Truth: Matthew 10 The Call to Action

This world is a battlefield.  If you're not receiving flak, you're not over the target.  We are reminded in Matthew 10:

   ³⁴ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn

   “‘a man against his father,
   a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
   ³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’^[c]

Matthew 10 in context is Jesus' commission to sending out the 12 disciples as sheep among wolves, to preach the gospel to anyone that will receive.  Notice in verse 1 first how Jesus sent them out.

¹ Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

Jesus commissioned the disciples with power to heal disease, not kill people supernaturally.  In context, Jesus is referring the 'two-edged sword' that Hebrew 12 mentions that pierces or divides between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, a discerner of the thought and intentions of the hearts.  The gospel has POWER.  This power, when spoken, will divide.  The Truth will offend many, revealing sin and unearthing evil.

I read a quote from the British philosopher GK Chesterton in Romance of Orthodoxy which ran: "It is as true of democratic fraternity as a divine love; sham love ends in compromise and common philosophy; but real love has always ended in bloodshed." On the same line, action implies in its nature that one thing is preferable to one another.  Truth by definition is exclusive--that is proven, as the moment you challenge that statement, you are saying not what I say is right, but what you say is right.

And that is the ultimate reality of the world.  We far too often sit back in our lazy-boy and imagine that all is ok in the world, and that those around us have our best interests at heart--or so we say in America where modern man has not known tyranny but from a distance.  This call to action, found here in the words of Christ, is what is needed most in America these days.

This call to action cannot be found in eastern way of thought as pantheistic thought implies that one thing is as good as another.  Ethical and social reform cannot happen without action.  The western theology, found in Christianity that says "I am I, and Thou art Thou" is directly the type of belief that has overthrown tyrants and dictators.

"If we, like the eastern saint want to merely contemplate how right things are, of course we shall only say that they must go right.  But if we particularly want to make them go right, we must insist that they may go wrong." GK 

Truth divides.  If your words fail to even move the comatose patient, perhaps you aren't speaking it.