Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but He did not come to bring an easy or superficial peace. The ultimate conflict is between man and God, true peace only comes when man repents and submits to God. Jesus quotes from Micah 7:6.
Jesus has come to reclaim what belongs to God, to bring the Kingdom of God. Now if we welcome this kingdom then all is well, but if those who are in rebellion insist on remaining in rebellion then there will be conflict. And this conflict will involve even families. For the most fundamental relationship is that between a man and God. If we are in right relationship with God, then other relationships will function better. If we are in rebellion against God, then all sorts of things will go wrong.
Moreover we must love God more than even our closest relatives. Now we need to be fully aware that the most common failing is not loving our relatives enough, and there are numerous commands to love our wives, children, parents. But if push comes to shove, then we must love God more than all others. When faced with such a conflict we can fear losing our life. Not in the literal sense, but in the sense of losing something so precious. The temptation can then be to hold on to it. The result of this will be to lose our life, we end up losing what we sought to save. If, however, we are prepared to lose something for Christ's sake, then we will find that we gain so much more, even what we thought we would lose.
We need to remember the context of all this teaching. It is Jesus preparing us for extreme difficulties, and it needs to be understood in that context.
The passage closes on a happier note. While there will be those who oppose us, there will also be those who help us. For just as those who oppose Jesus will oppose us, those who welcome Jesus will welcome us. And such people will receive a reward for all the help they give to Christ, no matter how small it may seem to be.
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