and morals. I am not saying that the non-Israelites are the cause of our moral decline, for some hold very high moral principles. But I am saying that with declining Christian values as a mainstay in our society, moral standards also decline, for the first is a counter stay against the latter. For example, today’s one world mentality promotes and advocates bringing us all together in marriage, a concept totally against God’s sovereign design. Or, how the phrase “alternative lifestyle” is seen as good, even though God referred to it as otherwise! Christians don’t even balk any longer when our politicians actively participate in other religious or lifestyle parades and festivities yet mainly ignore or sneer at such Christian events. You might ask, how did this all come about? A Christian may not admit it but he or she knows the answer, we simply sat back and let it happen, not wanting to make waves. And now, it is too late.

Yes, dear friends, there is a division, there is a war going on, and as St. Paul told us in Eph. 6, it is a war of principals, but a war nonetheless. He asks us to put on the whole armor of God against the forces that are stacked against us. And we must never forget, “He who is for us is mightier that those that are against us.” Jer. 30:7 tells us that this is the time of Jacob’s Trouble, but He, Jacob-Israel, will be saved out of it. The Lord is on our side, He will ultimately win for us the battle and then there truly will be peace. Brothers and sisters, be of good cheer as I leave you with the words of David, as found in Ps. 146:5, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord, his God.” And Ps. 144:15, “Happy is that people that is in such a case, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”

And yes, we are that people! Praise the Lord.