A Gospel of Division? Blog

Last night, you asked questions about the gospel and its implications in our lives and world. One question, in particular, was difficult and thought-provoking: “Can the gospel break relationships and hurt people and turn them from God? Seems that way sometimes.”

In Luke 12, Jesus addresses a large crowd, while His disciples stand by His side. He speaks hard truths about hypocrisy and the futility of worrying. But perhaps His most difficult truth is when He says, "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother" (Luke 12:51-53).

What does this mean? What about the peaceful, bucolic Jesus who only speaks words of hope and reconciliation? Many of us have heard stories of people who become Christians, later to be disowned by their families. There are couples who face division when one is a believer and one is not. Because of my conversion to Christianity at 23, one of my friendships suddenly became very heavy and even taxing.

So, in a very real sense, the gospel of Jesus Christ is divisive. Why? Because Jesus Christ Himself is divisive. He challenges us to live differently than the world (one “must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” - Mark 8:34). He asks us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43). Instead of self-preservation, He says that the greatest thing a person can do is to lay his life down for his friends (John 15:13). This doesn’t mean that Jesus is all doom and gloom; after all, peace is His ultimate goal and the reason He died. But it does mean that in order to arrive at reconciliation (word origin is “to bring together with force”), tough things are inevitable. Have you experienced the gospel as divisive? Why do you think this happens?

Jennifer Johnson serves as Publications Coordinator at CPC and is part of the Table Team

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