The Darkness Of Betrayal Series

2 Corinthians 10:1–6. I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. (ESV)

• The church has never made advances by physical warfare, and every time it has tried, the cause of Christ has been severely harmed. There are no holy wars. Every war fought in the name of Christ has been utterly unholy, contradicting and undermining everything His Word teaches.

In verse 52, Jesus gave Peter two important reasons that explain why the use of physical weapons cannot be used to defend, much less extend, His kingdom. First of all, to do so is fatal. “Put your sword back into its place,” Jesus told Peter; “for all those who take the sword will/shall perish by the sword.” Jesus was not philosophizing by declaring that everyone who takes up arms will himself be killed by arms or that a person who uses violence will be killed violently. His point was that those who commit acts of violence to achieve personal ends will face punishment by civil authorities, the sword representing a common means of execution in the ancient world. He was simply reiterating the divine standard set forth in Genesis: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Gen. 9:6). To protect the sanctity of human life, God declares that the one who wantonly takes the life of another person is subject to capital punishment. God has given human government the right to execute murderers. “It does not bear the sword for nothing,” Paul said; “for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). The apostle willingly applied that law to himself. In his defense before Festus he said, “If then I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die” (Acts 25:11). Great human weapons are no match for God’s weapons. (Butler, J. G. (2008). Analytical Bible Expositor: Matthew (p. 438). LBC Publications.)

• This is all explaining the great misunderstanding of the crowd, the religious leaders and even Jesus’ disciples regarding the new kingdom reality that Jesus was illustrating in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

In telling Peter to put his sword back into its place Jesus was saying, in effect, “No matter how wicked and unjust my arrest is, you have no right to take vigilante action. If you take a life while doing that, your own life will justly be forfeited as punishment.” Jesus’ arrest and subsequent trials were clearly unjust, but they were nevertheless carried out within the framework of the legal systems of that day. Although it exercised its power only by the permission of Rome, the Sanhedrin was a civil as well as religious governing body in Israel. Pilate was the duly appointed Roman governor. Jesus’ point was that personal violent action against even an unjust governing body is wrong. God has the sovereign right to overrule human governments, as He has done frequently throughout history, but no individual has such a right. Jesus was not speaking about self-defense or the defense of loved ones or friends from an attacker. Nor was he talking about fighting in the armed forces of one’s country. He was referring to violently taking justice into one’s own hands. Under no circumstances does a Christian or anyone else have the right to dispense personal justice, even to defend Christ’s name or Word. Peter saw the use of his sword as the way of deliverance from the present trouble, but Jesus viewed it as out of character with all that he stood for. It was, moreover, the means of bringing trouble to the user. Peter was overlooking the fact that people who are hit with a sword have the very nasty practice of retaliating in kind; in the end the user of a sword is apt to finish his days on the end of someone else’s sword. The warlike will perish at the hands of the warlike, and this is a most unfitting end for those who are servants of the Prince of peace. Jesus’ repudiation of force and his acceptance of the way of the cross are important for his followers. It comes naturally to us to seek to impose our will on others. But that is not God’s way. His way is the way of the cross with its repudiation of compulsion and its call for us to trust him. (Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (p. 675). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.)