Practical Proverbial, from Matthew, 24 September 2025. Today's topic: By the Word
His Word, Our Journey
With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Matthew 26:51-52 (NIV).
If we preach Jesus “by the sword”, we shouldn’t. We might be doing more harm than good. That means never using force or coercion to share Jesus and His Word. We are exhorted to share Jesus in any way we can EXCEPT for through violence. Yes, violence has been used in the past – the ancient past, in fact – to spread Christianity by force.
Not so with other religions, but let’s save that discussion for another time. Today, let’s talk about how Jesus commands us to never share Him at the end of a sword, or a gun, or any other weapon. In today’s verses, Jesus was specifically talking about an incident that happened there in Gethsemane. One of His disciples (Peter, who is identified in John) took up a sword and cut off one of the Temple guard’s ears. Jesus directly interceded in this incident; He also healed the man with the wounded ear just before the other guards led Him off for His sham trial.
Yet the bigger lesson for us comes not from Peter’s incident with the sword but, instead, from what Jesus said about dying by the sword. Let’s extrapolate “the sword” to include the ‘sword’ of malicious words, too. If I live my life by violence, by malice, by anger, by bullying, even by too much stress, it’s going to kill me. It may not be today – or it may be – but it’ll eventually get me. People only see the bully.
But if I live my life by Jesus’ precepts, I also may not live a long life (or I might) but I will assuredly live a life of deeper, greater quality than one of stress, anger, or violence (the sword). If stress, anger and violence kill us, then peace, joy, and the Galatians 5 fruit of the Spirit will spread life. The sword speaks only for a moment yet can reverberate for years. The Spirit speaks unendingly forever. People will see Jesus, not the bully. Take “the S” out of sword. Leave just “Word”.
Peter was being protective of Jesus, yet he let his temper quickly spiral out of control. He forgot how Jesus was bigger than any sword or even this arrest. After all, Peter had spent three years under Jesus’ tutelage, often in closer company than most of the others, and yet he thought Jesus “needed” to have someone fight for him with a puny weapon. Jesus doesn’t need our swords. He wants our followship, and our hearts. In His hands, those are deadly weapons against evil.
For more, read Genesis 9:6, Exodus 21:12, Luke 22:36-38, John 18:10, Galatians 5:22-23, Revelation 13:10, Matthew 26:53
Lord, forgive me when I live by the sword.