Matthew 10:34
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Study
Other translations
New International Version
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
New Living Translation
“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.
English Standard Version
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Berean Study Bible
Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Berean Literal Bible
Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth; I came not to bring peace, but a sword.
New King James Version
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
New American Standard Bible
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
□ ■ □
Think not that I am come to send peace
Truth appears again in the form of seeming paradox.
Christ is “our peace” (Ephesians 2:14), and He came to be the great Peacemaker; and yet the foreseen consequences of His work involved strife and division, and such a consequence, freely accepted for the sake of the greater good that lies beyond it, involves, in fact, a purpose.
The words are the natural expression of such a thought; and yet we can hardly fail to connect them with those which, in the earliest dawn of His infancy, revealed to the mother of the Christ that “a sword should pass through her own soul also” (Luke 2:35).
It is as if He had said, Because the prophets have spoken glorious things of the peace and happiness of the world under the reign of the Messiah, whom they have named, for that reason, the Prince of peace, you may imagine that I am come to put the world into that happy state now; and that universal peace will be the immediate consequence of my coming.
The Jews had a notion of outward peace and prosperity in the days of the Messiah; which was grounded on several prophecies of the Old Testament, not rightly understood by them; and the disciples of Christ had imbibed the same notion: wherefore our Lord thought fit to let them know the contrary; and that they must not expect outward ease and quiet, and worldly tranquillity would attend their ministry.
For though He came to be a peace maker between God and sinners, by the blood of His cross; and was both the author and donor of spiritual peace to His people; and the Gospel he brought with Him, and sent them to preach, was the Gospel of peace; which, accompanied with His power, would produce peace in the consciences of men, and be the means of cultivating and maintaining peace among the saints;
Yet “peace on earth” in a temporal sense, whether in the world in general, or in Judea in particular, must not be expected as the consequence of his coming; so far from it, that he subjoins.
I came not to send peace, but a sword
The result of His love coming into the world will be strife, discord, conflict; deadly opposition between eternally hostile principles, penetrating into and rending asunder the dearest ties.
Though the nature of His government be such as might produce abundant felicity, inasmuch as His religion breathes nothing but love, men will not lay aside their animosity, nor will they exercise a mutual friendship among themselves as soon as the Gospel is preached to them.
No; such is their wickedness, that they will make the Gospel itself an occasion of such bitter dissensions that it will look as if I had not come to send peace, but a sword among men.
For, as Jesus told us before, the nearest relations shall quarrel among themselves, and both public and private divisions will follow wheresoever my gospel comes with power.
Yet, observe well, this is not the design, though it be the event of His coming, through the opposition of devils and men to his truth and the blessed effects of it.
By the “sword” may be meant the Gospel, which is the means of dividing and separating the people of Christ from the men of the world, and from their principles and practices, and one relation from another; as also of divisions, discords, and persecutions arising from it: not that it was the intention and design of Christ, in coming into the world, to foment and encourage such things.
But this, through the malice and wickedness of men, was eventually the effect and consequence of His coming; see Luke 12:51 where, instead of a “sword”, it is “division”; because the sword divides asunder, as does the sword of the Spirit, the word of God.
Greek
[Do] not ☆ Μὴ (Mē) ☆ Adverb ☆ Not, lest. A primary particle of qualified negation; not, lest; also (whereas ou expects an affirmative one) whether.
Assume ☆ νομίσητε (nomisēte) ☆ Verb – Aorist Subjunctive Active – 2nd Person Plural ☆ From nomos; properly, to do by law, i.e. To accustom; by extension, to deem or regard.
That ☆ ὅτι (hoti) ☆ Conjunction ☆ Neuter of hostis as conjunction; demonstrative, that; causative, because.
I have come ☆ ἦλθον (ēlthon) ☆ Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 1st Person Singular ☆ To come, go.
To bring ☆ βαλεῖν (balein) ☆ Verb – Aorist Infinitive Active ☆ (a) I cast, throw, rush, (b) often, in the weaker sense: I place, put, drop. A primary verb; to throw.
Peace ☆ εἰρήνην (eirēnēn) ☆ Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular ☆ Probably from a primary verb eiro; peace; by implication, prosperity.
To ☆ ἐπὶ (epi) ☆ Preposition ☆ On, to, against, on the basis of, at.
The ☆ τὴν (tēn) ☆ Article – Accusative Feminine Singular ☆ The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.
Earth ☆ γῆν (gēn) ☆ Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular ☆ Contracted from a primary word; soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe.
I have not come ☆ ἦλθον (ēlthon) ☆ Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 1st Person Singular ☆ To come, go.
To bring ☆ βαλεῖν (balein) ☆ Verb – Aorist Infinitive Active ☆ (a) I cast, throw, rush, (b) often, in the weaker sense: I place, put, drop. A primary verb; to throw.
Peace ☆ εἰρήνην (eirēnēn) ☆ Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular ☆ Probably from a primary verb eiro; peace; by implication, prosperity.
But ☆ ἀλλὰ (alla) ☆ Conjunction ☆ But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.
A sword ☆ μάχαιραν (machairan) ☆ Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular ☆ A sword. Probably feminine of a presumed derivative of mache; a knife, i.e. Dirk; figuratively, war, judicial punishment
Read more of these messages at: https://devotionals.harryschoemaker.nl
Download your Bible pictures from: http://bijbelplaatjes.nl
Follow me on Twitter: @schoemakerharry
Email: devotionals@harryschoemaker.nl
About Author
