Can't We All Just Get Along?, Part 1

August, 2002

by: Jack Hughes

• The Church and Church Issues

It is normal for Christians to be under attack and persecuted for Christ (II Tim. 3:12). Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, uses every temptation, deception and lie to deceive unbelievers into accomplishing his will and his will is to oppose, oppress, and persecute believers (Jn. 8:44; II Cor. 4:3-4; Eph. 2:1-3; Rev. 12:9). The evil world system, and those in it who do not know God, are hostile towards God, hate God's truth, hate God's Savior Jesus Christ, and hate those who represent Christ. There is a supernatural antipathy between good and evil, which is constantly being fought both in the spiritual realm between angels and demons, and the physical realm between the children of God and the children of the devil.

Recently many false lies, accusations, and rumors were aimed at myself and other Pastoral Staff at Calvary Bible Church. Some of the sheep at Calvary Bible Church came to me very concerned, even fearful, and were asking, “Why is this happening?,” “Is there always going to be conflict?,” “Why can't we all just get along?” These are good questions and they need to be answered. Before I arrived at Calvary Bible Church conflict was minimum but since I have arrived there has been continual opposition both from within and without. It is a legitimate question to ask, “Why?” and “How long can we expect this to continue?”

Liberal churches which have denied the authority, accuracy and sufficiency of the Scriptures, become as a consequence, worldly, ecumenical, tolerant of sin and undiscerning. We often hear them lobby for the beatitude of Mt. 5:9, “Blessed are the peace-makers,” but rarely if ever, even from conservative evangelical churches, do we hear the cry, “Blessed are the war-makers.” In light of Mt. 5:9, the call to wage war sounds almost sacrilegious. Yet the Scriptures command Christians to “wage the good warfare” and “fight the good fight” (II Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:10-18; I Tim. 1:18; 6:12; II Tim. 4:7). The Bible does call us to be peacemakers but it also calls us to be war-makers. The Church has failed to teach these two callings in a biblical balance. When it comes to being peacemakers, the Church has distorted what the Bible says, when it comes to being war-makers, the Church has neglected what the Bible says. It is the purpose of this Calvary Review series to look at our dual callings to be both war-makers and peacemakers.

Blessed Are the War-Makers

As I was reading through Matthew recently I came upon a familiar section, which spoke to the neglected topic of being a “war–maker.” As a preacher, I am constantly under attack from those who don't like to hear what the Bible says. They are willing to have the Bible on their terms, but they are not willing to have the Bible on God's terms. They want the blessings of the Bible, but not the cursings, they want a God of love, but not a God of justice and wrath, they want to fabricate God and His Word into their own image and likeness. As I was thinking about these things I came upon Mt. 10:34-36 where Jesus, speaking to his disciples, says: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came 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 man's enemies will be the members of his household.”

Doesn't sound very “peaceful” does it? I then looked at several other parallel texts, one of them being Lk. 12:49-53 where Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth” and again “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.”

These are not difficult passages to understand. What Jesus was saying is that it is erroneous and false to say that He came at His first coming to bring peace on the earth. He did not come to bring peace, but instead, He came to bring a “sword,” “fire,” and “division.” The “sword” is a symbol of war, fire a symbol of the consequences of war or judgment. These may seem to be odd and even disturbing statements coming from the mouth of the “Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6), but they are only odd and disturbing if you have been deceived into believing false concepts about what it means to be a Christian and a “good soldier of Jesus Christ” (II Tim. 2:3).

In Jesus' day, the sword was the most common weapon of warfare. Swords were used to slay enemies in battle. The Holy Spirit has seen fit to use the word “sword” as a figure of speech to describe the Word of God. The sword that we are told to wield is the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17). We are soldiers and the Word of God is our primary weapon by which we wage war. We wield the “sword of the Spirit” by living and speaking the Word of God. We stab with God's commands, hack with his warnings, and wield with reproofs, rebukes, corrections and promises. We slash into error, ignorance, and deception which is promulgated by Satan and his demons but deliver men who have been deceived into marching in Satan's army.

The Christian as a soldier, a warrior, and infantryman is sorely lacking in the minds of most believers. Instead, we tend to think of ourselves only as passive sheep. Think back to the last week, month, or year, have you thought of yourself as a swordsman? Do you consider yourself a soldier? Do you practice wielding the Word of God, both in your own life and in the life of others? God calls you to take up the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” Are you doing that? The imagery of God's Word being a sword is common in the Bible. In Heb. 4:12, the Word of God is described as “sharper than any two-edged sword,” so sharp in fact, that it is able to cut to the very thoughts and intentions of men's hearts. Wielding the sword of the Spirit is not just for preachers, but every believer. Anyone who is a Christian has been drafted into God's army and must go to war by following their Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ into battle.

