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The Sword
Matthew 5:38-48   |   Shaun LePage   |   July 23, 2006
 
 
I.
Introduction
A.   In Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus spoke some of the most challenging words in the Bible.
Read.
B.    After examining these words over the past couple weeks, some of you have asked me some difficult questions about violence, self-defense and war.
Was Jesus teaching that a disciple of Jesus Christ should never defend himself or his family?
Was Jesus teaching that we should never condone war?
Never be soldiers?
Well, these are good questions.
No, these are extremely important questions and I believe the Bible addresses them.
So, I want to attempt to answer some of these questions today by looking at what the Bible has to say about “the sword.”
C.   This is a sword I borrowed from one of my new Kansas friends.
It’s designed after the swords used in the Middle Ages.
The earliest swords were daggers chiseled out of stone, but man has formed swords out of copper, bronze, iron and even gold.
For thousands of years, the sword was the standard weapon for warfare.
But the sword has largely been replaced by more sophisticated weapons and is used mostly just in ceremonies today—such as military honors funerals and knighting ceremonies.
It’s just a symbol, really.
A symbol of war.
Of combat.
D.   The word “sword” appears over 400 times in the Bible, which shows its importance as a weapon in ancient times.
Jesus Himself spoke of the sword.
On the night before His death, He said two striking things about the sword.
1.     Before He was arrested, Jesus told His disciples, “…*Whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one*.”
(Luke 22:36)
2.     Moments later, as Jesus was being arrested, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of a man named Malchus.
“*Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword*.”
(Matthew 26:52)
3.     Which is, it?
Shall we buy a sword or shall we put our swords away?
4.     That’s basically the question I want to try to answer this morning.
If the sword represents violence and warfare, shall we put our swords away?
Never resort to violence?
Never defend ourselves?
Never go to war? Let’s look for answers in three swords—swords found in Scripture.
II.
Body—Three Swords
A.   The Sword of Man.
The sword of man can be a literal sword or figurative of something else: A gun.
A tank.
Two fists.
An electric chair.
A hangman’s noose.
As we look at what the Scriptures have to say about the sword of man we find at least three principles:
1.
The sword of man may be used in self-defense.
a)    Luke 22:36.
This is a difficult verse to interpret.
Most scholars are puzzled by it, but admit that Jesus could have meant that His disciples should buy a sword so they could defend themselves.
Persecution was coming and they were not to be aggressors, but they were allowed to carry a sword to defend themselves.
b)    Exodus 22:2-3
(i)   *Verse 2 *tells us self-defense is allowed.
The principle behind this verse is: self-defense is not a crime.
In this situation a person doesn’t know if his life or the life of his family is in danger.
If he is burglarized at night, he is hindered from knowing what the intruder’s intentions are.
Therefore, if he kills him, he is not guilty of a crime.
(ii) *Verse 3a* tells us not to kill over possessions.
To kill someone for stealing a Rolex is not acceptable.
Daylight changes everything.
The intent of this law is that a man can presumably tell in daylight that the intruder is just a thief and poses no immediate threat to his life.
c)    A few weeks ago, I used an illustration from the book, /Wild At Heart/, by John Eldridge.
Let’s revisit that story he told at the beginning of Chapter 5. [Read] The problem I have here is with where Eldridge started—according to this story.
As far as we know, his first advice to his first-grader was to “hit…as hard as you possibly can.”
Punch the kid’s lights out!
Let me suggest a more Scriptural approach…
(i)   *Find out what’s hurt.
*The command of Christ to “turn the other cheek” is precisely dealing with the issue of revenge or retaliation in personal relationships where you have been insulted.
It’s not a command to be a doormat.
To stand and let someone pummel you without defending yourself.
So, the first thing John Eldridge should have figured out was whether his son was in physical danger or whether he just had his feelings hurt.
If he was not in physical danger, I believe Christ would say, “Don’t retaliate.
Try to reason with the guy.
Try to be his friend.
Walk away from it.
Don’t return evil for evil, push for push, shove for shove.”
So are the boy’s feelings hurt?
Or is he being physically hurt.
(ii) *Love and pray for your enemy.*
The second thing he should have done was talk to the boy about Jesus’ words, “*You shall love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you*.”
Love is a choice—not a feeling.
If we pray for our enemies, we will find that we have much more patience with them.
The first thing we should say to our boys dealing with bullies is, “Let’s pray for that boy, son.
Maybe he doesn’t have a Daddy and Mommy who tell him about Jesus and teach him how to be kind.
Maybe some boys who are bigger than he is are being bullies to him and he’s just imitating them.
Maybe he really wants a friend, but doesn’t know how to be a friend.
Let’s pray for him, son.”
(iii)    *Appeal to the authorities.*
If the bullying continues, we should go to the proper authorities—long before punching someone in the nose.
Governing authorities—as we shall see in a moment—have been given the authority—by God—to deal with evil doers.
The teacher, the principal in this situation had the authority to deal with this bully and those authorities should have been consulted.
If we all take the law into our own hands, we’ll have anarchy.
Chaos!
Let the proper authorities have a chance to handle the situation properly.
Since Columbine, school authorities have been a little sensitive to the issue of bullying.
They’ll probably take care of the problem very quickly.
(iv)    *Punch him in the nose.*
If the proper authorities don’t do their job, and the bullying continues, then punch him in the nose!
A jab to the nose might be necessary.
Most bullies are all talk anyway and a good pop in the nose might be just the medicine he needs to change his ways.
My point is that this step should be way down the line.
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