Division--a good thing?

"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 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 12:49-53)

What is the worst sin you can think of? Is it murder? Is it adultery? Or is the worst sin of all idolatry? I’ll tell you what the worst sin is, according to most people. For most teachers, politicians, entertainers and sports figures, for most farmers, mechanics, carpenters, and grocery store clerks, the worst sin of all is the sin of division.

Division is the root of all this world’s problems. What is the cause of war? Countries divided over who owns the land. Why is there gridlock in Washington? The two parties are divided over policy. Why is there crime? There is a division between the ‘Haves’ and the ‘Have-Nots’. What is the cause of divorce? Couples divided over their priorities in life.

No one wants to be hurt. Conflict inevitably results in hurt, so our society tries to eliminate conflict. One way to reduce conflict is to reduce the divisions between people, giving them less to fight about. We don’t want blacks and whites and hispanics fighting with each other, so our schools try to teach that people are not different because of skin color, and that no one culture is ‘better’ than another. We don’t want people to get beaten up because of their personal beliefs, so our politicians pass laws making ‘hate’ crimes illegal. We don’t want convicts to live their entire lives in custody, so our prisons offer rehabilitation and training to inmates.

Reducing divisions between people can be a good thing, but in recent years it has been taken to extremes. Nowadays, any disagreement is considered a bad thing. You must be accepting of homosexuality, or you are guilty of discrimination. You must not protest against abortion, otherwise you are not respecting a woman’s rights. You cannot disapprove of divorce or people living together, because what happens between two people is no one else’s business. You should teach that there are many names for God and just as many ways to Heaven.

In the eyes of most Americans, intolerance is the Great Evil. When we try to tell others that homosexual behavior is detested by God, we are sneered at. People will say “I thought your God is a God of love? If He really loved me, He’d accept me just the way I am.” When we try to tell a friend that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, we are accused of trying to push our beliefs on others. Friends will tell us “What makes you think you’re the only one who knows how to get into Heaven? How dare you think that I’m going to Hell!” In today’s world, most everyone has a very thin skin when someone suggests that we are wrong.

In actuality, the problems of our world are not divisions, but the sin that causes divisions. It is this sin that Jesus was born to destroy. The one truly horrible division is the division between man and God. God is holy, and nothing imperfect can stand before Him without being destroyed by the power of His holiness. Since every man, woman and child is imperfect from birth, none of us could face God at our death without being completely consumed by His infinite glory. But God has always loved us and wanted us to enter His throne room in safety. So our heavenly Father sent His divine Son to live a human life, with us and for us. During that life, on our behalf, Jesus fulfilled every obligation we had to God. When Jesus was executed on the cross, He was executed by His own Father; Jesus died for our crimes so that we could live. When Jesus’ blood dripped down his body on the cross, He was undergoing a baptism—a baptism in blood that washed away all the sins of every one of us. When He died, our sins died with Him. And when Jesus returned to life on Sunday morning, He rose from death purified of our sin. That is why Saint Paul tells us don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:3-4). Jesus died and rose so that, through baptism, we may die to sin and rise purified, fit to stand before our Maker.

The trouble is, not everyone wants to be purified. Jesus did the hard part for us, but going through death to life by baptism is still a painful thing. Being reborn means that we have to reevaluate our past lives and be willing to change our ways when necessary. God does not approve of drunkenness. God does not approve of divorce. God does not approve of sex outside of marriage, of abortion, of homosexuality. To be reborn in Christ is to look at these behaviors and say “Lord, I’m sorry. That was wrong. Please help me to never do that again.” But some people enjoy their sins too much to try and give them up. Such people do not want to be criticized for doing wrong. How can it be wrong when it feels so right? So they tell us to leave them alone, mind our own business. But, since we love them, we don’t want to see our relatives, our neighbors, our friends go to Hell when they die; so we work on them patiently, trying to get them to see that the life they are living is making them unhappy now, and will doom them in the end. Since no sinner wants to admit he’s wrong, there is retaliation against our love. We are called ‘busy-bodies’, ‘goodie-two-shoes.’ Sin cannot stand God’s light, and will fight against it.

