“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
– Jesus, Matthew [10:34]
This statement from Jesus appears early in the Gospel narrative and when we encounter the verse without any context, it can leave us with a lot of questions or even some dangerous assumptions. Is Jesus contradicting Himself? Did Matthew just insert some false statement for Jesus? If Jesus didn’t come to bring peace, why should we? Are we supposed to reject peace? Jesus says he isn’t here to bring peace, but wasn’t Jesus supposed to be the Prince of Peace? If Jesus comes bearing a sword, then maybe we need to enter every situation brandishing a weapon, letting everyone know we are not here to bring peace either.
It may sound silly, but this is the logical conclusions many make when verses like Matthew [10:34] are used in this way. When we get down to the context we will discover some very interesting details that get over looked when this verse is thrown around to simply counter an argument for peace or justify invasions from the United States’ military into other countries.
Context from the Gospel of Matthew
We encounter this statement from Jesus around the middle of the many, many stories of His healings. Before and after this point we see Jesus tell the people that He healed and the witnesses around them not to tell anyone what has happened—not once, but several times.
In the last half of Matthew Chapter 9, we start to see some recurring themes that help us understand what is going on with Jesus’ statement in chapter 10. As Jesus is traveling, he’s healing all manner of sick and dying people. But as we get about halfway through the ninth chapter, we see what looks like the first time Jesus heals someone that is blind.
In Verse 27 – 31 Matthew tells us,
“Two men who were blind followed (Jesus), crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David! And after He entered the house, the men who were blind came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done for you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows about this!” 31 But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout that land.”
This isn’t the first time nor the last time that Jesus performs a miracle and tells the healed person not to tell anyone, but they always seem to do it anyway. Perhaps this shows us that we do not obey God very well.
Why is Jesus saying not to tell anyone? There is a lot of speculation but one thing everyone can see is that His healings are drawing a lot of attention. Right after these now formerly blind guys were healed and left to spread the word throughout the land, a demon possessed man who was unable to speak was brought to Jesus. Jesus heals him, and his speech is restored. This amazes everyone and gets the attention of the pharisees who then accuse Jesus of casting “out the demons by the ruler of the Demons.”
But this doesn’t stop Jesus nor His followers. Verse 35 through 38 are the last for chapter 9 but really sets up what’s going on in the next chapter.
“Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.
Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Chapter breaks are a relatively recent addition to the text. There are actually quite a few of these instances throughout the Bible, and Matthew chapter 10 is another example. It continues on as if there weren’t a break there, showing what He means by this metaphor of the harvest. It starts:
“Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.”
Matthew 10:1
We then get a list of all the 12 disciples’ names, and continues:
“These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go on a road to Gentiles, and do not enter a city of Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.”
Matthew 10:5-8
Jesus then gives the disciples many more details to these instructions; what to wear and carry, and how to respond to the listeners if they reject the message of the Kingdom come. Jesus is instructing them to do and proclaim what He was just doing in Chapter 9.
Jesus goes on to tell that some people won’t just reject the message, but as they proclaim the message of the kingdom they will be turned over to the courts and flogged in the synagogues. Furthermore, as they are taken to the governors and kings, He tells them not to worry about what they will say because “it is the Spirit of your Father who is speaking in you.”
He then emphasizes how much they will be hated:
“Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
Matthew [10:21],22
He continues to give them encouragement not to fear, because The Father values them, and to keep confessing Jesus before everyone.
Then He makes the really controversial statements:
Matthew [10:34]-36
“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 turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a person’s enemies will be the members of his household.”
Setting aside the sword verse for just a second, we need to note that the end of this paragraph was essentially emphasizing what he said a few verses earlier– relatives hating each other “because of His name.” This is the detail and the context behind the peace that He is not bringing. There will not be peace between the Christian and those hostile to Christ.
Many of us have our own experiences with family feuding over faith. It’s a common story. Someone comes to faith and they become hated by the rest of their family or friends or their community. It plays out in areas that are predominately of another religious faith or a theocracy, but it also plays out in dining rooms of suburban neighborhoods. The peace Jesus is referring to here is a piece that is not possible between someone that is hostile to Christ and someone with faith in Christ. Now, this isn’t saying that an atheist and a Christian can’t be friends, or a Christian and a Muslim can’t be friendly. It may be hard to really pinpoint the nuance, but most people have been in those hostile situations where someone is actively opposed and hostile toward God, and then becomes hostile to the Christian. It’s something far from peaceful.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 8, verse 6 and 7:
“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,”
Romans 8:6,7
What Paul is saying in Romans 8 is a good explanation of what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 10, and what we experience in these conflicts.
