{"id":5950,"date":"2014-10-24T00:05:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T07:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5950"},"modified":"2014-10-23T17:57:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T00:57:05","slug":"battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/10\/24\/battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSimon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me, like chaff from wheat. Simon, I\u2019ve prayed for you in particular that you not give in or give out. When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPeter said, \u201cMaster, I\u2019m ready for anything with you. I\u2019d go to jail for you. I\u2019d die for you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry to have to tell you this, Peter, but before the rooster crows you will have three times denied that you know me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThen Jesus said, \u201cWhen I sent you out and told you to travel light, to take only the bare necessities, did you get along all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cCertainly,\u201d they said, \u201cwe got along just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe said, \u201cThis is different. Get ready for trouble. Look to what you\u2019ll need; there are difficult times ahead. Pawn your coat and get a sword. What was written in Scripture, \u2018He was lumped in with the criminals,\u2019 gets its final meaning in me. Everything written about me is now coming to a conclusion.\u201d (Luke 22:31\u201337)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tMost Jewish people believed that the Messiah would raise an army against the Roman occupation. So Jesus\u2019 words about buying a sword would have initially been understood by the disciples in that context. But when Peter told Jesus that they had two swords already, Jesus told him \u201cthat\u2019s enough.\u201d Hardly the call to arms that the disciples anticipated.<\/p>\n

\tThe interpretation that Jesus literally meant that his disciples should go out and arm themselves with swords stands at odds with everything else that Jesus ever said. When an interpretation creates contradictions or absurdity, that is our first indication that an interpretation is wrong.<\/p>\n

\tJesus command to his disciples to procure a sword is best understood in a metaphorical sense. Jesus was indicating the need for his disciples to be spiritually armed and prepared for spiritual battle. Consider Paul\u2019s words that \u201cthe weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world\u201d (2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV). Also, consider that Paul said \u201cthe sword of the Spirit\u201d is \u201cthe word of God\u201d (Ephesians 6:17 NIV).<\/p>\n

\tWe do not fight God\u2019s enemies with physical weapons. Instead, we do battle \u201cin the Spirit.\u201d That is, we are called to challenge those who are enemies of God by bringing them the Good News that Jesus died for their sins. We attack the gates of Hell, not with physical swords, but with the Gospel message.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSimon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me, like chaff from wheat. Simon, I\u2019ve prayed for you in particular that you not give in or give out. When you have come … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5952,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5950\/revisions\/5952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}