Deeper Life #133

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

—Matthew 10:34–35

THE RATIONAL MAN,” UNLESS HE has been disturbed by the Spirit of God, will treat the Bible like any other book. How can such a person do otherwise? Unless one is born again, the Bible seems like any other book.

Criticism of the Bible does not hurt the Bible; it reveals the disposition of the critic. “We are the children of wrath” by nature and are in danger of becoming eternal children of the Devil. But when Christ meets someone who is in peace (because of the natural, dark disposition of sin), there is a disturbance. There is a change in one’s view of things—including the Bible.

Jesus Christ will destroy every peace and every love that is not based on the disposition of holiness. Jesus is our enemy before He is our friend.

A cry for peace and unity may be of the Devil, quite as much as of the Lord. Be careful that you do not obtain inner peace and unity at the Devil’s price. Obtain them as Christ bestows them, through the alteration of your sinful disposition through the Holy Spirit.

Prayer Thought: Reconcile those who are enemies of the Cross, I pray, O God.

SUGGESTED READING: Matthew 10:29–39