I see this all the time. Here’s quick trip down context lane. Here is the whole verse, to at least be complete about it.
Immediately our Muslims friends say, “LOOK, Jesus says – he came to bring a sword” and will go on to say, this is a literal metal sword used to attack others.
Just reading that one verse isn’t all of what was said… It is the first sentence, but there is so much more to what Jesus said, even – RIGHT THEN… If you read further, it says that he came to “set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother… and a man’s enemies will be those in his own household”
Another verse referring to Jesus as “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” – I Peter 2:8
Here’s an example of how that plays out:
Growing up, my family were far from God and had little to no interest in God or relationship with Jesus. And so did I.
When I came to know Jesus later in life, for who he claimed to be, it changed by life.. But what happened then, was that my older brother and I began to have conflict, unlike any other time that I recall in our lives. Even bringing up the name of Jesus seemed to be offensive and we had many long periods of time when we would not even speak.
This wasn’t a matter of Jesus being RUDE to me or my brother… but JESUS’s WORD – divided me from my brother… My love of Jesus set me apart from my brother, because Jesus is offensive to my brother. I still haven’t found out why, but I hope some day I will.
In Hebrews 4, it says “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword,”
In Ephesians 6 – it says “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”
We can start to get a better understanding of what Jesus means – when he says – he comes to bring a sword. It’s not a literal sword. It’s the sword of the spirit. It is the WORD of God..
If you just read that one verse.. “I come not to bring peace, but a sword”… then people get it all wrong. And boy, they get it wrong in a big way.
It’s not as simple as many Muslims make it out to be that Jesus is bringing a sword made of metal, used to cut people up. Jesus was not saying he was bringing a literal sword. It is HIS WORD that he brought. The WORD of GOD. Alhamd-Jesus.