Friday, March 31, 2006

Christians and conflict

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn `a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." (Matthew 10:34-42)

When Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah, he described Him this way: "He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). The prophet Micah predicted, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah…out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old…He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD…And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace" (Micah 5:2-5). And Zechariah wrote, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey…He will proclaim peace to the nations" (Zechariah 9:9-10).

Jesus’ disciples knew all these passages by heart. They fully expected God’s Messiah to bring peace to mankind, and as they came to believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, they also came to expect Him to bring peace to the people. What a shock, then, to hear Jesus say, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn `a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

Perhaps this statement of Jesus is shocking to you as well. And yet, history has proven that Jesus was right. The 2,000 years since Jesus lived among us have been filled with religious strife, conflict between Christians and non-Christians. These conflicts have been so painful that John Lennon even wrote a song called "Imagine" in which he suggested that a world without religion would be a world that could know peace.

The question before us is this: if Jesus is the Prince of Peace, how can it be that so much conflict comes to the world because of Him? The answer to this question lies in the fact that the Bible speaks of two different kinds of peace, only one of which Jesus brings.

The peace that Jesus brings is peace between man and God. When Satan rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven, Satan determined to at least steal Earth away from God and make it his kingdom. To do this, Satan needed to enlist mankind as his army of occupation—an army of darkness. So Satan tempted Adam and Eve into disobeying God, and as a result every human being ever born of man and woman has inherited the natural desire to rebel against God’s loving leadership. God wants us to love Him and each other, to the point of denying our own desires if they get in the way of showing love; Satan wants us to love ourselves and our own comfort before all other considerations. Because of Adam and Eve’s first sin, we all are born with the desire to love ourselves more than anyone else, including God.

And so it is that from birth, all people are by nature soldiers in Satan’s army of occupation here on Earth. This means that every person is born an enemy of God, in a state of war with Him. But God has created each and every one of us personally, and He loves us as individuals. God does not want us to be at war with Him. But as long as we value Satan’s priorities—selfishness that serves no one’s needs but one’s own—we cannot enjoy the perfect life of peace that God created us for. So God sent His Son Jesus to give us peace. He did this by explaining how selfishness destroys love and makes it impossible to live with others in peace. There can be no peace between two individuals when they are selfishly competing with each other over earthly pleasures.

But Jesus did more than show us how peace can be found. Jesus suffered and died in our place to pay for our war crimes. When we follow Satan’s lead, we commit wartime atrocities against others—we commit sins, both against God and the people He has created. No war is over until reparations have been paid. But out of love for us, Jesus suffered for our atrocities. Because of Jesus, we can walk free from the war court of God and experience peace. This is the peace that Jesus gives—an end to being an enemy of God, an end to fearing God’s punishment for our war crimes. This peace even ends our fear of death, because we know that Jesus guarantees us unending peace in heaven with Him when we are soldiers who now serve in the army of light.

Because of Jesus’ offer of peace, every human being is faced with a decision: to accept Jesus as leader and be taken by Him into His army of light, or to reject Jesus and remain in Satan’s army of darkness. Without Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and peace, there is only one army to belong to—the army of darkness. But when Jesus extends His hand to lead us out of darkness, we enter a world where there are now two armies—two armies that are at war with each other. This is the sword that Jesus brings. When Jesus offers us peace with God, there is a price attached—peace with God means a declaration of war against Satan and his followers.

Jesus did not come to bring peace between the people of the world. Jesus did bring peace between people, but it is a peace that each of us shares with fellow Christians only. The peace that we have with each other is an extension of the peace that we have with God. When Jesus brings us into His army of light, we are soldiers together because we follow the same leader and we share the same priorities with our leader. Because we follow Jesus, we value self-sacrificing love and we realize how destructive selfishness is. Because we share Jesus’ priorities, we are united in common cause, and there can be peace between us. Of course, even though we are forgiven soldiers of Christ, we remain sinners inside until the day we die and we constantly slip back into periods of selfishness. Whenever we slip and fall, we hurt ourselves and we hurt each other. But Jesus always stands near, ready to pick us up, to forgive us, and to help us forgive our fellow Christians who have hurt us when they slipped and fell. The peace of God makes peace between Christians possible.

