Do not think that I have come to send peace upon the earth I have not come to send peace, but a sword.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For I have come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter with her mother, and the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law;
Jesus has just sent out His twelve disciples with a message. Now He tells them what that message will do inside a home. He names father, mother, daughter and mother-in-law. Many expect Him to bring peace, so how can He say He came to divide?
The Lord is not naming His aim. He is describing what happens when His message enters a world that hates Him.
Then He warns them that their testimony may have a very painful result — homes thrown into confusion, family members set against one another. Do not be surprised... We know that the Lord can give us peace at all times and in every way. But here He is speaking about His testimony going out through His disciples into a world that hates Him. So the two are bound to collide. He does not want confusion. It is the natural effect when the knowledge of Christ enters a house where some of its members reject Him.
Long before, the prophet Micah described a society where even husband and wife no longer trusted each other. Matthew shows the same breakdown, and this time it follows what people do with Christ.
The prophet Micah describes the moral corruption of his day. He says that all trust between friends, and even between husband and wife, had completely vanished... The gospel of Matthew shows the same state of things, but this time it follows the presentation of Christ... When Christ is set before people, they either receive Him or reject Him. So He brings not peace but a sword. It draws out of those who refuse Him all the enmity and all the hidden corruption of the human heart, both against Christ and against His followers... Sons have betrayed their fathers, and parents their children, and in this way the Lord's words have often been fulfilled in the history of the Church — that a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
The division also reaches people you would least suspect.
The closest relationships made no difference, and neither did sex, age, or youth. Grace works freely, according to the sovereign will of God. In the same way man's hatred spares no one, and it shows up in the most unlikely places... So it is solemn to find that the evil had already come before the days the prophet spoke of. The presence of Divine love in the person of Jesus provokes it.
One writer traces the division back to man's response to Christ, then follows it into the home.
If man had been what he ought to be, the result would have been peace. But man saw no beauty in Christ to desire Him, and the effect was hatred — not peace, but a sword. The nearer the relation, the deeper the grievance... Yet the division that grace brings has this strange mark. The one in a family who turns to Christ usually becomes, at once, the slave of the rest. Such cases turn nature itself upside down. How often a husband or parent loses his authority!
The sword does not cancel the promise of peace. It sets the timing. And the cross has already secured the peace we needed most.
Peace on earth waits until He appears in glory. Meanwhile the ground of that peace has been laid in divine righteousness. In the richest way the same ground has been laid for peace in heaven, and for peace where we needed it most — by the blood of the Cross.
A few verses later the Lord makes the demand plain. If a home can divide over Him, He cannot come second in it.
There must be a decision as regards Christ. If one loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Him, he is not worthy of Him. He cannot take a secondary place to any natural relationship. For any mere man to demand this would be wickedness. But this Man is the eternal God. He is worthy of unconditional worship, and every creature owes Him absolute obedience.
A believer in such a home should expect strain. A home where everyone loves the Lord is a gift to be thankful for.
Many tensions arise when one member of a family turns to the Lord and the others oppose him. He meets a lack of understanding, sometimes open acts of hostility, and in some countries even persecution. How thankful we should be if God has granted us the grace of a close family, where each member loves the Lord and seeks to serve Him!
- Cause — Christ's coming did not create the enmity; it exposed it. Rejection of Him is what turns a household against itself.
- Test — He is the touchstone. Each heart either receives Him or refuses Him, and the sword is that split made visible.
- Reach — The closer the tie, the sharper the offence. The believer at home often ends up serving everyone else.
- Cost — If a home can break over Him, He must outrank it. Anyone who loves family more than Christ is not worthy of Him.
- Result — Peace is delayed, not cancelled. The blood of the cross has already secured it, and and the earth will have it when He appears in glory.
and they of his household [shall be] a man's enemies.
The Lord has just warned His messengers to expect hatred, and now He names its sharpest form: it starts at home. How can the One announced as bringing peace say that His coming splits families?
Christ's arrival did not create the hostility; it exposed it.
The Lord has warned us in advance about the effect of His coming and testimony — not its purpose. That effect would be strife, dividing even the nearest and most precious natural relationships (Matt. 10:34-37).
The reason lies in what each person does with Christ.
When Christ is presented to people, they either receive Him or reject Him. So He brings not peace but a sword. It draws out from those who refuse Him all the enmity, all the hidden corruption of the human heart — both against Christ and against His followers.
The Greek word for "household" ties this verse back to verse 25, where the Lord spoke about His own house.
Here the Lord says, "And a person's enemies will be those of his own household" — words not repeated in the other gospels. The word here is oikiakos, which comes from oikia. It is used again, in line with the meaning of oikia, in verse 25 of the same chapter in Matthew: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master." If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of His household (oikiakos)?
He met the same hostility from His own family.
The cup of the Lord was full of bitterness. He endured not only the hostility of sinners against Himself, but also the mistaken and evil judgments of His own relatives. He walked that path first, ahead of all others — the path where, as He warned His disciples, a person would find enemies inside his own household.
The wording echoes the prophet Micah, who used it for the worst evil of the last days. The timing is the surprise.
