Jesus Divides – The Joy of Division

Luke 12:51-53

 51 "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division;

 52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.

 53 "They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

We've been told that division is bad.  We've been taught that division has no place in the church.  We've been warned that division is a tool of the devil and it is not a characteristic of God.  But if that is the truth, then how do we respond to the words of Jesus in the passage above?

As we continue to see examples in evangelical churches today, and how they are continuing to slip further and further from scripture, then the Holiness of these words from Jesus start to become clearer.  

Many churches today's have fallen away from the beauty and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The reality is simple, the ONLY thing that matters in this world is the Truth.  It is what we [Christians] use as a foundation for everything we believe in.  This truth (the Word – See John 1:1-2) did not come to bring peace.  By its very nature it has brought division.  We are sinners, and we live in a fallen world.  The result of sin is that our heart, eyes, mind, body, spirit and flesh have all been corrupted by the destructive and corrosive nature of sin and the evil it brings.  This evil cannot co-exist with the TRUTH and righteousness can not co-exist with the depravity of sinners.

We are continually being sifted like wheat.  And during this process there will be some who look at the Word and turn away from its truth because of the conviction it brings;  those who choose the pleasures of their flesh over the pleasures of God.  This, in reality, is the sifting process.  It is also the division that Jesus spoke of as well.