“I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword” (Gospel of Matthew 10:34)
What is the meaning of this verse? What is Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ trying to say here?
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” [Matthew 10:32-39; ESV]
The focus of this verse is loyalty, and what that loyalty entails. Our Lord, after stating that those who deny Him before men will be denied before the Father (for it is in Christ’s hands that our lives lay, either for judgment or eternal life), goes on to show the seriousness of what this means. He declares that He will set man against father, daughter against mother, daughter-inlaw- against mother-in-law, etc. He concludes that whoever finds his life (as in, preserves it) will lose it, and whoever loses it (that is, in His name) will find it. Hence the statement in the transitional sentence: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
The Church Fathers often referred to this as “hateless hatred” of our family. That is, we aren’t asked to hate our family (that would contradict Christ’s constant teaching that we should love and respect our parents) but that we should prioritize God over them. That is, if my father told me, “Renounce Christ or you’re out of the family,” I would have to keep my loyalty to Christ. In that sense, Christ has “brought a sword” into the family to cause division - but not one based on disrespect but loyalty to God. We are to acknowledge God before men, even if that means men will deny us; if we deny God to receive the acknowledgment of men, then we will be denied by God on the day of judgment.
Nobody knew what this passage meant more than those who have lived in times of persecution. In the days of Roman persecutions you had fathers turning in sons, fathers killing daughters, children turning in their parents, all because someone in the family had been discovered to be a Christian. Yet they are now all closer to God than most of us our today.
On that note, I have to quote one of the greatest last lines in film history: from “The Robe,” when Marcellus and Diana have refused to deny Christ before Nero, and are being led away to martyrdom, and the emperor cackles madly, “They’re going into a better kingdom! They’re going to meet their King!” Words of mockery that are words of joy to those who treasure loyalty to God over loyalty to man, be it authorities or family.
