Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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"Then said Jesus unto him, Put up thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."
There was a titanic battle waged in the Garden of Gethsemene the evening when Jesus was arrested, but it was a battle of spirits, and Jesus was the only winner. Jesus was "in the Spirit"; everyone else, including Peter, was "in the flesh". Jesus was fighting the battle with humility and faith; Peter was trying to fight it with hatred and violence. And in trying to fight God's battle with an earthly weapon, Peter made himself an enemy of the righteousness he sought to defend. He became just another person whose spirit Jesus had to conquer in order to do the will of God.
Peter tried to protect Jesus by attacking with his sword Malchus, a servant of the chief priest who was with the mob that came to arrest Jesus. But Peter was wrong to think that he could serve God by physical violence; the time for physical warfare in the service of God was now past, for Jesus had come to bring the light of life to men on earth. Jesus' rebuke of Peter's unwise action contains in it a warning to which the wise will take heed.
If Jesus had come to live among us in more recent times, Peter would probably not have attacked Malchus with a sword. It is much more likely that Peter would have used a handgun to try to rescue Jesus. Having said that, my question is this: Did Jesus' rebuke of Peter apply only to swords? In other words, would Jesus have allowed Peter to use a gun, but not a sword? Clearly not. Jesus' rebuke was not simply a rebuke of what Peter was doing; it was a rebuke of Peter's understanding of what it means to fight God's warfare. It was a rebuke of Peter's carnal mind.
In essence, Jesus was rebuking Peter for trusting in the kind of weapon he was using. Peter's weapon was an earthly weapon. Jesus would have rebuked Peter for trusting in a gun if Peter had used one because no earthly weapon, and nothing else of this earth, forwards the cause of Christ. Oh, how important it is for us all to understand this!
Jesus' rebuke of Peter was a rebuke of his trust in and use of an earthly weapon. Consider what that means. Jesus said that if we take up the sword, then we will perish with the sword. That means that if we trust in and take up one of the world's weapons, then we are destined to die by that weapon. And that means that if a saint begins to trust in and use any earthly weapon, including the political systems of this world, then he is destined to perish with those weapons. Leave earthly weapons alone! There is a death sentence from heaven on any child of God who depends upon them. Jesus taught us this, and only fools don't believe what Jesus said.