First Q: In Matthew 10:34, Jesus says, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Whats all this business at Christmastime about peace on earth, then? -- And what about those passages such as John 14:27 where Jesus says My peace I give unto you and so forth?
A: The peace on earth that Jesus is talking about here is a peace-by-placation with the world -- resulting in the sort of society in which (to borrow a phrase from Ravi Zacharias) everyone is free to believe anything, as long as they do not act as if it is true. When Christians act as if the teachings of Christ are true, there will be those who feel threatened by this. For instance, pornographers, marketers of liquor, and drug-dealers stand to lose a lot of business if Christians take Jesus seriously, and as long as they value money above the true God, they will tend to oppose unadulterated Christianity because its effects are bad for their business. Members of false religions, likewise, are likely to feel some animosity against Christians if and when members of their families become Christian and abandon the familys Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, pagan, or atheistic traditions.
It goes without saying that it would be nice if everyone would repent and become Christian. But Jesus does not mislead His followers into that rosy illusion. He knows what awaits Him. He knows what awaits them. To be a member of the Christian church is to be a soldier occupying a beachhead in a heavenly invasion of a rebellious planet. In this sense, when Christ calls anyone to follow Him, it is a spiritual call to arms (/spiritual/ arms, I emphasize!).
At the same time, Jesus *did* come to arrange the terms of a peace-treaty -- not a peace-treaty with the world, but a peace-treaty with God. As the surrounding verses show, Godward peace is not in view in this verse; Jesus is talking about peace (or the lack of peace) with other people. But in other passages -- the Christmastime song of the angels which says, in the KJV, on earth peace, good will toward men in Luke 2:14, and Jesus statement Peace I leave with you in John 14:27, for instance -- that *is* the focus.
Second Q: In Matthew 10:35, Jesus says, I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and so forth. Doesnt it sound like Jesus is saying that He came to disrupt families?
A: Yes. It sounds like that. But what Jesus is really doing here is applying Micah 7:6 to the situations that His disciples are going to experience. Micah was describing a time of persecution, and Jesus is saying that He has come to bring about that sort of persecution -- not by calling people to persecute others, but by calling them to be willing to be persecuted, even by members of their own families, when and where such a heavy cross is put upon them for the sake of the truth.
If Jesus had said, Follow My teachings, and do what is right, unless your parents tell you otherwise, I am confident that an objection would be made in the opposite direction. Suppose some scientist, upon discovering something important, told his students, Look, my discovery is factual, but if your parents tell you that you shouldnt believe it, forget all about what Ive said. People would probably say that such a scientist is more committed to family unity than he is to the truth. /Should/ he be? If the discovery was that cigarettes cause cancer, and the parents traditional view was that cigarette-smoke is harmless, should the scientist instruct his students to adhere to the traditional view? I think that a good scientist would recommend the promotion of the truth, even when and where the propagation of the truth leads to disagreements among family-members. Something like that is the sort of scenario that Jesus is describing here.
Third Q: The Jehovahs Witnesses use Matthew 10:35 as part of a case for their members to disfellowship or shun their own family-members. What do you think of that?
A: The disfellowshiping advocated by the Watchtower Society -- about which one can read an interesting article at www.xjw.com/shunning.html with a J.W. reply at www.xjw.com/jw2shun.html -- doesnt seem to be what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 10:35 at all. Jesus is clearly employing Micah 7:6 to describe a persecution-scenario, not some act of church discipline. I can see how someone might wish to apply this verse to consolingly describe a disfellowshipped family-members relationship to his not-disfellowshipped relatives (and it would be likely be quite apropriate if a genuine Christian left the J.W. group, but some family-members remained in it), but I dont see how it can be validly used to form a basis for the practice of disfellowshipping.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: The peace on earth that Jesus is talking about here is a peace-by-placation with the world -- resulting in the sort of society in which (to borrow a phrase from Ravi Zacharias) everyone is free to believe anything, as long as they do not act as if it is true. When Christians act as if the teachings of Christ are true, there will be those who feel threatened by this. For instance, pornographers, marketers of liquor, and drug-dealers stand to lose a lot of business if Christians take Jesus seriously, and as long as they value money above the true God, they will tend to oppose unadulterated Christianity because its effects are bad for their business. Members of false religions, likewise, are likely to feel some animosity against Christians if and when members of their families become Christian and abandon the familys Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, pagan, or atheistic traditions.
It goes without saying that it would be nice if everyone would repent and become Christian. But Jesus does not mislead His followers into that rosy illusion. He knows what awaits Him. He knows what awaits them. To be a member of the Christian church is to be a soldier occupying a beachhead in a heavenly invasion of a rebellious planet. In this sense, when Christ calls anyone to follow Him, it is a spiritual call to arms (/spiritual/ arms, I emphasize!).
At the same time, Jesus *did* come to arrange the terms of a peace-treaty -- not a peace-treaty with the world, but a peace-treaty with God. As the surrounding verses show, Godward peace is not in view in this verse; Jesus is talking about peace (or the lack of peace) with other people. But in other passages -- the Christmastime song of the angels which says, in the KJV, on earth peace, good will toward men in Luke 2:14, and Jesus statement Peace I leave with you in John 14:27, for instance -- that *is* the focus.
Second Q: In Matthew 10:35, Jesus says, I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and so forth. Doesnt it sound like Jesus is saying that He came to disrupt families?
A: Yes. It sounds like that. But what Jesus is really doing here is applying Micah 7:6 to the situations that His disciples are going to experience. Micah was describing a time of persecution, and Jesus is saying that He has come to bring about that sort of persecution -- not by calling people to persecute others, but by calling them to be willing to be persecuted, even by members of their own families, when and where such a heavy cross is put upon them for the sake of the truth.
If Jesus had said, Follow My teachings, and do what is right, unless your parents tell you otherwise, I am confident that an objection would be made in the opposite direction. Suppose some scientist, upon discovering something important, told his students, Look, my discovery is factual, but if your parents tell you that you shouldnt believe it, forget all about what Ive said. People would probably say that such a scientist is more committed to family unity than he is to the truth. /Should/ he be? If the discovery was that cigarettes cause cancer, and the parents traditional view was that cigarette-smoke is harmless, should the scientist instruct his students to adhere to the traditional view? I think that a good scientist would recommend the promotion of the truth, even when and where the propagation of the truth leads to disagreements among family-members. Something like that is the sort of scenario that Jesus is describing here.
Third Q: The Jehovahs Witnesses use Matthew 10:35 as part of a case for their members to disfellowship or shun their own family-members. What do you think of that?
A: The disfellowshiping advocated by the Watchtower Society -- about which one can read an interesting article at www.xjw.com/shunning.html with a J.W. reply at www.xjw.com/jw2shun.html -- doesnt seem to be what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 10:35 at all. Jesus is clearly employing Micah 7:6 to describe a persecution-scenario, not some act of church discipline. I can see how someone might wish to apply this verse to consolingly describe a disfellowshipped family-members relationship to his not-disfellowshipped relatives (and it would be likely be quite apropriate if a genuine Christian left the J.W. group, but some family-members remained in it), but I dont see how it can be validly used to form a basis for the practice of disfellowshipping.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
