For I am come to set a man at variance against
Or "to divide a man from his father". Here our Lord opens and
explains what he means by the sword, intestine divisions,
domestic broils, family differences, as well as such as appear in
towns, cities, and kingdoms, which are exemplified by other
instances following;
and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law:
the case is this, a father believing in Christ, embracing his
Gospel, and submitting to his institutions, is contradicted,
opposed, and persecuted by his own son, and a mother by her own
daughter; in both which relations, natural affection knit them
together; and the mother-in-law by her daughter-in-law, who
before lived together in the most peaceable, kind, and tender
manner: which must be imputed, not to Christ, and the doctrines
of Christ, and the natural tendency of them, embraced by the
father, the mother, and mother-in-law; but to the natural enmity
of the son, the daughter, and the daughter-in-law, to everything
divine, spiritual, and evangelical, or "vice versa".