Division

Picture this: a group of people who you consider to be close to you, perhaps some good friends. One of your good friends is akin to “the leader of the pack”, the one who seems to be on top of the food chain. The one no one else wants to mess with, lest this person gets angry or upset.

Messing with, meaning: disagreeing with, saying something the wrong way. Anything that can rub this person the wrong way, no matter how insignificant this thing may be.

You are not a Christian yet. You are living like the heathen, living and conversing with these people.

As a whole, besides the dysfunctional system they all have going with the leader of the pack, your group of close friends do not really get along. On the outside they may appear as if they do, but taking a closer look at them, you see they are friends because they feel that they have to be. 

They’re either fighting about something, or not voicing their disagreements or their true opinions. This in turns sums them all up as living a fake happiness. None of them are willing to stir the pot by saying what’s on their mind. Their heads are all wrapped around meaningless worldly pursuits. They try to fill the emptiness inside them with unsatisfying fillers, never truly feeling whole.

Over time, the leader of the pack has lead them all down a road of lies and fallacies, and has on many occasions shown her true deceitful colours. Somehow she still has them all believing a sort of “master deception”. Knowing of her deceitfulness, her constant lies and embellishments, they foolishly continue follow her and bow at her feet. They do absolutely nothing to change how things are going.

You play along with this for a bit, fully aware that there is something wrong, that following this faulty system is to your peril. But you yourself do not want to get the leader upset.

After some time, you then become a Bible-believing Christian, ready to give up your way of life, and live to please God and not man. 

Your friends do not like this. Not a single one.

The leader of the pack laughs and pokes fun at you, mocks you and belittles your beliefs. She tries to coax you into sin, to leave the faith, to entice you to come back to your old way of living. After many tries, the leader gets sick of trying to get you back. Now, she also hates your way of life.

Amazingly, this entire group of Godless people, having never really agreed on anything wholeheartedly, finally found harmony and agreed on one thing: hating Christianity. Hating you. Hating Christ.

At that moment, you think: Christ really did come to divide.

Matthew 10:34-36

Luke 12:51