Luke 12:51

51 Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it.

Luke 12:51 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 12:51

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?
&c.] To set up a temporal kingdom, in great pomp, and outward peace and tranquility? Christ came to make peace with God for men, and to give the Gospel of peace, and spiritual and eternal peace to men; but not external peace, especially that, which is not consistent with the preservation of truth:

I tell you, nay;
whatever suppositions you have made, or whatever notions you have entertained, I solemnly affirm, and you may depend upon it, I am not come into the world on any such account, as to establish outward peace among men;

but rather division;
so he calls the Gospel, which in Matthew is styled a "sword"; and the Ethiopic version seems to have read both here, since it renders it, "but a sword that I may divide": the Gospel is the sword of the Spirit, which divides asunder soul and Spirit, and separates a man from his former principles and practices; and sets men apart from one another, even the nearest relations, at the greatest distance; and is, through the sin of man, the occasion of great contention, discord, and division.

Luke 12:51 In-Context

49 "I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning!

50 I have a baptismn to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over.

51 Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it.

52 From now on, a family with five people will be divided, three against two, and two against three.

53 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."