Christ is confirmed through scripture as the Prince of Peace. In episode 47(link) we cited all the scripture that identifies Jesus as the Prince of Peace and exactly what that means. Does Jesus’ statement in Matthew 10 now negate all of this? In short, no, but that is the issue we are faced with. When we take Jesus’ statement of not bringing peace and use it to justify acts of initiating aggression or militaristic empire building, we are essentially ignoring and disregarding all of these other verses about Jesus being the Prince of Peace, or how a Christian should be peaceful. This is why context is so important. Not just context of one statement, or even one book, but context of all the books of the Bible together.
Defining The Sword of Jesus
So what is this sword?
Just like looking at the entirety of Jesus’ statement to figure out this peace vs un-peaceful nuance, we need to look at the context for the sword He is talking about.
There are several swords in Scripture. Depending on your preferred translation, the word “sword” appears around 400 times in the Bible and is used both literally and metaphorically. It’s important to keep the context straight so we do not get them mixed up and then butcher the point of the statement. A passage about a literal sword during a battle or a ceremonial sacrifice isn’t usually an issue. Assuming a literal sword when the context indicates a metaphorical one presents a major problem. We run into this in passages like Romans 13, and Isaiah 2. Are we dealing with a literal or a metaphorical sword?
In Romans 13 we see the sword representing God’s wrath through civil government. Isaiah 2 uses the sword to represent war and weapons of war. These symbolic swords of war become significant in John’s visions in the book of Revelations. Yes, there are literal swords in war and government, but this singular use of the ‘the sword” is metaphorical or symbolic.
So, what about the sword that Jesus brings in Matthew [10:34]? Judging by the context of Matthew 9 and 10, this is another symbolic sword. He’s not referring to a literal sword here. This “message of the Kingdom” is the sword. He lays out that it is the message of Christ, this Gospel, that is divisive. As its dividing parents from children, its cutting and splitting these relationships. This is why the sword is so prominent here.
Christ’s Sword in Hebrews
Hebrews chapter 4 is part of a multi chapter presentation of Christ as our Sabbath rest and has a thorough explanation of this sword.
This reference back to God’s Rest, and believing in Christ becomes the central focus to end Hebrews chapter 3 and starts chapter 4– The Sabbath, the promised land, Christ’s work, and listening with faith to the good news preached.
The epistle draws a parallel between the generation that God was angry with, that did not get to enter His rest because of their unbelief, and any of us today taking His rest in Christ. Verse 2 starts to really show this:
“For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united with those who listened with faith. For we who have believed enter that rest,”
Hebrews 4:2-3a
There are a few more verses connecting all the dots and explaining that:
“Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered (God’s) rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience.”
Hebrews 4: 9-11
Verse 12 makes the same argument Jesus makes in Matthew 10 by relating the preaching of the good news and its effects to a sword.
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to [e]judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrews [4:12]
The author of Hebrews understood what Christ was illustrating in Matthew 10 with the divisiveness of the good news preached and the judgment associated with the rejection of this message. In the verses just before Matthew [10:34] where He associates the message with a sword, Jesus says:
“Therefore, everyone who confesses Me before people, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before people, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew [10:32],33
In the book Law and Gospel, a compilation of lectures by CFW Walther, Walther reminds pastors In his 25th lecture:
“that Christ distinctly said, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.’ It is not as if the Lord takes pleasure in wars that remove peace… It is not as if He had come into the world to spawn dissension and discord among men. What He means to say is this, “My doctrine is such that, if it is properly proclaimed – in its thesis and antithesis – peace among people cannot possibly be preserved. For as soon as my Word is proclaimed, people will split into two camps. Some will receive it with joy; others will be offended by it and will begin to hate and persecute those who receive it.”
