Between me and my world, Christ's sword may pierce with its remorseless edge. He separates me from old sinful habits, from old sinful employments, from old sinful pleasures, from old sinful friendships.
He divides me from the society in which I was accustomed to move. "Your home is no longer there!" He says. And I go out from the familiar surroundings, into an untrodden region and realm.
Between me and my nearest and dearest Christ's sword may pierce pitilessly. Perhaps the loved ones of my own house will have nothing to do with my Redeemer and Lord. Perhaps they see no beauty in Him, that they should desire Him. Then, in the deepest and noblest things, they and I will stand apart a sundering tide rolling between us. And how immeasurably sad that will be!
Between me and myself Christ's sword is sure to pierce with a blade that does not spare! The I, the self which used to be so vain, so confident, so proud must be slain outright! Its days of pride, pleasure and selfishness must end until I can say, "It is no more I who live but He, my Prophet, my Priest, my King, who lives in me!" What a change that is! What a martyrdom!
It is painful, this stroke of Christ's sword. But the old confessor was right: "The nearer the sword; the nearer Heaven!" If I am victim; I am victor too. Smitten down by Jesus, I am not destroyed, but crowned!
[Alexander Smellie]
Matthew 10:34 ... Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Psalm 149:6 ... Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;
Hebrews 4:12 ... For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.❤
