The High Price of Peace

Jesus never made any idle threats.

But He always demanded accountable behavior from His disciples. A good example of this can be found in the dusty files of Bible passages you’ll probably never hear anyone preach about:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace upon 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, and a man’s enemies [shall 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 shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.” [Matt. 10:34-39]

Now what could be more unsettling to the Christian spectator than this?

Because the world regards the bond created by human blood as definitive. Putting family first is indeed a noble concept. On the other hand though, Jesus simply won’t allow any biological connections to trump the relational dynamic that needs to exist between the members of His Body or between any of those disciples and Himself.

He can’t.

It’s said that blood runs thicker than water, but the Spirit is the water that cleanses me. [Mk. 1:8; Ac. 1:5; Heb. 10:19-22] The only role blood plays in that process is that Christ’s was spilled in place of my own. The apostle Paul also reminded the church of God at Corinth that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God. [1Cor. 15:50]

It may be difficult to swallow, but it’s not hard to understand. When I choose to give up my life for the Lord, I begin to see things from a different perspective. I build a new life with new relationships. But that doesn’t mean I have to abandon my previous ones.

I just have to learn how to prioritize. Until I do that, I’ll never understand why Jesus said what He did.

I’ll also realize why losing my life for Him is a lot more difficult than dying.