But there can be no peace between Christians and non-Christians. Paul says, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Satan? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?" (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). Now, Satan would like us to believe that there can be some middle ground between light and darkness. Satan’s philosophers tell us that the world is full of shades of gray. It is suggested that it is dangerous to take extreme positions on issues of morality—far better to take the middle of the road, we’re told. After all, no one wants to be labeled a religious fanatic.

God has no patience for people who try and straddle the fence. In Revelation 3:15-16, God said these words to a church full of fence-sitters: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." When we have become part of His army, God expects us to be fully committed to His leadership—even when being a Christian puts one at odds with non-Christians. Jesus warned His disciples that the life of a Christian would result in broken relationships—'For I have come to turn `a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

Such conflict is tragic, but inevitable. In every one of our extended families, there are some who don’t believe in Jesus or see their need for Him in their lives—these relatives are members of the army of darkness, whether they realize it or not. And because their values are not God’s values, there are times when they cannot understand us. Conflict waits to strike. Perhaps a non-Christian father wants his Christian son to go golfing on Sunday morning; will the son choose to please his father, or to please God by attending worship instead? Who is most important in the son’s life? Or suppose a non-Christian woman asks her Christian sister to drive her to an abortion clinic and stay with her through the painful hours to come; will the Christian woman please her pregnant sister, or will she risk angering her by instead speaking God’s truth about the divine gift of life within her? Or suppose a Christian woman is approached by her non-Christian boyfriend about living together; will she agree in order to please him, or will she risk losing him by honoring God’s Sixth Commandment?

In each of these examples, we see the issue raised by Jesus: "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." The point that Jesus makes is plain: when we are put in a situation where we must choose between pleasing a person who was created by God, or pleasing God who is the Creator, Jesus expects us to make the decision that is pleasing to God. When such a decision is made among the company of Christians, there is no real problem, because our fellow Christians understand that God’s will must always be done. But when such a decision impacts a non-Christian, there will be hurt, a feeling of betrayal. The non-Christian, who is a soldier in Satan’s army, will regard us as a traitor, a turncoat. And you know that an army cannot abide traitors. When we are aligned with Jesus and follow His leadership in our lives, the non-Christians around us will naturally oppose us. They may beg us not to change, to drift away from our old, sinful habits that were so much fun. They may threaten to exclude us from their lives if we insist on living our Christian priorities. They may even deliberately try to hurt us, through abusive words or abusive acts. It is not because they don’t love us, it is because they hate our leader and where He is leading us.

Is there nothing we can do? Are we doomed to conflict in life because of our relationship of peace with God? Well, it is true that conflict with non-Christians will be a life-long problem. But there is always something that we can do. Jesus said, "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me." If we want peace with that parent, that brother, or that cousin who marches in the army of darkness, we must go to them and share the light of Christ’s Gospel with them. Darkness has nothing in common with light—the only way that peace will come about between a Christian and a non-Christian is for we, the Christian, to share the truth about Jesus and His saving work and how that work has impacted our lives. When we share God’s word, the Holy Spirit uses our witness to soften the unbeliever’s heart, making it receptive to Jesus. It may take more than one talk; it may take a lifetime of witnessing and reading from the scriptures to that unbelieving person, and even then he or she might still refuse to believe. But Jesus has made things crystal clear—we cannot have it both ways. We cannot be yoked together with unbelievers; if we want peace in our families, it can only come about when everyone shares in the peace that comes from Jesus forgiving our sins and bringing us back to God. Jesus has given you this peace; may He give you ample opportunity to share it with your loved ones.

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