Jesus exemplifies what it means to wield the sword of the truth. In Rev. 1:16 Jesus is described as having a “two-edged sword come out of his mouth;” in Rev. 2:12, 16 Jesus is the one who has the sharp two-edged sword and who warns the church at Pergamum to repent quickly or He is coming to make war against them (The church at Pergamum!) with the sword of his mouth. In Rev. 19:15, 21 we see Jesus, with a sword coming out of His mouth, which kills those who hate God. Jesus is our General and we are his soldiers called to be like Him and wield the same sword that He wields.

In many other places the Word of God is described as working like a sword. In Acts 2:37, after Peter preached the Word of God, the text says the people were “pierced to the heart.” In Acts 5:33; 7:54 the preaching of the Word cut people to the quick. This should remind all of us that when we preach, teach, or live God's truth in front of other people, we will be striking blows at their conscience, piercing their heart with truth, poking at their secret sins, and filleting them open so that their evil deeds are exposed. Peter and Stephen, in the texts mentioned above, became weapons in the hand of God through their teaching and preaching. If you read through Acts you will discover that the Apostles, by preaching and truth, declared war on this world. They made people very angry. People accused them falsely, they were ridiculed, persecuted, and killed. Those deceived by Satan did everything they could to silence the Word of God, which was pouring forth from the mouths of God's soldiers. This is normal Christianity.

Jesus wants you to know that His Word, His truth, is a sword which divides one person against another. It divides even the closest relationships like relationships between a son and a father, a mother and a daughter, or a daughter-in-law and a mother, making the most intimate members of one's family into enemies. Jesus told His disciples in Mt. 10:16-25 that by preaching the Gospel, enemies would be made who would: 1) hand them over to the courts, 2) scourge them, and 3) bring them before governors. Jesus was careful to widen these promises to include every believer, not just the twelve when he said, 1) Brother will betray brother to death, 2) Father will betray his child to death, 3) children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death, 4) you will be hated by all because of My name, 5) you will be persecuted, and 6) they will accuse you of being a worker of Satan.

It is ironic that those who truly were of their father the devil (Jn. 8:44), who were actively promoting the doctrines of demons, were the quickest to oppose the truth and the loudest to accuse Jesus of being of the devil, teaching demonic doctrines and doing the deeds of Satan (Mt. 9:34; 12:24; Mk. 3:22; Lk. 11:55). These are all Satan's devices used to discredit those who preach the truth and to keep people blinded from what the Word of God says. Satan knows that by leveling accusations against God's messengers he will be able to convince some that God's messengers are false, and cause suspicion and doubt to form in the hearts of others. We shouldn't be surprised at this for Jesus predicted it would happen in Mt. 10:24 when he said: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, [ruler of the demons] how much more will they malign the members of his household!”

Persecution because of the Word of God, and the war that the truth brings is nothing new. Jesus promised it would come in Mt. 5:10-12. Immediately after saying, “Blessed are the peace-makers” Jesus said: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Whatever Jesus meant by “peace-makers” obviously he did not mean living in such a way that the world loves you. Yet that is how most people understand Mt. 5:9. Jesus promised in Jn. 15:18-20 that his disciples would be “hated by the world.” Jesus said that the world will “love its own” that is, those who live worldly lives, but it will hate those who live for Him. In Jn. 16:2 Jesus told his disciples, “an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” Notice that the war is between two camps of people “who claim to be followers of God!” This is not war between the religious and the pagan but between two devoted religious groups. Yet one group is persecuted because they hold to God's truth, the other group is doing the persecuting because they do not want to obey God's truth. Jesus went on to say this in Jn. 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me, you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

All of this should make you examine your heart. Are you a good soldier of Jesus Christ? Are you wielding the sword of the Spirit? Are you being persecuted for righteousness sake? Are you at odds with the world? Are you causing division by speaking the truth? If you are not, you aren't in the Battle, you are a casualty and you need to put on the full armor of God and take your place on the front line. In the next Calvary review we will look at this topic from the writings of the Apostles, but for now remember, “blessed are the war-makers, for they are the ones who are wielding the sword of the Spirit and obeying the Word of God!”