Eventually, the conflict will test our loyalties. For the sake of family unity, do I ignore my sister’s sin? Or for the sake of her soul, do I confront her and risk alienating her? The world would have us believe that love would ignore her sin and treasure her as a sister. But God tells us that true love is being willing to sacrifice anything—maybe even her friendship—to help her to see her sin and desire Christ’s forgiveness. Some people call this ‘tough love.’

Jesus said that He would bring division among men. Jesus wasn’t making a threat, He was stating the inevitable outcome of His war with Satan. Make no mistake, we are in a war. Jesus has broken Satan’s back, but Satan is a poor loser. Until the day of final Judgment, the Devil continues to stir up selfishness in everyone he can. And so we live in a world of divisions, where people who love God and are dedicated to His wisdom are constantly at odds with those who ignorantly follow Satan--people who love the life of sin they lead, and will do anything to safeguard their ‘right’ to sin. Jesus wants everyone to look to Him in faith and be saved from their corruption; it is this divine love, seeking to save the unwilling through our lips and hands and feet, that continues to stir up trouble for us. Conventional wisdom advises to let a sleeping dog lie. We are blessed that Jesus didn’t let us sleep in our sins; but not every woken dog will be as grateful as we.

Saint Paul writes: has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20). The society of our world says that divisions are bad, but God shows us that some divisions are good. All mankind was doomed to an eternity of torment in Hell until Jesus came to seek us and save us. Now Earth is divided, the righteous from the unrighteous. And this is a good thing. First of all, being divided benefits us here in this life. Scripture warns us repeatedly not to be mixed in with the ungodly. Paul writes mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them
(2 Timothy 3:1-5). Being divided from such people is a blessing for us; who would want to be close friends with such people? Now, Paul isn’t telling us to let them continue to Hell without a loving word of warning; God wants everyone to be saved. But Paul warns us not to be a part of a social group with people like this; constant exposure to their godless ways will only tempt us to compromise our faith for the sake of their approval. God had set the nation of Israel apart, not so that the Israelites could a kind of ‘holy club,’ but so that they would remain pure as they acted as God's ambassadors to a wretchedly evil world. In the same way, we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, so that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Being set aside for God’s service, being divided from the ungodly, is a privilege, a high honor.

But the best part of being divided from the ungodly will come on the Last Day. Jesus tells us what will happen: All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world…Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:32-34, 41, 46). What a wonderful blessing we have received! If Jesus had not baptized us with His blood shed on the cross, if Jesus had not carried our sins into death and left them there, there would be no division. Everyone would stand on Jesus’ left; everyone would be cursed by God for the evil beings that we are. But Jesus did make full payment for our sins. Jesus came to us in His Word, in His baptism, in His Supper. Jesus divided us from our sinful heritage by calling us to repent and blessing us with forgiveness. On the Last Day we will be on Jesus’ right hand; we will receive the inheritance of life in Heaven with God. Because of Jesus’ love that sought us out and separated us from the kingdom of Satan, Jesus will declare us blessed by His heavenly Father.

The world hates Christians because we dare to say out loud that God is angered by sinful behavior. The world hates Christians because we dare to say out loud that the only way back to God is through faith in Christ and the change of heart that He works in His believers. The world hates being told that it is wrong, and the world hates people who won’t ‘go with the flow.’ But we have seen what this world has to offer, and we aren’t interested. God has set us apart, not to be members of the world, but to be citizens of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the Prince of Peace—but the peace that Jesus gives isn’t a worldly peace, it is peace between God and us. As members of His Kingdom, we no longer fear God’s anger; instead we live lives trusting in His love. We continually invite others to come to Jesus and also enter His Kingdom, but if they don’t want to leave their sinful ways behind, they have chosen to be divided from God--and that is the worst division of all. And as we look at those who live divided from God, each of us can truly say "there, but for the Grace of God, go I."