SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/11/2021 9:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “A Disciple Forsakes His Family”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:34-37”
Message of the verses: “34 “Do not think
that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
35 “For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her
mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 “and ‘a man’s
enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 “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 (NKJV).
I have to say that as I begin a fairly deep study of
these verses that it seems like a difficult task to undertake, but what I am
looking at is the Word of God, and the Word of God is never wrong because the
God of the Word is never wrong.
What
we are looking at as we begin this section is the fourth hallmark of
discipleship, and that is the willingness to forsake everything including one’s
family if necessary, for Christ’s sake. MacArthur writes “Jesus will introduce this
point by using the figure of war and peace. As far as many human relationships
are concerned, He did not come ‘to bring peace on the earth,…but a sword.’”
I
know that we have talked about this before, but I think it is important to
remember that the Jews of Jesus’ day thought that the Messiah would be coming
to bring them political peace, as they were oppressed by the Romans, to bring
in the eternal kingdom that God had promised.
They did not understand that before that would happen that their Messiah
must bring peace to them in a different way, a much needed way as He would die
on the cross for their sins. Israel, for
the most part did not read about the suffering Messiah, but on the Messiah who
would come and conquer the world and bring about a kingdom for them. That is going to come, and I pray to God that
it will come very soon, but they were looking for something that the Messiah
would do whenever he returns to planet earth.
John
MacArthur writes “Jesus’s disciples had already experienced inner peace and
bliss that they had never known before, and they no doubt expected that
experience to grow in intensity and extent the longer they were with
Jesus. They may have expected the world
to fall at their feet as they preached the good news of the kingdom and offered
lost mankind the way of salvation and happiness.
“Therefore,
lest they misunderstand the true nature of His first coming and of their own
ministry, Jesus began early to prepare them for His own rejection and suffering
and also theirs. The gospel is indeed a
gospel of peace, because it offers the way to bring peace between a holy God
and sinful man, and it shows the only way for having true peaceful relationships
between men and other men. But because
the world system is evil and man’s fallen nature is sinful, God’s offer of
peace continues to be rejected and to be offensive to most of the world’s
people. This brings conflict into the
most intimate of human relations, so that ‘a man’s enemies will be the members
of his household.’”
I
suppose that we could say that the first part of this particular SD is just the
introduction to this passage, that as I have said is very difficult. Perhaps the reason it is difficult for me to
understand is became my entire family, by God’s grace has become believers in
Jesus Christ. If I look at other
families that are not like ours then if a person becomes a believer in those
settings that trouble can arise, an example of that would be that if a person
in a Jewish or Muslim home becomes a true believer that trouble will come and
homes will be separated because of Jesus Christ.
Lord
willing we will continue looking at these verses in our next SD.
11/11/2021 10:22 AM
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