Jesus’ Sword in the Book of Revelation
We find Jesus’s Sword again in Chapter 19 of Revelation, but before we get there, let’s take a moment to clear up some stuff about how to approach it. Revelation is probably the most discussed, dissected and misinterpreted book in the Bible. We aren’t dissecting all the secrets of Revelation today, but we do need to establish the tone from the book. There are major theological and denominational camps that are established off of how we read the Book of Revelation, but for our purposes today, we will hit on some of the more widely agreed upon points.
One word that is commonly associated with Revelation is “apocalypse.” This is actually the Greek word used in the first verse and commonly translated as revelation. “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ” could also be called “This is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.”
The word apocalypse is almost exclusively used in modern context as the biggest cataclysmic destruction we can imagine– some event that means the literal end of the world, or at least something that will set back humanity’s progress or population to some sort of preindustrial, or perhaps prehistoric standards. Apocalypse however literally and simply means an unveiling or revealing. Our best illustration today might be in a wedding veil. An apocalypse, just like in the wedding ceremony, is removing the veil. And this is just the start for the symbolism, as you know this book is pretty much all symbolic, as the category of apocalyptic literature suggests.
The author, John (though there is some debate over which John he may be), writes this book that’s been divided into 22 chapters detailing a vision that he has while exiled on the island of Patmos. By the time we get to Chapter 19, we have already encountered a lot of the common thought-provoking imagery from Revelation. One image in particular is our focus today, and that is a reappearance of Jesus and His sword in a commonly referenced verse, like Matthew [10:34].
Revelation chapter 19, Verse 15 reads:
“From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will [e]rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the [f]wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”
Revelation [19:15]
There are some who use this verse to support literal, earthly warfare, because obviously Jesus ain’t no wimp and He’s gonna literally cut down everyone with a literal steel sword… right? When taken literally, we are left with this idea that Jesus’ sword is coming out of His mouth, as if his stomach is the sheath. By using the context we’ve gone over already, we can see that this is clearly symbolism. But what is that symbolism? What does it mean when the sword is associated with a mouth? It is symbolic of a message– a sharp and dividing message. And what is this message specifically? It’s the Gospel. It’s the message of the Kingdom come, and it’s the judgement for rejecting it like we saw in Matthew chapter 10.
This Revelation sword is mentioned in two other places within the book.
Revelation chapter 1 verse 16:
“In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and this face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
Revelation [1:16]
And in chapter 2 verse 12-
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.’”
Revelation [2:12]
In his commentary on Revelation, Louis A. Brighton shows the correlation to all three revelation swords when he writes,
“The ‘sharp sword’ which come out of the mouth of the Son of Man([19:15]) is reminiscent of His appearance in [1:16], but there the sword was to chastise the impenitent, for in [2:12]-17, (the letter to Pergamum) the sword out of Christ’s mouth ([2:12]) was for such a stated purpose ([2:16]). Here is [19:15] Christ’s purpose is to wield His sword against those outside the church, for the Son of Man comes ‘to strike the Pagan nations’ ([19:15]). His sword represents the deadly power of the word of judgement that issues from his mouth, as in Isaiah 11:4, where the Branch (Isaiah 11:1) will “strike the earth with the Rod of His mouth” and this will kill the wicked. He earned the right to wield the sword of Justice and judgement because He himself was struck but the word of God’s justice and judgement against the world’s sin in order to deliver the people from such a sword (see e.g., Zechariah 13:7-9).”
Here we see the striking down of the nations is from the spoken word rather than a literal sword. But that’s crazy right? You can’t strike down nations with a spoken word, can you? You can, and This imagery of a spoken word being a sword is not isolated to these couple verses about the Gospel in the New Testament.
Jesus’ Sword in the Old Testament
The Old Testament is literal history, but it is also full of what we call types and shadows, archetypes and foreshadows that are meant to point us to Christ.
In the book of Joshua, Chapter 6, we have the Battle of Jericho, which is the most recognizable event that shows God’s people conquering through their voice. The chapter starts with the Lord telling Joshua that He has handed over Jericho to him, along with its king and warriors. He then instructs Joshua to walk around the city once a day for 6 days, and on the seventh day to walk around the city seven times. At the conclusion of the seventh trip around Jericho on the seventh day, the priests were to blow the trumpets and all of God’s people were to give a great shout and the walls would fall down flat.
