One House Divided, Luke 12:52-53
"For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the faughter in law against her mother in law."
"Do you suppose I have come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division." The Jews of Jesus' day, for the most part, were expecting their Messiah to bring an end to Roman tyranny and establish a kingdom of peace and prosperity for the Jewish people. The expected a great political leader, someone who would take charge and wipe out all wickedness and immorality. They had accepted the prophecies about the Messiah that referred to His majesty, His power, and His coming kingdom, but had neglected (because they didn't understand how it could be so) the prophecies about His meekness, rejection, death, and resurrection. Thus a great many of them failed to see Jesus for who He was: their Savior, their Messiah, their God.
Jesus Himself declared that He did not come to bring peace, as many people had assumed the Messiah would, but rather division. It's not that Jesus is anti-family, or wants to create unnecessary strife in people's lives, but that naturally, by some following Him and others rejecting Him, there would be division among family members, between friends. Jesus did not bring peace to the earth in His first coming, nor will He do so until His second coming. Rather, He brought division.
When a person takes a stand for Christ and chooses to follow Him, that person is laying down their wants, their needs, their desires, their plans, and taking up His desires for their life, His plans, and His provision. They are putting aside themselves and stepping forth, in faith, down that path to righteousness and self-abandonment: that narrow road that leads to eternal life.
Those who do not choose the narrow road, those who choose the broad road leading to destruction, will look upon the one who has made a stand for Christ and see them as being foolish. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God-- The unbeliever will see that person who no longer lives to please themselves, who seems to have no concern of his own about where he goes or what he does but instead claims to rely upon some unseen force called the "Holy Spirit", and think that they have totally lost their marbles. The believer will be called a "fanatic", a "religious nut", or a "Jesus freak".
Friction arises between the believer and the non-believer because the believer has something the non-believer does not: peace. Jesus didn't come to bring peace to the world, but He does give us peace in our hearts when we ask Him to come into our lives. When the non-believer sees the unexplainable peace the believer has, despite their trials, their pains, and their shortcomings, they may have one of two reactions: They will desire what the believer has and themselves come to Christ, or become bitter toward the believer and start to resent them, causing friction between the believer and the non-believer.
What fellowship has light with darkness? What communion can there be between the children of God and the sons of men? Can there be peace between a sinful and corrupted world who has rejected its Creator and the dearly beloved bride of Christ, who has been cleansed and purified by the blood of the Lamb? How can we, who died to sin, live any longer in it? Thus there is a gap between the believer and the non-believer.
There is a boundary which exists in the spiritual realm, creating division between the natural man and those who have been born again of the Spirit. The natural man knows nothing of the spirit; he lives on the two planes of his fleshly desires and what his soul commands of him (his emotions and such). He has no communion or real awareness of God's presence about him. But those who have received Jesus into their lives have been born again, that is, they are now spiritually alive, by the power of God's Holy Spirit.
Until Christ comes again, there will be no peace on the earth, but only division. And anyone who truly understands who Jesus is and why He came can never be indifferent toward Him. He has said, "he who is not for Me is against Me." You are either for Jesus, or you are against Jesus. There is no middle ground. You are forced to be on one side of the line or the other: and that line, the line that defines your decision for Christ, is the dividing line. Father against son, son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother-- it's all the same thing: Believers are always divided from non-believers. You are for Him, or you are against Him. Choose wisely, for He and He alone has the words of eternal life; He and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him.