We often hear that Jesus was a man of peace and love. When I see many responses as to why God would not punish me for my sins, I always hear these words, "God loves all of us and He accepts me just the way I am, after all, He made me this way!".
I am often reminded of the decade of the sixties and the Hippy/Flower Child movement. Peace, Love, Happiness. God is cool, man, He loves you just as you are.
Well, I truly believe that God IS and has defined what Love should be, however, it rarely aligns with what people think it is.
What most people who have never picked up a Bible and read it will tell you, is that Jesus was a great "man", a wise "teacher", and someone who loves people. What they do not know, or choose to ignor, is that Jesus was God, was pure and righteous completely without sin, and that his purpose was to reconcile us to God and bring peace to our relationship with Him.
You see knowing Jesus is knowing God, and Jesus is all about relationship, not religion, In our fallen sinful state, we our under God's condemnation. Sin separates from fellowship with God.
The Gospel message is that Jesus came to earth to like a sin-less life and offer Himself a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins. God reached out to us to repair and reconcile us to Him through the shedding of Christ's blood to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we accept that Truth, and invite Jesus into our life to be our Lord and Savior, many things can and will happen. Many of your friends and family members may deride you, chastise you, or call you crazy and a lunatic.
Jesus made this statement, “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 SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-36 (NASB)
What did Jesus mean, "...I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."? Jesus was making it very clear that peace - World Peace, was not his purpose. In fact, just the opposite would be true. By believing in Him, following Him, would create animosity among people, close people. Family members would become enemies in their own home. From a period standpoint, the Jewish people were going condemn and execute Jesus in very short order. With Christ's death and resurrection, Christianity would be born. By the time of the pentacost, the revealing and indwelling of the Holy Spirt, many thousands were beginning to follow Jesus. This would ultimately pit Jew against Jew, father against son, mother against daughter. It would not end in Jeruslem of the middle-east, or the Meteraanean cilvilations that Paul and the Diciples evangilized. The sword would bite across continents and generations as Christians and non-christians would be at odds with each other. It continues to this day, and there will be no peace amongst men until the return of Christ.
It is in the second coming of Jesus that World-Peace will the His sole objective. So the war, the Spiritual war, the war for our svery souls, will continue until that day
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