The Lord is alluding to the prophecy of Micah, who describes in similar terms the worst evil of the last days (Micah 7:6). It is solemn to find, then, that the evil had already come before the days the prophet spoke of arrive. And the presence of divine love in the person of Jesus provokes it. This could not be if men were not thoroughly bad; but Jesus is the Truth, and therefore brings everything to a head.
Natural affection offers no protection.
Peace on earth was not the word now, but hostility in the closest relationships. Owning the Lord is intolerable to man. The closer the relationship, the greater the hostility.
At home the change often turns the tables on the new believer.
There is this peculiar feature in the division that grace brings in. The one who is converted in a family generally becomes, at once, the servant of the rest. Such cases even turn nature upside down. How often a husband or parent loses his authority in this way!
The pressure lands where love is deepest, so home becomes the proving ground.
The powerful ties of family relationship will not be enough to hold people together when Christ becomes the object of anyone in the family. A person's enemies will be those of his own household. And this becomes the test of being wholly for Him.
The opposite picture is a home where everyone owns Christ as Lord.
What is happier than a Christian home, where Christ is owned as Lord? It is a little foretaste of that heavenly home. There nothing can intrude to spoil our eternal peace, because nothing can interfere with Christ's absolute control. Contrast this with the divided house, where the world is allowed in.
- Cause — Christ did not come to make enemies. His presence draws out the enmity already in the heart. The division is the effect of His coming, not its aim.
- Word — "Household" (oikiakos) echoes verse 25. They called the Master of the house Beelzebub, so those belonging to His house should expect the same name.
- Echo — The phrasing comes from Micah's picture of the worst evil of the last days. Yet that evil was already present the moment divine love stood among men.
- Reach — The hostility runs deepest along the closest ties. The converted family member often becomes the servant of the rest.
- Result — When affection and Christ pull in opposite directions, the pull tests loyalty. When a whole home owns Him as Lord, it becomes a foretaste of heaven.
He who loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me.
Jesus has just spoken about division inside the home. Now He sets the order of love. The question is not whether a disciple may love his family. It is what happens when that love and the claim of Christ pull in opposite directions.
One writer names where a disciple feels this pressure hardest.
Now this becomes one of our severest trials — the effect that the testimony of God has upon families. People speak of households being broken up and relatives divided. The Lord already uses the same words and strengthens us for it.
He will not take second place to a parent or a child. One writer asks who has the right to make such a demand.
There must be a decision as regards Christ. If one loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Him, he is not worthy of Him. He cannot take a secondary place to any natural relationship. For any mere man to demand this would be wickedness. But this Man is the eternal God. He is worthy of unconditional worship, and entitled to the absolute obedience of every creature.
When does this apply? One writer points to a case inside the home, then to how loyalty works in ordinary life.
No human tie should have a superior claim to that of the Lord Jesus. And in the words quoted, He had in view a case where family authority sought to override His word as Master. Even a government does not let a parent's claims or a child's duties release a subject from loyalty to the Crown. It does not shield a criminal from justice either. Must the Lord of all ask less than this from the subjects of His kingdom?
Does this verse ask a person to stop loving his father? One writer answers plainly.
There is no hardness in the Christian or in Christ. When it is the service of God and faithfulness, we must not regard father or mother. The Lord sent His mother away whenever she came to Him during His service. It is not the destruction of natural affection, but the superiority of Christ — God coming in — or else it is idolatry.
Some people have walked out on parents for reasons that had nothing to do with Christ. So it is worth being exact about the one case the Lord allows.
There is only one case in which the Lord shows the necessity of forsaking father and mother, and that is when the child is commanded to forsake Christ. In every other case it is sin against Him. He is the One who said long ago, "Honor your father and your mother," and who also said through the apostle, "Children, obey your parents." When father or mother, or wife, or life itself, comes into competition with Christ, then all must be "hated"; the disciple must bear the cross and follow Him.
Luke records the same teaching with the harsh word "hate." One commentator explains what that word means.
Luke 14:26 — It is the first of our Gospels, notice, that softens the language here ("hate"). The Greek word for "hate" means to renounce the claims or influence of the person or thing concerned. Compare Matthew 10:37, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me."
The test is comparison, not coldness. One writer describes the devotion Christ asks for, and the place from which He asks it.
The world is against Him. He puts forth no power to subdue it, and no power even to shelter His people from the vengeful hatred He predicts. Yet He claims from all who will be His disciples the most complete devotion a man could show. He is to be dearer than the dearest, nearer than those bound to us by the closest ties. And under that constraint they are to follow Him as the perfect, supreme example of everything highest a person can reach: to be "worthy of Him" is to be their whole ambition!
- Sword — The testimony of God divides families. That is one of a disciple's severest trials, and the Lord names it in advance to strengthen him for it.
- Claim — Only God could ask to outrank a parent's place in the heart; such a demand from any mere man would be wickedness.
- Comparison — The test is not "do you love your family?" but "do you love them more than Me?" He is to be dearer than the dearest, and to be worthy of Him is the disciple's whole ambition.
- Order — Natural affection is not destroyed but placed second; left in first place, it becomes an idol.
- Limit — Only one case calls for forsaking father and mother: when they demand you forsake Christ. In every other case, leaving is itself sin against His command to honor them.