Unity or division?

I was once informed, very vehemently, by someone I love that, "Jesus was not divisive!" I hear it all the time. Christ came to bring peace and unity. Unity, unity, unity. We must all be peaceful and one in purpose. There must be no division. Paul said so.

But I read in the Bible where Jesus made a whip and chased people with it. I read Matthew 10:34 where Jesus Himself states that He did not come to bring peace, he came to bring a sword. Even when he comes back, it will be with a sword (Rebelation 1:16). And what is this sword used for? According to Hebrews 4:12 it's for dividing.

But what is divided? Paul did indeed rebuke division among the brethren. But Jesus talked about dividing the goats from the sheep, the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow. So who was correct?

Both.

We divide the clean from the unclean, the righteous from the unrightous, the lawful from the lawless, and in that division, we cleave to those with us and unify with them. We do not try to unify by mixing the two divisions together. Do we clean dishes by mixing the washed ones with the used ones? No. We keep them seperate. Do we make rotten food healthy by mixing in good food? No. We keep them seperate. And by this analogy, should the followers of Jesus act like the world just for the sake of unity and to make them righteous and clean before God? No.

Jesus was absolutely divisive. He divided the clean from the unclean, the truth from man's lies, the lawful from the lawless, the sheep from the goats. So every place you see Jesus acting divisivly, understand why. He was not driving a wedge between his believers. Satan does that because a divided house falls (Matthew 12:25).

#evidence #substance