The Bringing of Division

Reading our Lord’s teaching on our need to be ready for Christ’s return and the final judgment, we see quite clearly that there will be a divide on the last day between two groups of people. One group will receive great blessing, but the other group will find only tremendous suffering (Luke 12:35–48).

We must not think, however, that division does not come before the final day of the Lord. Although Christ’s return consummates divine judgment, bringing in the new heavens and earth as well as the ultimate form of damnation in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:1–22:5), a separation and sorting of people comes before then, as we see in today’s passage.

Our text begins with a record of a statement that Jesus made at that point in His earthly ministry. Because He came to “cast fire” on the earth, He was eager to see the fire fall. This could not take place, however, until He underwent His baptism (Luke 12:49–50). Since Jesus had been baptized by John some time earlier (see Luke 3:1–22), He did not mean that His own baptism in the Jordan River lay ahead. The language of baptism most likely comes from the waters of divine judgment, a metaphor commonly found in the Old Testament (e.g., Isa. 8:5–8). Fire is associated with judgment and with the work of the Holy Spirit to purify God’s people and destroy the wicked (see Matt. 3:11; 1 Cor. 3:10–15; Rev. 18:8). Our Lord was saying that He came to bring God’s final judgment but that He could not bring that judgment until He Himself had borne God’s wrath on His people in their place.

The judgment that comes on the last day will manifest the division between those who serve God and those who do not, but that divide begins in the present era as the gospel is preached. Jesus notes that even families will be divided based on the gospel. Some family members may not believe in Christ for salvation even as other family members do, and this will set them against one another. We should note, however, that this division between people within families will not happen in every family or to the same degree in every family. In some households, the gospel will be widely believed. John Calvin comments that “[Jesus] does not mean that this [division] uniformly take place, as certain fretful persons foolishly imagine that it will be impossible for them to be good disciples without forsaking parents, children, and wives. On the contrary, every lawful bond of union is confirmed by unity of faith: only Christ warns his followers, that when [division] does happen, they must not be alarmed.”