Needless to say, Joshua and all of the people did as they were instructed and the walls came down. After that they took the city, and as verse 21 says, “They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.”
The conquests of Israel in the Old Testament can be controversial, but regardless of where you fall on that, there is an interesting parallel here between what we see in Joshua and what we read in Revelation. Revelation 19 says Jesus will strike down all the nations, where Joshua 6 shows Joshua striking down this city, both by the weapon of their voice. And both names being essentially the same thing; Jesus, or Yeshua, and Joshua. These are the sort of things that Jesus was giving in his bible study to His disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. All of these Old Testament stories are pointing us to Him. This is how we understand these stories, or revelations of Christ.
It is difficult to ignore Jesus always turning things on their heads for us: the last shall be first, hatred is the same as murder, a servant king. The list goes on, but this is the point that all of these verses and examples are getting at; where the Old Testament used a physical temple, an ethnic people, and law on stone, in the New Covenant we see a temple in ourselves, a people of faith, and a law on our hearts. Likewise, we see the war and conquests of God’s people in the old covenants, but in the New Covenant we see individuals and nations brought down by the preaching of the Gospel. This is Christ’s sword. He isn’t pulling a physical sword from His mouth like a circus performer. His very words spiritually divide and destroy.
Similar to Joshua, 1 Samual 4 shows the power of God’s people shouting in association with facing their enemies. In verse 5, We read that the Philistines knew that the Lord was with the Israelites because, “When the ark of the covenant of the LORD entered the camp, all the Israelites raised such a great shout that it shook the ground.”
As was mentioned earlier, In Isaiah 11:4, “and He (the Messiah) will strike the earth with a rod of His mouth.” Later in Isaiah chapter 49 verse 2, The prophet Isaiah includes this imagery with a call to the listeners to pay attention and listen to his message from God, because, “He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,”
Proverbs [12:18] continues this imagery with,
“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
A Final Word…or Sword
Despite all of the scriptural support for the metaphorical use of Jesus’ sword in Matthew and Revelation, many Christians (both familiar and unfamiliar with the text) confuse it with a literal sword of steel. And it’s no wonder as this is an understanding that has been taught for generations in the church, especially in the United States. Throughout the history of the US the Bible has been used to bolster American conquest domestically and empire building abroad. Passages like those we addressed today have been used to sell a militaristic Jesus for the benefit of the military industrial complex. After the verses are accepted as such, they keep getting passed down within the church for generations. In modern America, literal sword-wielding Jesus is not even questioned. This is nothing new at all though. In fact, the United States is making a very old, even ancient mistake.
In a fantastic sermon on Romans [11:26], Martyn Lloyd Jones makes a considerable observation:
“The Jews rejected the Lord Jesus Christ when He came because of their carnal ideas of Israel, because of their nationalistic ideas, because He didn’t come and set Himself up as King. Because they were bound by these political, national, and social ideas, they didn’t recognize the spiritual truth; and they rejected Him. ‘Is that going to happen again,’ I wonder. And are there some of God’s people that are falling into the same trap and the same error, of materializing and thinking in terms of the nation…”
Do we really think Jesus was talking about all these literal and temporal swords when so much of His message is about His Kingdom being “not of this world”?
In Ephesians we are given an important reminder of what a Christian is battling and what they have for defense and fighting back. Paul writes in Chapter 6 encouraging Christians to be strong in the Lord, and put on the full armor of God. In verse 12 we understand who we are being strong against:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians [6:12]
And what is this Armor of God? Verse 14 through 17 tells us:
“Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians [6:14]-17
And there we have it again – the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
How unfortunate that today the Armor of God verses seem to point to literal and temporal weapons. In everything from memes to Hobby Lobby decorations it’s being used to point us to tools of unthinkable violence, special ops gear, or modern warfare. And now Christians are imaging themselves as Spartans or Hoplites. Christians don black ops gear rather than the Word of God. These verses are being flipped from the original intent. The sword of Christ was never intended to point us to literal warfare or soldiering, but to arm us with a meaningful and emboldening metaphor for our faith and God’s Kingdom message.
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This preceding article is a transcript from The AnarchoChristian Podcast Episode 88, Jesus’ Sword
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