57 Why Jesus Brought a Sword (Matthew 10:34-39)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is the 57th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew. We're going to be studying Matthew chapter 10, verses 34 through 39. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, and you can go to them directly at wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 5.7. Thanks for listening today. Well, we are still in chapter 10 of the book of Matthew. We're looking at the instructions which Jesus gave to the 12 the first time he sent them out to preach to the cities of Israel. As we've talked about, Jesus is sending out the disciples to the cities of Israel to do exactly what he has been doing. Jesus has been healing people of all kinds of diseases and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven is near, and that's what he commissions the twelve to do. Matthew took great pains to explain that Jesus had the authority to do these things, and now we see Jesus giving the disciples the authority to do the same things. And this is the beginning of the process by which the twelve become his apostles. This journey is an important step in their training to become his representatives when he leaves after the resurrection. He tells them not to take provisions and not to charge for their preaching, so that they will be dependent on the people in the towns where they're going. If they face hostility in a town, they're to leave it. And Jesus has set up a kind of test for both the people of Israel and the twelve. The people in the towns of Israel must decide how they are going to respond to the message of Jesus and whether or not they will believe He's the Messiah. And the twelve must decide to be faithful even when the people reject them. Ultimately they are going to be speaking before Gentiles, but for now they're to remain in the cities of Israel. And Jesus has warned them to expect rejection and persecution, and yet he has reminded them that their fate is in God's hands. Even if their human enemies kill them, God has the power to grant them eternal life. And if they're faithful to God, then they will find life in the kingdom of God. But if they're more afraid of their enemies than God and deny Jesus out of that fear, then they will lose the favor of God and the place in His kingdom. And Jesus is going to continue that theme of hostility today. Let's start with chapter ten verses thirty-four through thirty-six. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword, for I have come 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 person's enemies will be those of his own household. Well, this language has become familiar to us today as we've read Matthew over and over, but let's stop and think about how strange it must have sounded to the twelve. First, let's talk about this idea I did not come to bring peace but a sword. That's not the kind of thing that you would expect a Jewish rabbi to say. Maybe a general would say it in the time of war, but not a teacher of the Old Testament. And if you think about the context of who is speaking, it becomes even more shocking. The Messiah didn't come to bring peace, really. One of the huge themes of the Old Testament is that the Messiah will come and bring peace on earth. Let me give you some examples. This is Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. There I think Isaiah is giving us a prediction of the long-awaited Messiah, and he says he will be the Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. Or how about this one from Micah chapter four, verses one through five? And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away. They shall beat their swords into plough shears and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk each in the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. Alright, here we have this passage talking about the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, and when he reigns from Jerusalem, he is going to establish peace over all the earth, and they will hammer their swords into ploughshares. And yet here in Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples, Do not think I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. That has got to be shocking to the twelve at this point. This is not the kind of thing they would expect the Messiah to say. Now I would argue that Jesus knows exactly what he's doing. He knows he's the Messiah, and he has not forgotten what the Old Testament prophets said. Further, I think he expects the Twelve to know the Old Testament background and to be familiar with these passages in Micah and Isaiah. I think he has something specific in mind in this context. This language about setting family members against each other is an allusion to the Old Testament. It's language we find there. Jesus isn't making it up. He is quoting language from Micah chapter 7. I suspect that he expects his listeners to know and be familiar with the prophet Micah and bring that understanding to his statement. So I'm going to argue to understand him we need to familiarize ourselves with Micah too. Micah was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. This is after the time of the United Kingdom under David and Solomon. The Jewish people have split into two separate kingdoms with separate kings. The northern kingdom was called Israel and had its own temple. Micah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah, which contained Jerusalem and the throne of David. He prophesied during the reigns of Jotham, who was a good king, Ahaz, who was a very wicked king, and then Hezekiah, who was among the best of the southern kings. Micah prophesies against ungodliness in both the northern and the southern kingdoms. He proclaims the upcoming judgment that God is bringing, and during the reign of Hezekiah, the Assyrians are going to come and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel and take them into captivity, but the southern kingdom where Micah is is going to survive that attack of the Assyrians. At the same time that Micah proclaims God's judgment on the widespread ungodliness of the people of both kingdoms, he looks ahead to the time when God will forgive a remnant of his people and establish his rule over all the earth. And I just read you one of those in chapter four, but there's another famous passage in Micah that speaks