“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, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51-53)
A number of years ago, I had an altercation with a relative. She was a devout follower of a non-Christian religion, and it was because of this that the conflict erupted. She was of the rather lame opinion that all religions are essentially the same, and direct mankind toward good, and as devout as she was, she claimed that she regarded family as the most important. There are some people who assume that if a religion divides a family, then it must be a dangerous cult.
She said, “Isn’t religion about unity? And isn’t family the most important?” I replied, “Of course not. Religion is about truth, and especially truth about God and truth from God. This truth leads to right worship and salvation. I hold that the truth is in Jesus Christ, and only in him. And since you do not think this way, I denounce your religion as false. Since religion is about God, it is more important than anything else, and much more important than family.”
Then I added, “However, if you really believe that religion is about unity, and if you really believe that family is the most important thing, why don’t you renounce your religion so that there may be unity between us?” She refused. You see, she was a hypocrite. She wanted me to compromise my faith to accommodate her, but she would not budge an inch herself, even though she was the one who said that religion should be about unity and that family should occupy the highest place.
So it is with all those who tout religious tolerance and diversity, and who fault the Christian faith for refusing to follow their agenda. They are hypocritical, self-righteous, and self-contradictory people. They do not really mean that everyone should accept everyone else, but that all Christians should abandon their beliefs and embrace this other hodgepodge of madness and confusion. If we reject this nonsense, then they say we are bigoted and violent, a menace to society.
Do not be tricked. They are liars. They will portray Christ as someone that he was not, construe his words to say something that he never meant, or somehow manipulate you into compromising your allegiance to him. Even though they claim that peace is more important than our ideological differences, they will not renounce their own beliefs in order to have peace with you. Even though they scream tolerance and diversity, their tolerance and diversity have no room for the Christians that disagree with them.
Perhaps even the contemporaries of Christ imagined that he would bring harmony into all human relationships, or at least in the household or the country, where the bond of blood and of nationality already existed, waiting to be perfected by this great prophet, the Messiah. Jesus said that this would have been a misunderstanding. He did not come to bring peace or unity among men, but he would introduce division even where there was none before. He was not embarrassed about this, but he said, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).
True peace is possible only when non-Christians renounce their religions, their philosophies, their sciences – which are false and irrational – and bow down to Jesus Christ. True unity is possible only when non-Christians throw up their hands, and repent in dust and ashes. Then we shall embrace them, and call them brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers. Unless this happens, there will always be division between us.
Non-Christians try to blame us for this, but the division persists because Truth has come, and they cannot chase him away. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This is what he said. What are we going to do about it? They do not believe it, but we do. People talk about “the elephant in the room.” Well, Jesus Christ has come, and he stands in our midst. He is the issue that cannot be ignored. If you pretend that it is not there or that it makes no difference, it will kick you in the face.
As Christians, we long for peace, but we are not satisfied with pretense, with a peace that is based on compromise, on delusion, and on hiding our true beliefs. We are satisfied only with a peace that is based on a common belief in the truth, the truth that God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ and recorded for us in the Bible.
Indeed, as he declared in a different context, Jesus Christ brought unity, but only for his own people. In fact, this unity was so powerful that it overwhelmed many generations of prejudice, so that Jews and Gentiles learned to accept one another, the rich embraced the poor and washed their feet, and women were recognized as co-heirs with men through Jesus Christ, even priests of God who had direct access to the heavenly throne, with full rights to receive an education in godliness.
Of course, there is always more work to be done, since sin still works among us, and new believers come into the church daily, but outside of Christ there is no such unity at all. Again, we refer not to a superficial civility made possible by compromise or suppression of disagreement, but an unbreakable brotherhood united by truth and faith. Let us, then, follow the example of Christ, and bring unity where there should be unity, but division where there ought to be division.