A Question of Division
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A Question of Division

Luke 12:49–53  (ID: 2936)

Why did Jesus tell His disciples that He came to bring division on earth? And why do we find passages like Luke 12 so challenging to understand? Alistair Begg helps us comprehend our environment’s hostility to exclusive truth, noting that when Jesus transforms our lives, it often appears upside down, even to those closest to us. While division is not Christianity’s goal, it can be a by-product as the Gospel radically alters our loyalty.


Not Peace, but Division

49“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.

Alistair Begg
Alistair Begg is Senior Pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bible teacher on Truth For Life, which is heard on the radio and online around the world.