Not peace, but a sword

 

Image: Remnants of an AD fifth century Roman iron sword, found in a soldier's grave in Greece. 

Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 10:32-39.

Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).

Knowing Christ can cause all kinds of problems in your life. Knowing Christ can really tear to pieces what had been a tranquil and peaceful life. Before coming to Christ you didn’t worry about your sin. You didn’t worry about how you lived. You didn’t worry about how you treated others. You didn’t worry about pleasing God. Then you meet Christ, and he begins to change everything.

When we were in London at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, I sat in a doctrine class taught by assistant Pastor Ibrahim. After the class he was telling me how he had come from Mali, in Africa. He said, As a Muslim, I used to burn the Word of God. Then, he continued, the Word of God burned a hole in my heart. He was converted and called to the ministry, and it disrupted and threatened his whole life, so that eventually he had to leave behind his homeland.

Maybe your experience will not be that dramatic, but every true Christian worth his salt will experience times when the sword falls upon his life, because of his knowing Christ.

Christ calls special attention to the tensions that can arise in one’s family (vv. 35). If you become a believer and your family members are unbelievers, they may oppose you. Earlier Christ had prophesied that the apostles would suffer persecution even to death from their family members (see v. 21).

Christ caps off the teaching in v. 36. Noting that for the cause of Christ the very ones who should bring us the most comfort and security, our own household, may well become our foes and our enemies, opposing us in our obedience to Christ.

Spurgeon commented on this passage: “The coming of Christ into a house is often the cause of variance.... The more loving the Christian is, the more he may be opposed: love creates a tender zeal for the salvation of friends, and that very zeal frequently calls forth resentment.” He added, “Even if our house becomes a den of lions to us, we must stand up for the Lord."

In salvation, Christ does indeed bring us “peace with God” (Romans 5:1). In the midst of our day-to-day lives, he also grants us “peace that passeth understanding” (Philippians 4:7). And yet he also brings a sword.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.24.21): The Humiliation of Jesus Christ

 

Image: Roses, North Garden, Virginia, September 2021

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon in our afternoon series on the Apostles' Creed.

Philippians 2:8: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

When the godly men of old who compiled the Reformed confessions and catechisms discussed the incarnational ministry of Christ, they generally spoke of it as coming in two “states” or circumstances: his state of humiliation and his state of exaltation.

Consider Spurgeon’s Baptist Catechism:

Q. 26: Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?

A: Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Q. 27: Wherein consists Christ’s exaltation?

A: Christ’s exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

The second of six subsections in the Apostles’ Creed addressing the second person of the Godhead (following, “And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord”), notes six Biblical facts about the incarnation of Christ, all related to his “humiliation” (numbers added):

Who was (1) conceived by the Holy Ghost, (2) born of the Virgin Mary, (3) suffered under Pontius Pilate, was (4) crucified, (5) dead, and (6) buried.

The believer is one who discovers that God had done something for him in the Lord Jesus that he cannot begin to fathom. The second person of the eternal Godhead entered into a state of humiliation for us.

We could not ascend to him; he had to condescend to us.

He entered the womb; he was born; he suffered; he was crucified; he died; he was buried.

Here’s another way Paul put it: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

The believer is one who affirms this truth and stands before it with wonder, admiration, awe, and gratitude.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.17.21): Lord, save us: we perish

 

And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish (Matthew 8:25).

In Matthew’s account of Christ in the tempest in Matthew 8:23-27, we have the setting (v. 23), the crisis (v. 24), the appeal (v. 25), the intervention (v. 26), and the reaction (v. 27).

Let’s examine the appeal of the disciples, which begins “And his disciples came to him, and awoke him….” (v. 25a).

This is a reminder that the disciples of Christ can always come to their Master in the times of their distress. In Matthew 28:11 Christ will say to his followers: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” We must not hesitate to come to him.

Notice the petition or prayer that the disciples offer. This is a model prayer for the individual who is seeking salvation from the Lord. It is also a model corporate prayer for the church, as it cries out for the Lord to deliver his flock from trouble.

The petition has two parts:

First, there is crying out to God for salvation: “Lord, save us.”

Later in Matthew 14, Christ will come walking to the disciples on the sea and invite Peter to come and walk to him. As fear grips Peter, he will cry out, “Lord save me” (14:30).

Peter had an individual prayer for salvation. Here, it is all the disciples petitioning Christ for their collective salvation. There is no more fundamental prayer for the disciple or church. Lord save me. Lord save us.

Second, there is an acknowledgement of the state of their need: “we perish.”

This is a declaration of the believer’s state apart from Christ. We are perishing. The same verb appears in the classic verse John 3:16 when it says, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Why are we perishing? Because the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

If you doubt that we are perishing, go and look at some old photographs. Go to your class reunion and wonder where all these old people came from. You’re still the same age (at least in your mind!). The truth is we are all perishing. The Puritan era preacher Richard Baxter famously said that he preached as a dying man to dying men.

