The peace of Christ, the dividing sword.

Rev Enoch Thompson | MARCH 30, 2023 | Matthew 10:34-39

KEY VERSE:

³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37-38 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

We understand peace to mean the silent co-existence of people and other creatures in a close physical relationship. The Kingdom of God with all it teaches would have been understood to mean a peaceful Kingdom in that it fitted nicely into the state of things. However, the Lord taught us that His Kingdom was going to be a source of disagreement and divisions, a force to separate close human relations. The call for total allegiance of Kingdom citizens in following the Lord Jesus Christ, and the intensity of transformation it requires will compel believers to be hated by their loved ones and rejected from the natural family bonds.

Christians need not become antisocial and impossible to live with, but true discipleship will make believers unfitting in the networks in which they operated very easily in the past. Their unwillingness to worship the previous gods, to participate in the past sins, to tow the line of the past normal, which was worldly passion and the satisfaction of the desires of the flesh. All these will work and make the believer unwelcome and unacceptable. The demand of love to the Lord Christ places the believer in a condition where Christ is to be preferred above all: “³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37-38 (NIV). We are not called to literally hate our fathers and our mothers or those naturally dear to us. We are called to love the Lord Christ so deeply that in comparison our love for our natural lovers looks like hatred! Christ causes a commitment crisis, a necessary outcome of the intensity of our allegiance to Him.

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

Love the King of the Kingdom even over and above your very life. Be ready to separate from natural loves that compete with your commitment to the Lord our Saviour.

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, I love you more than everything else and everybody else. Help me love you more than my very life. For your dear Name’s sake, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!