Mark 14:47
“And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.”
Jesus tried to prepare His disciples for the battles ahead. He told them that they would face battles. He took them to the Garden of Gethsemane and told them they needed to pray. He did everything He could to prepare them for one of the greatest battles they would face in His ministry.
As much as Jesus tried to prepare them for the battle, they could have never imagined how great the battle would be. Judas Iscariot, one of their own, came with a band of men to betray Jesus and took Him to be crucified. When Peter saw these men arrest Jesus, he took it as a personal attack and drew his sword and cut off the ear of the servant who arrested Jesus.
There is much appreciation on my part for Peter standing up for His man of God. Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, but the disciples had not quite understood up to this point Who He was. One thing that Peter did know was that the leader he dearly loved was under attack. He was not going to idly stand by and let his leader be attacked by self-serving, self-righteous men. However, Peter’s mistake was that he allowed the battle to get him off focus. The battle caused him to take his eyes off Christ and the purpose for why He came to Earth and placed his eyes upon man and the battle. The loss of focus caused him to fight against the will of God and also gave ammunition to those who hated Christ.
It is so easy to lose your focus when your preacher or a spiritual leader whom you love is attacked. Certainly, your preacher is probably someone who has had a great influence in your life. Certainly, this spiritual leader whom you love has helped you in a tremendous way. But, you cannot allow the battle to cause you to lose focus of what the ministry is all about. You cannot allow the attack of the enemy to cause you to focus on that which will hurt the cause of Christ.
One thing you must always remember in the battle is that our focus must always be on Christ. You must never let the attacks against your preacher cause you to focus on him and not on Christ. Yes, you need to defend him and stand with him, but you must not forget that we are serving Christ. The battle has a way of getting us off focus, and when the battle is over we will keep our focus on man and not on Christ. One of the reasons Satan loves these types of battles is because he gets Christians to focus upon man which means they are not focused on Christ. You must always keep your focus upon Christ no matter how much you want to defend your preacher.
Furthermore, don’t let the battle cause you to lose your focus on the Great Commission. We can get so riled up about people attacking our man of God that we forget the whole reason we are under attack is because Satan hates our focus on soul winning and wants us to place it on the battle instead. Friend, the battle is truly about the souls of men. When the battles come, you must keep on soul winning. One of the best ways to fight battles is to keep doing what brought the battle to you, and that is to keep going after the souls of men. If you take your eyes off the purpose of winning souls and place them on fighting men, then Satan has done what he intended to do with the battle.
Unfortunately, you will have to face battles in the Christian life. When the battles come don’t let them cause you to lose focus of Christ and winning souls. If we stay focused on Christ and winning souls, then God will fight the battle for us. Love your preacher and his family during the battles, but keep your focus on what we are left here to do and that focus should be on Christ and winning souls.
Allen Domelle is the editor of the Old Paths Journal which is more than just a Christian’s publication. It is an excellent place to learn how today’s headlines will forge tomorrow’s laws and statutes. Keep yourself in tune with what is happening around the world, as well as in your own backyard with our daily updates and devotionals.