Matthew 10:35

35 make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law - cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God.

Matthew 10:35 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 10:35

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".

Matthew 10:35 In-Context

33 If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?

34 "Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut -

35 make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law - cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God.

36 Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies.

37 If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me.