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Lay Down Your Sword
2 Samuel 2:26
"Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?"
The story in the verse above happened after Saul was killed. There was a civil war between the men of Saul and David's men. There was a group of people in Israel who were still loyal to Saul and would not allow David to be their king. Even though Israel knew that David was anointed to be king, Saul's loyalist wanted his son to take over the kingdom.
In the verse above, Abner realized that if they didn't end this war, that many more men would lose their lives for no reason. Abner asked the question, "Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?" Abner realized that the end of the inner fighting would only lead to bitterness between the brethren. What Abner was saying was that it was time to lay down the sword and get along. They were not fighting over truth, but rather they were fighting over personality. Abner realized that the battle over personality was not a worthy battle.
There are times when Christians should fight. This devotional is not about getting along at any cost, but it is about learning to lay down the sword when the battle is over the wrong issues. When truth is being attacked, we should fight. When the validity of the Word of God is being attacked, we should fight. When the validity of the reality of Hell is attacked, we should fight. When anything is added to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, then we should fight. Any time the doctrines of God's Word are attacked we should fight.
However, when Christians start fighting over preference, then it is time to lay down the sword. There are many preferences that we have in Christianity that are not worthy of a fight. For instance, you shouldn't fight over whether the platform should have carpeting or hard wood. That is complete preference. You shouldn't fight over which brand of song book the church should use, for that is preference. I could go on with this list, but I believe you know what is preference. Because we are so opinionated, if we are not careful, we will start fighting over preference which will lead to bitterness.
Furthermore, we should not fight over personalities. The only personality whom we should fight over is Jesus Christ. We should not fight over a man of God, for that is fleshly. You will often find that people will make the man of God the issue when he is not supposed to be the issue. Truth is always the issue. I have my own heroes whom I look to for an example to follow, but I should not fight with others who don't have the same feeling towards my heroes. Christians must be careful about fighting over personality and not truth. This will only lead to people becoming bitter towards each other.
There is a time to lay down the sword and stop fighting. When the battle is over preference and personality, then lay down the sword. When the battle is over truth, then pick up the sword and fight. When the battle is over truth, it will not lead to bitterness for truth will not bring bitterness, only happiness. When the battle is over the wrong issues, then the end of that battle will be bitterness. Be careful about fighting the wrong battles, and when you find yourself in a wrong battle then lay down your sword.