April 08, 2002

John 18:10-11:

10. Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear.  The servant’s name was Malchus.
11. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

There comes a point in time in our Christian walk where our love for the Lord grows to such a point that we want to defend Him.  The more we understand all He has done for us and the price He paid for us, the more it angers us when people come against Him in any way.

Peter felt this way when he cut off Malchus’ ear.  He did it after Jesus said basically, ‘If you want Me take Me but let these others go’ (verse 8).  Peter didn’t want Jesus to be taken away by these men.  Jesus told Peter to put away his sword, He healed the man’s ear and willingly gave Himself as the sacrifice for all of our sin.

Rather than attacking and disabling people with our swords, Jesus would prefer these people be touched and healed by Him (And how can that happen unless it’s us touching them since we are the body of Christ?).  He would prefer they be healed so they can hear the message of the Gospel and be saved.

When we are faced with situations that are as unjust as they are at times, and people who are unfair and deceived, our reaction may be to hurt and attack those people who are hurting the Lord we love (Or hurting us as we represent Jesus to them).  But if we remember that those people will die in their sins and be forever lost if they continue to reject the Lord it may be easier to reach out to touch and heal them with the love of the Lord.

If we turn around and hurt those who have hurt us all we are doing is causing more hurt and pain.  Since Jesus suffered and died for the pain of mankind we are hurting Him when we hurt others because He had to suffer for the healing of all whether they ever accept it or not (And His sacrifice was enough, no one else needs to suffer with Him.  Notice how He said, ‘take Me but let these others go’).

Those who persecuted and attacked Jesus were allowing themselves to be influenced by a demonic spirit.  The same thing happens today with those who persecute and attack Christians.  But we in turn should not yield to that same spirit and hurt back.  Instead we should yield to the Spirit of God within us.

Does this mean we don’t stand up and defend the Gospel that we believe in?  Absolutely not.  It means that we recognize our battle is not with flesh and blood but rather in the spiritual realm (See Ephesians 6:12 and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

It means we don’t fight the way our flesh wants to fight but rather we use the wisdom and weapons of the Spirit of God.  There was a point in time we were under the same influence of the world but because we heard the Word of God and believed we were brought out from under that deceptive influence.  We need to remember that those who hurt and attack others are under that same deceptive influence and if they would believe the Truth they would be free from it as well.

There may be times we have to ‘shake the dust off our feet’ so to speak (Matthew 10:14), but even in those case we don’t go on the offensive against those who have rejected the Word of God.  We simply leave them to their own ways and don’t allow their unbelief to effect us as we continue on in our walk.

Sometimes it’s hard but imagine what Jesus went through.  He had to allow these people to beat and kill Him!  Yet He wasn’t swayed by their unbelief.  He stuck to His calling no matter what.  We can do the same as we determine in our hearts that we will live according to the Word of God no matter what.  And as we remain sensitive to the Spirit of God we will handle each situation in a way pleasing to our Heavenly Father and end up triumphant in it.