to that future. This is chapter five, verses two through five. But you, O Bethlehem of Pathrah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth from me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth, then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be their peace. So Bethlehem is the city of David. Micah tells us Bethlehem will be the source of this one who is going to rule and reestablish the Davidic throne. I think this is a messianic prediction that a descendant of David will come and rule over all the earth. Like many of the prophets, Micah goes back and forth between passages which proclaim judgment on sin and passages proclaiming the salvation to be brought by the Messiah. This switching back and forth between two themes, like that of judgment and promise, is very common in the prophets. In Micah 7, Micah is back to this theme of judgment. He pictures himself like a fruit picker who can't find any ripe fruit, and of course he's being metaphorical. The fruit he's looking for is righteousness among the people. This is Micah chapter seven. I'm going to start in verse one. Woe is me, for I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned, there is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires. The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind. They all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts with the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil to do it well, the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul, thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchman, of your punishment has come, now their confusion is at hand. And then this is the part that I think Jesus is alluding to. This is Micah chapter seven verses five through seven. Put no trust in a neighbor, have no confidence in a friend, guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms, for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house, but as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. So Micah looks across the land, and all he sees is unrighteousness. The godly have perished, those that remain seek to murder each other. Both the princes and the judges are corrupt and seek bribes. Everyone speaks the evil desires of their souls. And Micah warns that the people are so corrupt and so hostile to the will of God that they are not to be trusted. Even the closest human relationships are not to be trusted. Neighbor, friend, spouse, son, daughter, and the members of your own household, these relationships mean nothing anymore. Normally these are the people we count on. These are the people we trust most to be on our side, our spouses, our parents, our children, our friends, and so forth. But at this time, the people are so evil and so hostile to the will of God and so unwilling to act justly that Micah's saying, you can't even count on those close human relationships. However, there is someone you can trust, and that's who Micah's trusting. He's looking to the Lord and waits expectantly for the God of his salvation. And then Micah ends his book by calling on God to shepherd his people through the Messiah. This is how he closes. This is Micah 7, 18 through 20. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, but he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us, he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. That is a very brief look at Micah, but I think it's enough to help us figure out how this relates to what Jesus is doing in sending the twelve. I expect that the Pharisees and the Jews of the day probably took these passages in a fairly simple and straightforward way. The children of Israel committed sins in the past. At one point, their sins were so great that even a person's closest relationships were not to be trusted, as Micah describes. But when the Messiah comes, he will forgive their sins and establish peace throughout his kingdom. What's obvious to us 2,000 years later is that it's a little bit more complicated than that. Jesus has been making this point that their expectations are not going to be met just yet. One day Jesus, the Messiah, will establish peace on earth and will bring in the fullness of God's kingdom, forgiving his people and conquering even death itself, but not yet. Jesus is the Messiah, he will bring peace and forgiveness and restoration to his people, but there's more to the plan. There are some other events that have to unfold first. Remember, Matthew described the message of Jesus as repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The king of the kingdom, the Messiah has come, and it's time to repent. Matthew did not summarize the message of Jesus as the kingdom of heaven is here now, let the good times roll. That wasn't the situation. The first coming of the Messiah calls for a decision. It requires a response. People have to decide whether or not they will believe this message. With his first coming, Jesus brings mankind to a place of greater clarity and decision. His teaching, his healing, his sacrificial death and resurrection gave us a much clearer picture of the truth and the plan of God. The coming of Jesus, among other things, was the greatest, strongest declaration of the plan of God that we've ever seen. As the author of Hebrews said, before God spoke through the prophets, now he speaks through his son. And the message from his son is much more clear and direct than we've heard before. As we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, now we have the King of the Kingdom Himself telling us what it takes to enter his kingdom. The teachings he gave, the miracles he performed, all of that clarifies the plans and purposes of God. But this clarifying message alienates father and son, daughter and mother, husband and wife, and so forth, because this message calls for a clear response. Not everyone is going to respond the same way. Members of the same family will respond differently, and that's going to produce strife and conflict. In that sense, Jesus did not come to bring peace but a sword. One day, Jesus will come to conquer and judge and restore all things, but this time in his first coming, he came to confront us with a choice. And our lives now are all about making this choice, either to reject or embrace the teachings of Jesus. At this point in the plan, Jesus has not yet come to bring peace. The confrontational message of the