Matthew 26:52

The Lord had told any disciple who had no sword to sell even his coat and buy one (Luke 22:36). Peter probably took this literally. The moment he sees his beloved Master attacked, his weapon is out, and he strikes a servant of the high priest and cuts off his ear. But he has belittled and misrepresented the One he wanted to serve. His Master must have fallen very low indeed, if He needed His disciple's sword to get Him out of hands like these. If He yields, it is to God, not to man.

A sword was out of keeping, totally out of place, in the company of the meek and lowly Sufferer! … Peter was completely outside the current of his Master's spirit. He had not one thought in common with Him about His path of suffering. He wanted to defend Him with weapons of the flesh, forgetting that His kingdom was not of this world.

But this did not turn into a fight. The Lord Jesus was in perfect control of the situation. He gives the royal command to put the sword away, and adds that by taking the sword a man exposes himself to perishing with the sword. Matthew does not mention His faithful mercy in restoring the ear. Matthew stresses His authority more, rather than His grace as Luke does.

The character of the patience and the faith of the saints is not to resist at all. This is true at all times. If anyone uses the weapons of the flesh, those weapons will master him. Whoever draws the sword shall perish by the sword.

He could have had twelve legions of angels. But then how would the Scriptures come true, which said it must be so? … He was going as a lamb to the slaughter. This was His place. He was always perfectly obedient, and He was learning obedience by the things He suffered. That path is ours. If a Christian uses human violence and human weapons, the world will meet him with human weapons that are stronger.

Peter did use the sword to defend his Master. Matthew records the Lord's reproof (26:52), and it fits his Gospel, since it marked a change in the way opponents were to be dealt with. That reproof settled for ever the idea of spreading the kingdom of God now by such weapons. "All who take the sword will perish by the sword." And in a future time this same principle will hold good (Rev. 13:10).

The Lord did not say this to the world in general, and He did not mean nations quarrelling with one another. He aimed it at the thought in the hearts of His disciples that the sword would set up His kingdom. Others of the Lord's people have had the same thought since that memorable night, and have perished by the sword as the Lord said they would.

Scripture keeps referring to the sword as the instrument of death. The New Testament speaks of the magistrate carrying it (Rom. 13:4). This shows that the gospel does not set aside God's governmental principle of capital punishment, which God commanded after the flood (Gen. 9:5-6).