Dr Paul Allen

He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That is enough,” he replied. (Luke 22:36-38, NIV). This is a very interesting Scripture because Jesus here appears to be overturning an earlier instruction to the disciples. In Luke 9:3 and Luke 10:4 Jesus had told the disciples to take no purse or bag, but now He is telling them to do so. So why did Jesus now instruct them to take a purse and a bag? What had altered? Well firstly, in referring to His change of instruction Jesus says this in Luke 22:35: Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bags or sandals, did you lack anything?” Nothing,” they answered But now the instruction changes! Understanding...

But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment. ( Luke 22:36–37 ESV ) THE USA GUN DEBATE AND JESUS However, before we all go out and start a Christian arms race, it might be worth noting that about an hour later Jesus said to the disciples: “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” ( Matthew 26:52 ESV ). So which is it? Swords good or bad? Guns: Good or Bad? For this and many other reasons, most commentators understand Jesus as speaking metaphorically in Luke 22:36-37 . Matthew Henry for example says: This is intended only to show that the times would be very perilous, so that no man would think himself safe if he had not a sword by his side. But the sword of the Spirit is the sword which the d...

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” ( Matthew 10:34 ) The Christian life is a life of war, and the Christian soldier must be a skilled swordsman if he is to survive and win. In our text, Jesus taught that a peaceful life would not be the Christian’s lot, but a life of swordsmanship instead. The first “sword” mentioned in the Old Testament was not a sword of metal, but a “flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” ( Genesis 3:24 ). Likewise, the final sword mentioned in the New Testament is “the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth” ( Revelation 19:21 ). This is the fiery sword with which the coming “man of sin” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ) will be defeated “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (v. 8). “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shal...

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” ( Matthew 10:34 ) The Christian life is a life of war, and the Christian soldier must be a skilled swordsman if he is to survive and win. In our text, Jesus taught that a peaceful life would not be the Christian’s lot, but a life of swordsmanship instead. The first “sword” mentioned in the Old Testament was not a sword of metal, but a “flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” ( Genesis 3:24 ). Likewise, the final sword mentioned in the New Testament is “the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth” ( Revelation 19:21 ). This is the fiery sword with which the coming “man of sin” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ) will be defeated “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (v. 8). “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shal...

English: Peresopnytsia Gospels. 1556-1561. Miniature of Saint Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Romans 13:3–7 “He is God ’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he…carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” ( v. 4 ). We would probably resolve many of the controversies surrounding the state’s relation to the church if both church and state remembered their distinctive functions according to God’s Word. The Lord gives the church and the state specific roles, and trouble arises when the church tries to do the work of the state or the state assumes the church’s authority. In  Romans 13 , we find the primary vocation to which the Lord has called the state. Human government, Paul tells us, “does not bear the sword in vain.” In other words, the state is given the right to use force for a specific end — to inflict God’s wrath upon wrongdoers ( v. 4 ). Basically, the ruling authorities are to use the sword to promote ri...