gospel cannot bring peace in this age because by its very nature it draws some and repels others. I don't think that Jesus is making big political statements about the unity of the church or the nature of war or the division of the human race or something like that. I think he's saying something very simple. He's here now to confront us with a choice. His teachings, his healings, his death on the cross, his resurrection require a response. And not everyone's going to respond the same way, and that's going to cause strife. Now, if I'm right about that, by using the words from Micah, Jesus is saying that he's going to provoke the same kind of hostility that people showed at the time when God judged the northern and the southern kingdoms. There's a similarity between how the children of Israel responded to the prophets then and how they're going to respond to Jesus now. In Micah's time, the people as a whole were so hostile to God that you couldn't even trust your own family members. Likewise, Jesus has come to proclaim a message that is going to divide people, and it is so divisive that it will break even the closest family ties. So by quoting these words, I think Jesus is saying, right now you're going to see the same sort of thing Micah saw. Remember, Jesus is saying these words to the twelve, the people he's charging with proclaiming the gospel to the cities of Israel and possibly suffering from their hostility. That warning that Micah gave about not even trusting your closest family members, Jesus is saying, I have to give you that same warning now, because the message I'm sending you out to proclaim is the kind of message that once again will divide even family members. Ultimately, the significance of these words expands out to all his followers, both Jew and Gentile. Jesus calls everyone to repent and believe the gospel. Some by the grace of God are open to that message, and some are hostile to it. By embracing that message, we face the possibility of rejection and persecution by those who reject the gospel, including members of our own families. This message confronts us then with a choice to persevere or not, and that's where he goes next. Let's look at 37 through 39. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me, and whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Okay, first let's talk about this word love and what love means in this context. As you probably know, the word love is used a variety of ways in Scripture. Sometimes Jesus uses words like love and hate to talk about our choices and our values. For example, back in the Sermon on the Mount, he said we can't serve two masters, we will love one and hate the other. There, he wasn't talking about how you feel warm, fuzzy feelings for one of them while the other one makes you sick to your stomach. He's talking about which one we give priority, which one we value more, which one we will choose to obey. When the instructions of the two masters conflict, which one will you obey and which one will you disobey? If you love your life, that is what you want to keep above everything else. To love your life is not that your life causes you affectionate feelings or joy. Rather, it's what you would choose. In a dangerous situation, you will choose to preserve your life no matter what else it costs. When he says hating your family members and hating your own life, Jesus is using this striking phrase to get our attention. I don't think he means you have to be hostile and vicious toward your family members or try to hurt yourself or anything like that. In this context, the thing that you love is the thing that you hold on to, and the thing that you hate is the thing that you let go of. That's the kind of imagery he's using. Here, to love your parents more than Jesus means that you care more about. Preserving your relationship with your parents than about preserving your relationship with Jesus. In a similar passage in Luke 14, Jesus uses similar language about hating your father and mother to make the same kind of point. He's talking about what you love and what you hate in the sense of what do you give most value to? What do you worship? Where will you place your loyalty when you have to make a choice? If my mother won't follow me in this journey of faith and she threatens to disown me unless I deny Jesus, I need to be willing to follow Jesus and lose my mother. And in fact, in my life, that's a choice I had to make. I had to say to my mother, I'm sorry, the gospel is too important. I'm staking my life on the gospel, even if it breaks our relationship. My mother may feel like I'm treating her hatefully. She may call me foolish and complain about the way I'm treating her, but I'm not acting hatefully, even though it might feel that way to my family members. It's not that Jesus is telling us to treat them badly. We are to act lovingly toward them and treat them with compassion. But we are also to stand firm in the gospel, even if they find that gospel offensive. Now, for most of us, family is a place of security. When a family works well, being within the acceptance of a family group is one of the most secure places we humans can find. And Jesus is saying, I'm asking you for a loyalty that goes beyond that family group. I'm offering you a security that is better than the security of a close family. Ultimately, belonging to Jesus and obeying him has to mean more to me than belonging to my family and obeying them. Jesus is saying, you can't be my disciple and love your family more than me. If you're going to keep following me, when those you love most reject you, you have to be willing to take it. If you are in a situation where your family is forcing you to choose between them and following me, Jesus, then you have to decide which one you love more, which relationship means more to you. So I think that's what he means here by love and hate. Now we should also talk about this word worthy, which appears in 1037. If you're Protestant or Reformed, this word worthy sounds kind of strange because we know Jesus does not accept us because we proved ourselves worthy in some way. So what's going on here? If I were to say you're not worthy of me, to our modern ears today, you would probably understand me to be saying that you're not good enough for me. You've not reached the level of excellence that I demand or earned the right to be my friend, something like that. As I understand it, that is not the sense of this word. Jesus would not say a thing like that, and hopefully I wouldn't either. I think the sense of this word is you are not acting in a way that is in keeping with being my disciple. And sometimes we use the word worthy in this way when we're talking about someone who's acting inappropriately. For example, if I recorded these podcasts while I was, say, drunk or unprepared or something like that, you might say to me, Look, you're not acting in a way that is worthy of a Bible teacher. Meaning, my behavior is not appropriate for the role that I have. And I think that's the sense of what Jesus is saying here. I'd paraphrase it as, you are not acting like a true disciple of mine if you care more about maintaining your family relationships than about following me. I think that's the sense of it. And remember, the whole context here is hostility. The context is he came to bring a sword. What are you going to do when you identify with Jesus and those closest to you, like your parents or your children, reject you? Who are you going to choose? Now that hostility can be costly and dangerous. Look at 1038. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. So let's talk about what he means by taking up your cross. People today often use this language of picking up your cross as being willing to do something that you hate. And people use this language to talk about a way of denying yourself something. For example, suppose I hate childcare, but the church needs extra volunteers with the kids on Sunday morning. I might say, Well, I ought to take up my cross, deny myself, and go volunteer. And we tend to use the language in that kind of light or that kind of meaning. Or if I'm struck with some kind of long-term illness, I might say to other Christians, well, this is just my cross to bear. So we use this language to refer to any kind of suffering we might endure or anything we have to do that we don't want to do. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. I am quite confident that he means something very different. Remember, the entire context is the kind of hostility the disciples of Jesus are going to face. Now let's think about this language. A cross is not something you use to commit suicide. A cross is something that somebody else nails you to. The cross was an instrument of execution. You can't commit suicide with a cross. If you're carrying your cross, it's because the powers that be want you dead and you are on your way to your execution. Now Jesus has not yet faced the cross, but his disciples all knew what a cross was. If the Romans found you guilty of a crime worthy of capital punishment, they would nail you to a cross and leave you there until you died. And all the crowds following Jesus would have been familiar with the scene of a condemned criminal carrying his cross to the place of execution. It seems to me that carrying your cross is the willingness to accept the rejection and persecution of everyone else. Now remember the context. He is speaking to the twelve at this point. We know from history that the twelve faced the very real possibility of death, sometimes almost daily, when they went out into the world after the resurrection and the ascension. Scripture records the deaths of only two of the apostles, James the son of Zebedee and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus. Most of what we know about the deaths of the other apostles come from early Christian writers and church tradition. Most scholars think that the apostle John was the only one who died of natural causes. All the others were executed or martyred in some way. This journey Jesus is sending them on is the first step in their training for that future role. True, being an apostle is a great honor, but it was also very dangerous. They all faced the issue of whether or not they would follow Jesus, even if it meant they were going to be executed. Now we know from history they did choose to follow Jesus in the face of great suffering. The apostles took up their metaphorical crosses, which in some cases were also literal crosses. Jesus ends by explaining why anyone would want to pick up their cross and follow him. 1039, whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Now each of us is looking for life. Each of us is looking for that which gives us real life and makes this physical existence worth living. Each of us is looking for that thing which will give us real and lasting satisfaction. Maybe we think we'll find it if we quit our desk job and go to art school, or maybe we think we'll find it in marriage and raising children. At this point in my life, I'm thinking grandchildren come pretty close. However, Jesus claims and scripture teaches that it is impossible to find life in this present age because this age is corrupted with sin and death and futility. Nothing in this life can provide the kind of satisfaction and fulfillment that we all crave. If you find your life now in this world, it means you stopped looking too soon. You settled for the wrong thing. You ignored the promise of eternal life in the kingdom of God and settled for whatever satisfactions and joys this life can bring now. But if you do that, if you reject the promises of the gospel for the riches of this world, you will end up losing your life in eternity. Not only can nothing in this world truly satisfy you, you can't keep it either. There isn't a single thing that this world has to offer that you can keep after you die. In the end, you're going to face a great loss. But we have another option. We can choose to follow Jesus and believe his promises. When we do that, we are willing to give up the treasures of this world to gain eternal life in the kingdom of God. We might even be called to die and lose our physical life now, but if we follow Jesus, we will gain life in his kingdom. So if we are willing to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, because nothing that this world can take from me will give me eternal life. When we hear about Jesus and His promises, we can go two ways. We can say, no, this is this life, this is the thing I'm betting on to truly give me satisfaction and security and blessing. In which case we will lose the true satisfaction and blessing of the life to come. Or we can say, you know what? Jesus is right. This life cannot satisfy me the way eternal life in the kingdom of God can. So in spite of whatever I lose here, I will follow Jesus and ultimately I will inherit life in the kingdom of God, even if it means losing my earthly life now. So he's saying, look, do you want to be my disciple? As my disciple, you have to be willing to follow me, even if it means you die. But don't be afraid of that. Don't fear those who can kill the body. In comparison to the God who can send you into hell, what's the big deal about dying? Whose disapproval matters more? God's judging disapproval or the world's disapproval? What can the world do to you in comparison to what God can do to you? They might be able to take your life, but God can destroy your soul. The choice to take up your cross is a metaphorical way of talking about the choice over where do you expect to find life? Are you going to focus your time and goals and energy and devotion on the world here and now? Are you going to look for fame and fortune and prestige or romance, health, wealth, whatever, the approval of the world? Are you going to go for all the gusto and look out for number one and strive to get all the goodies this world has to offer? Or are you going to stake your claim in the gospel and the love of God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself? Are you going to let God tell you what is right and true and wise and valuable? Are you going to believe the teachings of Jesus, even if it means losing your life now? Are you willing to value God's approval and following Jesus more than anything else? That's the choice Jesus is confronting the twelve with in this passage. He's saying, if your family doesn't like me, will you accept their rejection for my sake? If the government condemns you to death, will you refuse to deny me? If the world rejects you because you follow Jesus, will you endure it? All right, let's wrap this up. Jesus is speaking to the twelve. He's sending them out for the first time as his representatives. He's warning them this is not a victory tour. One day he will come in victory, but not today. This is the time when he came to bring a sword. His message requires a choice. That choice is not going to unify, it's going to divide. Some are going to follow him and some are going to reject him. To follow Jesus, you must be willing to live with that rejection and hostility, even if it means losing your closest family members or your very life. Jesus was sending his disciples out to call the people of Israel to a choice. Many will not want to hear that message, and his disciples are going to face many dangers. Even the closest human relationships of family will split around this choice. The twelve may find themselves facing a painful personal decision. Do they care more about preserving their family ties or about following Jesus? And when they face that choice, they need to remember where real life is to be found, even if following Jesus costs them their earthly life. They can't lose the true life that Jesus will give them in the end. So follow Jesus, proclaim his message, whatever it might cost you. One last thought on this idea that Jesus came to bring a sword. As we've talked about, the Jews of the day expected the Messiah to come and bring peace, but Jesus here is hinting at the two-part coming of the Messiah. Now for us, this is old news. We've had two thousand years of knowing that Jesus came and left with a promise to return. But for the twelve, this is probably new information. At least it wouldn't have been a very familiar idea to them. And if you stop and think about it, we're seeing a little bit of the difference between the two times that Jesus comes. We know that when he returns the second time, he will establish peace over the earth by conquering his enemies, including death, sin, corruption, and futility, gathering his people, forgiving his people and rescuing them from sin, and establishing his rule over all creation in peace and justice and righteousness. What's interesting here is how he characterizes his first coming and the age we all now live in. He came to bring a sword. Now, why did Jesus leave? Why didn't he kick off the kingdom of God right then? Well, there are a lot of reasons, and here I think he gives us one. He came with a purpose. The time since Jesus came the first time is the time of the sword. It's the time we have to confront the truth. Jesus came and made the clearest statement yet of who God is and what we must decide. He brought a great shiny clarity that we didn't have before. That message is good news, but it's also divisive news. It is good news because it proclaims the way to freedom from sin and death and the establishment of God's kingdom over all the earth, but it is hard news because it demands that we submit to hard truths and humble ourselves before God, and many people are not going to do that. Jesus tells us ultimately his role is to bring peace and restoration to the earth, but that's not the point right now. Now he came to bring a sword because the nature of the message is divisive. He offers us a choice and it's a choice we must make. Well, why not establish the kingdom right then? In part, I think because it's valuable for us to make a choice. It's valuable for Jesus to have come and made a clear proclamation of the truth. It's valuable for each of us to confront that truth and whether or not we will believe it. And it's valuable to face the hostility of those who don't believe. It's valuable to face trials and pressures that mature our faith and to persevere in those trials. The fact that in this age Jesus came to bring a sword tells us a lot about what God values. The struggle to embrace the truth against many pressures is a good thing. It is good for us. It's such a good thing that God has dedicated over 2,000 years to it. The followers of Jesus are always fighting the current of unbelief. We are called to love and pray for those who reject our faith, but we are not to join them because this is the time of the sword. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, but most importantly, tell a friend what you learned. And if you can, tell them where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician Reggie Coates. You can find Reggie's CDs and listen to more of his music at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.