Christ, however, is with us in the tempest. And we can call on him. Do you have trouble knowing how or what to pray? Let me offer a suggestion. Take the words of the disciples and use them. Say them over and over again, till they become like your breath: “Lord save us: we perish.” And see if Christ will not arise and rebuke the winds and the sea and give to you a mega calm.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (7.30.21): Enter ye in at the strait gate

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 7:13-14.

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

This teaching is a parable. The two ways are those of unbelief and of faith, the ways of ignorance and of knowledge, the ways of falsehood and of truth, the ways of death and of life.

The way of unbelief seems wide and easy, while the way of faith seems narrow and hard. The problem is that in this life we do not see the end. We do not see the destination. The great faith chapter begins, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). Christ reveals here, however, that one way leads to destruction and the other to life.

The way of unbelief requires no creed, no confession of faith, and no ethical code of conduct. It promises wide latitude and freedom. It asks nothing of you but whatever you want.

The alternative is a strait gate. You must confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. You must believe, as Christ declared, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father but by him (John 14:6). There is salvation in none other: for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Some have called this the “scandal of particularity.”

Once through the gate, the path is also narrow. Christ calls upon any man who comes after him to deny himself, to take up his cross daily, and to follow him (Luke 9:23). Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ will find it (Luke 9:24).

Remember the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-24). When Christ demanded he enter the strait gate and walk the narrow way, he went away sad because he had much (v. 22). Christ added that it is hard (but not impossible) for a rich man to go through the needle’s eye (v. 24).

Christ is describing here the way of faith (the gate) and the way discipleship (the way).

This teaching is about discerning one’s way in life, but it is really about obedience. Our all-wise Teacher, our all-competent Guide, stands at the crossroads and tells us which way to go: “Enter ye in at the strait gate.” The question is whether we will obey him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (7.23.21): Five Observations on the Golden Rule

 

Image: Saturday morning hike at 2021 Youth Conference, Louisa, Virginia

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 7:12 (audio not yet available).

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).

This verse contains one of the best-known teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, popularly known as the “Golden Rule.” One commentator traced the first usage of this term to an English philosopher named Charles Gibbon at the beginning of the seventeenth century (see Alfeyev, The Sermon on the Mount, 359, n. 1). This same scholar describes the Golden Rule as “one of the fundamental moral reference points in Christian ethics” (Alfeyev, 362).

Notice at least five things about this teaching:

First, notice the context. The Golden Rule comes just after Christ’s teaching on petitionary prayer (vv. 7-11). 7:12 begins with the word “therefore”, which means, in light of what has just been said.

How is it connected to the previous teaching on prayer? Perhaps Christ especially wanted his disciples to keep this principle in mind when they were praying for others, even for their enemies (Matt 5:44).

Second, consider the scope of Christ’s command: “Therefore all things…”

What are the kinds of things we should do for others, as we would have them to do to us? All things.

Third, consider the object of Christ’s command: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you….”

The word “men” here in Greek is anthropoi, the basic term for a fellow human being, someone made in the image of God, whether he be friend or foe, Jew or Gentile, male or female, believer or pagan. It’s not a narrow, particular, or exclusive term. It is an expansive, universal, and inclusive term.

The Golden Rule is thus parallel to Christ’s teaching in the Great Commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt 22:39).

Fourth, notice the reciprocal nature of this teaching.

Just as the heart of the horizontal teaching in the Great Commandment is love your neighbor as yourself, so the positive reciprocal nature of the Golden Rule is that disciples should treat others, as they themselves would wish or want to be treated.

Fifth, consider the uniqueness of Christ’s teaching.

Some might tell you that some form of the Golden Rule is taught in the ethics of other world religions or philosophical traditions. That is not, in fact, the case. In a few places (from The Analects of Confucius to the apocryphal Jewish book of Tobit one finds a crude “negative” form of the Golden Rule that says something like, “Don’t do to others, what you do not want them to do to you.”), but in no other teacher do you find the positive version of the rule being given: As you would have other do to you, do to them.

It is that positive element that is crucial. Christ taught not merely that we avoid doing what is wrong, but that we do what is right.

As followers of Christ, we should strive not only for orthodoxy but also for orthopraxy. This includes adhering to Christ’s “Golden Rule.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.7.21): Resist Not Evil

 

Image: Iris, North Garden, Virginia, May 2021

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 5:38-42.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also (Matthew 5:38-39).

I recently ran across a commentator who observed, “The world would be different today if Jesus had never delivered his Sermon on the Mount…” (Hilarion Alfeyev, The Sermon on the Mount, 175). Indeed, Christ’s words changed lives, and they changed hearts, and they are still doing so today.

