God used Christ’s kingship to set His chosen ones apart from those who fail to glorify Him. The great division between real believers and people unfit to live in spiritual eternity became necessary. And it’s in becoming divided we stand in God’s glory!

Christ made it known (Matthew 10:34-39), He didn’t come with peace but to carry out God’s ruling. In fact, God decided it was time to rescue His people from the false teachers and set up Christ as His Supreme Ruler. So, from this point forward a real believer must accept Christ as God’s way (John 14:6).

 

It’s important to realize not everyone enters heaven. This may confuse you because we hear a belief in Christ (Acts 16:31) equals salvation. Christ shared this:

 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV)

With this in mind, Jesus is reminding us a simple belief isn’t enough. We must go further and live by examples of God’s grace (Romans 10:9). This means our actions must show others the internal changes Christ made in our hearts.

Remember talk is cheap, but faith in action is life-changing (James 1:22).

The message of Christ’s division is easy to grasp. It’s in those verses (Matthew 10:34-39) that Christ shows God’s truth on a believer’s relationship with Christ.

First, He shows us loving Him must become our number one priority and fail to love Him above everything will end up unfavorable in God’s eyes (Matthew 10:37).

It’s important to realize our love for Christ must go beyond the kind we have for our families and friends. God commands us to love him first then love others (Matthew 22:36-40). Our ancient ancestor Abraham is a prime example of how to love God even when it means denying a love for family (Genesis 22:1-24).

Christ divided love as a reminder of glorifying God. Here we must accept the Lord as the reason we live and love Him without reservations. In reality, Jesus is saying by loving God first our affection towards family increases.

As important to loving Christ is denying oneself for His purpose (Matthew 10:38). Nothing is more satisfying to God than humbling ourselves before Christ. When we abandon our personal agenda and seek Christ, then God steps in and blesses us with His grace. This remarkable interaction with God is experiencing the undeniable existence of the Holy Spirit.

Again, Christ teaches us we must become divided from our powerlessness over temptations. Until I surrender myself to Jesus, the mystery of God stays elusive.

I experienced both sides of this division. On the negative side, I defied God. In this chapter of my existence agnosticism caused me immense suffering. I tried my best in convincing others to turn away from God by pointing out His unresponsive reactions to the wickedness of the world.

My argument based on the cruelty people inflicted on each other was wrong. I didn’t understand how God works in a broken world. As shown above, those thoughts got me nowhere.

It brings me great joy to announce God has removed my disbelief. Today I no longer live on the wrong side of Christ’s division. As a matter of fact the Lord shed His grace upon me, and now I see the world through faith’s eyes. This new and profound outlook isn’t of my making but Christ.

Given these points, I owe everything to God.

In summary, Jesus’s division paves the way to an eternal life with God. Jesus divided us so we can glorify God in heaven.

What’re your thoughts on Christ’s division?