Counting The Cost

Matthew 10:34-42

Our Scripture passage from the Gospel of Matthew for today starts out with a rather shocking statement - Jesus saying that He has not come to bring peace, but rather a sword.  Weren’t we all taught that Jesus was a peace-loving kind of guy?  Let’s look more closely at this passage together.

In verses 34 - 36 Jesus is talking to His disciples, and telling them that many of them will experience conflicts in their families for deciding to follow Him.  Many of us have found this to be true, some around the world with rather serious consequences.  Some believers are quite fortunate in that all, or most of their family members are also fellow believers.  However, when one becomes a Christian and the rest of the family isn’t, frequently that can lead to conflicts.  The believer's Christian lifestyle is in opposition to the world’s standards.  The unbelievers frequently will oppose this, and thus bring a “sword” in their relationship.

When a believer is living righteously and obediently to God’s Word, Jesus will bring them peace in their heart, and their reward is great.  The immediate results, though, are sometimes conflict.  Following Christ will sometimes cause strains in families, persecutions, and in some parts of the world, martyrdom.  Throughout the Bible we read that there is a difference and distinction between those who have made a choice to follow Jesus and those who go the way of the world, clinging to other religions or to the lure of the world’s system.   A Christian who is striving to follow Jesus will have different values and morals, a different purpose in life from the unbelievers.  That often brings conflict.  Sometimes it is just condescending or belittling remarks or comments about following Jesus and believing in the Bible.  Other times, depending on the country or culture, it can escalate into something much more serious.

Here Jesus states that the person must make a choice (vs. 37).  Do you love and choose Jesus, or do you choose your family?  Do you want a supposed artificial “peace”, just to make mom or day, husband or wife happy?  Or are you willing to stand up and say, “No, I choose Jesus.  He died for my salvation.  I am going with Him.”  Sometimes this might just bring a bit of disharmony between spouses, as one chooses to go to church on Sundays, and attend Bible study, and the other won’t.  Sometimes it is name-calling between siblings.  Other times it might get worse.

Following Christ demands total commitment and full surrender (vs. 38).  Jesus said to take up our cross and follow Him.  Today that phrase would not have the very strong impact it would have had back in Jesus’s day.  The cross was a very brutal and heinous form of execution in His day.  Jesus was in effect saying, “Are you willing to die to follow Me?”  Today many have made that phrase to seem like we might be called upon to carry a heavy burden in our life.  Jesus wasn’t talking about just carrying a heavy burden during a period in our life, He was talking about dying.  Condemned people carried their cross to the place of execution.  Publicly identifying with Jesus will bring opposition, suffering, and maybe death.  Are we willing to go that far for Him?

Do we love power, popularity, and money more than standing with Jesus (vs. 39)?  They are empty compared to the rewards He has for us in heaven.

Jesus closes this passage with a few words about how His followers are accepted as they go out bringing His message to others.  We are Jesus’s ambassadors and representatives.  How people treat us, is how Jesus is treated by them (vs. 40 - 42).

If we are going to live for the Lord, the world will scorn us at best, kill us at worst.  A friend of the world is an enemy of God.  We must do what is right, following Jesus every step of the way, not fearing the consequences.