In this passage Christ presents his teaching on non-retaliation against evil-doers. Some of the teaching here has become idiomatic in our language. We talk about turning the other cheek or going the extra mile.

Christ’s words here have probably done more to promote peace among individual men and to forestall violence and the exactment of revenge than any other words spoken by any man in human history. That’s what the commentator meant when he said that the world would be different today if the Lord Jesus had never delivered this sermon.

The “eye for an eye” teaching is found in at least three places in the OT (Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:17-20; Deut 19:19-21). Interestingly enough, this is one of the few passages from the Bible that was picked up and used in the Koran. In Surah 5:45 it reads “A life for life, and eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds retaliation” (Arberry translation). The underlying principle is that the person who injures another should be penalized for his misdeed to a degree proportional to the injury he has done.

This teaching is often wrongly seen as barbaric. Gandhi, for example, famously said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth only makes the world blind and toothless! But Gandhi missed this point. This law is, in fact, gracious. It is meant to limit the level of retaliation and demand that it be proportional to the crimes committed.

It provides a limit to the sinful inclination of sinful men. Before this law, men might have said: If you knock out my tooth I’ll knock out your tooth, and I’ll gouge out your eye, and I will burn down your house, and I will kill all your livestock, and then slaughter your children before your eyes, etc. See how this law was in fact good in that it limited sinful levels of disproportional retaliation. Paul said, “the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully” (1 Tim 1:8).

Christ, however, demands even more from his disciples than it seems they can possibly give: “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil” (Matt 5:39a). The point is that when the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is attacked or pressed by one who has evil intentions against him, he is not to feel that his well-being and defense depends on what he is able to do for himself.

The apostle Paul will later pick up on this theme in Romans 12 when he says things like, “Recompense to no man evil for evil” (v. 17a), “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath” (v. 19a), and “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (v. 21).

This is a call for more than we, in the flesh, are capable of doing. Christ, however, has provided us an example, especially in his passion. He endured with silence his affliction and when stricken he turned the other cheek.  He prayed for the ones who crucified him (Luke 23:24).

In the end, then, the thing we find most baffling is not the stringency or the strangeness of the ethic Christ demands from us, but the realization of what he did for us, when we evil-doers were yet sinners. He laid down his life for us!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.30.21): Swear not at all

 

Image: Azalea flowers, North Garden, Virginia, April 2021

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 5:33-37.

But I say unto you, Swear not at all… (Matthew 5:34a).

The higher law of Christ begins in v. 34a: “But I say unto you, Swear not at all….” After this general admonition against ungodly swearing, Christ offers four exemplary things by which one is not to swear: by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem, and by thy head (vv. 34b-36).

Does Christ offer here a complete prohibition against swearing any oath (a promise made to man before God as witness) or making any vow (a promise made directly to God)?

If this were the case, then Christ would not have affirmed passages in the Old Testament that call for faithfulness in keeping one’s word, like Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:2, and Deuteronomy 23:21-23 (see Matt 5:33), but he would be doing away with them completely. This would not fit with what Christ said about his coming not to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17).

We can even find references in the NT to God himself making vows to men of old, like Abraham (see Hebrews 6:13-17) and David (see Acts 2:30). If God himself swears such oaths, it is not unlawful for men to make such promises.

Christ then does not here prohibit making such oaths, but he condemns those who make them in a false and deceptive manner, seeking loopholes to justify the breaking of their word. Rather than speaking forthrightly and calling God for their witness, they had instead swore by things other than God. So, they said, I swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne, etc. See Christ’s condemnation of such “blind guides” in Matthew 23:16-22.

Here are the comments on this passage found in the notes of one popular Study Bible that I think gets it right:

“This should not be taken as a universal condemnation of oaths in all circumstances…. What Christ is forbidding here is the flippant, profane, or careless use of oaths in everyday speech. In that culture, such oaths were often employed for deceptive purposes. To make the person being victimized believe the truth was being told, the Jews would swear by ‘heaven,’ ‘earth,’ ‘Jerusalem,’ or their own ‘heads’ (vv. 34-36), not by God, hoping to avoid divine judgment for their lie” (MacArthur Study Bible).

This fits with what we read on the Puritan Matthew Poole’s interpretation:

“We must consider that our Saviour is here opposing himself to the corruptions of that age brought in by the Pharisees, who has taught people that swearing was nothing if they did not foreswear themselves…. [forbearing] the name of God.”

Christ, with all the righteous indignation of the prophets of old, is condemning in this passage those who make vows before God deceptively and hypocritically, never intending to keep their word, to pay the vow which they have made.

We are not to be double-mind men, unstable in all our ways (James 1:8). We are instead to speak clearly and truly, and then stand by what we have promised without wavering, whether that be a commitment to a spouse in marriage, a commitment to covenant church membership in a local church, ordination to church office, or, most importantly, the commitment to follow Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle