“DO NOT THINK!”

Matthew 10:34-39                         (ESV)

“34 "DO NOT THINK” that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 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.

36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

37 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.

38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow ME is not worthy of ME.

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for MY sake will find it.”

It seems that most people want to be a non-controversial as possible, not offending anyone if possible.   But in the Scripture above JESUS states that HE CAME TO SEPARATE HIS CHOSEN from “this world”!  HE did not intend on me to be friends with “this world”, but to shine a LIGHT into the darkness that “this world” exudes!

John 18:36 says “JESUS answered, "MY kingdom is not of this world. If MY kingdom were of this world, MY servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But MY kingdom is not from the world."  James 4:4 says “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with GOD? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of GOD.”  These words tell me that my life, if lived in accordance to HIS WORD, will SEPARATE the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12).  

We seem to have a “nature” not to be controversial or offensive.  But JESUS HIMSELF said “For I have come to set a man AGAINST his father, and a daughter AGAINST her mother”!  I’m no Biblical Literary Professor, but I am understanding that these Scriptures are saying that unless we are willing to choose THE LORD ahead of the people we love most in “this world”, we are not worthy of HIM in our lives!  IT WILL COST TO FOLLOW HIM!!!

We are also instructed to “...LOVE our enemies” (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27)!  So we are to LOVINGLY inform them of the TRUTH, and almost expect them to be offended, because HE brings a SWORD!  TRUTH is ANTI-ERROR, or being strictly by the BOOK, so we must LOVINGLY expect to offend those whose EYES ARE BLINDED by the god of this world!  We WILL offend some, JESUS has said that we will.  However, walking by FAITH demands that we “DO NOT THINK” we can be buddy-buddy with those who choose “this world” over TRUTH!