Conflict

 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Matthew 10:34 ESV

This is a provocative statement by Jesus. Wasn't He meant to bring peace on earth, as Christmas cards proclaim? Yet here He is saying He came to bring conflict!

The angels announced peace on earth 'to those on whom God's favour rests' at the birth of Christ. So Jesus didn't come to bring universal peace. If He had have done so, He clearly would have failed miserably.

Jesus does bring peace to those on whom God's favour rests. Yet those favoured people are opposed by everyone else, who are hostile to the idea that they need to make their peace with the God who we are all naturally at enmity with. The enemies of Jesus's people become members of their own household, if they're not all united in faith in Him.

The conflict Jesus refers to is, counterintuitively, most clear in religious households. Religious people don't like the idea they're not at peace with God and need to surrender to Him. So they tend to react negatively to people who have made their peace with God, through faith in the Lord Jesus.

'Dear Lord, please help us to realise that to follow You is to make enemies. May we remain faithful to You, for Your glory, amen'. 

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