Luke 12:51 – Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

Luke 12:52 – For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

Luke 12:53 – The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Hello readers, back with a new blog. The great divide. When I say great divide what do you think of? Maybe you think of a line on a map dividing continents. Maybe you think of geography and mountain ranges. But today I want to talk about division, and then the true great divide.

Often when you stand for what the Bible says you get many labels hung on you. False accusations are not just to be expected, they’re to be embraced as a Christian. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of Egypt.  That’s quite a statement and quite a verse. So don’t be afraid of getting false labels hung on you. They did it to Jesus, so they surely will do it to you.

The thing I will say is that make sure that the false accusation is actually false. There is a big difference between suffering for righteousness’ sake and suffering as an evil doer. Peter laid that out in his first epistle. Make sure they don’t actually have a case against you. Often when I’ve done wrong that’s the first thing that comes into my mind. There’s no reward from God because I’m suffering because I actually have deserved what I’ve copped. If we are going to suffer, let it be for the Lord Jesus Christ, for doing right.

Maybe you have been accused of being divisive, or maybe you are the one calling others divisive. But let’s just think about that. In John 7:43 the Bible says “So there was a division among the people because of him.” Because of who? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself caused division. Did you know that? Jesus Christ caused a division in that society he was in. He’s still the great divide today.

What is being divisive? Webster’s 1828 defines divisive as “forming division” or “creating division or discord”. Sowing discord among the brethren is actually an abomination to God in Proverbs. So if you’re getting accused of being divisive, make sure it’s Jesus Christ like division, not because you’re a gossip or tale bearer or slanderer or false accuser. Jesus Christ didn’t divide people with lies, no, he divided people with the truth. Because he is the truth and the way and the life.

Jesus Christ divided people because of who he is and what he said. So when you’re tagged with being divisive as a born again follower of Jesus Christ, it’s not you being divisive, but the truth that is in you, the truth that you stand for that is doing the dividing. Jesus Christ divides people, look at what he said in Luke 12:51 “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:” See we all want peace and love and blah, but there is a division that is inescapable that comes with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of God. And it is a good division, because it separates faith from unbelief, repentant from unrepentant, truth from lie, light from darkness, incorruption from corruption and ultimately heaven from hell.

Truth divides people. Truth immediately divides between what is true and what is not. Truth immediately divides between what is right and what is not. The very nature of truth is that it is divisive. Truth is divided from all lies. Jesus said “No lie is of the truth”. When people accuse legitimate Christians of being divisive, generally it’s just an accusation designed to get you to shut up because they’re convicted by the truth, by the light, by the person of Jesus Christ in you. They’re on the other side of the divide, that’s why they hate you and hate your message and hate your hope and hate your Saviour.

The principle of division is very strong in the Bible. God divided light from the darkness right back in Genesis 1. This great principle of division is being violated everywhere in not just society and this world, but in Christendom. We’ve tried not having a divide when you can’t not have a divide.

When you get saved, there is a division that happens within yourself even. God’s word divides between your soul and spirit. When you are saved, that born again man in you is totally divided from your outer man. You become divided within yourself, one part of your wanting to obey and honour God, and the other part still wanting sin, a part that you must constantly put under yourself and fight a good fight against by faith. When you get saved, you will experience division between yourself and those who are not divided unto Christ. Instantly there will be separation between you and your old buddies. There will be a divide between your new thinking and your old thinking. There will be a divide between your new life and your old life. Hey, the great divide is everywhere.

You want to talk about the greatest divide of all? You want to talk about the capital letters “Great Divide”? Have a look at this one. Abraham said to the rich man in hell in Luke 16:26 “And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” That sounds like a great divide doesn’t it. Those saved and in paradise totally and fully and forever separated from those that rejected Christ. What a divide. What a terrible divide. God divides, and really at the end of it, all that matters is what side of the great divide you are on. For your surely will be on one side of the divide that God has made. Will you be with Jesus Christ? Or against Jesus Christ? The clear divide cannot be blurred. Do you love the world, or do you love Jesus Christ? Do you rather darkness, or have you come to the light.

I see people saying oh you are closed minded. You need to be more open minded. That sounds great, but it’s one of the worst bits of logic I can think of. It’s good to be closed minded. It’s good to be closed minded to rape, murder, pedophilia, lying, cheating, stealing, envy, greed, covetousness and on and on. That’s all wrong and sin and wickedness and evil. It’s good to place that on one side of the divide. It’s good to be closed minded to doing drugs and drinking alcohol and sleeping around. It’s good to be closed minded to false religions, to lying pastors, to fake churches, and to all the wisdom and philosophy and programs and fads and entertainments and amusements and distractions and lies of this world.

I’m close minded to going to hell, are you? We are meant to not be double minded, so you can’t have a closed and open mind at the same time. Closed and open are divided from each other. Many people halt between two opinions, and many people are so unstable because they do have a double mind about everything and they are trying to have a foot on either side of the divide, and the result is instability and confusion and ultimately, separation, disobedience and rebellion towards God.

If you don’t get more closed minded to lies and darkness and wickedness and all the garbage that’s out there competing for you mind and heart and soul and life … you will end up getting closed on. Look at this verse in Luke 13:25 “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:” Imagine this. If you don’t get closed minded to, one day you’ll find that door closed on you. There came a day when the door of the ark was shut, and God shut it. That closed door divided between who was on the ark and who was not. Eight people were in the ark, and the rest of the world was not in the ark. Talk about the great divide.

Here’s another one, they say you are so narrow minded. Well, like with the close minded, it’s actually not just good, but necessary to be narrow minded. After all, the way of truth is very narrow. Jesus Christ said he is THE way, THE truth, THE life, and NO man cometh unto the Father but BY him. That’s as narrow as you can get. Hows this for narrow? Matthew 7:14 “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Tell Jesus Christ to stop being narrow minded why don’t you.

Salvation is the narrow way, and you need a narrow mind to get on and stay on that way. The narrow way is not the broad road, and those two paths in life are utterly and forever divided from each other. The narrow way leads to life, the broad road leads to destruction. Life and destruction are in a great divide from each other. The thing is, Christians need and needed to be more narrow minded, but they were open minded to the lies of the devil, to the philosophy and opinions and science of the world, they weren’t narrow minded when it came to their Bible, and it has cost them their faith and hope and life.

The problem is, it’s a strait gate that keeps the narrow way. And there’s no entering that narrow way but through the strait gate. Strait is an interesting word, because it’s been lost a bit in our modern language. But strait carries with it the idea of distress, difficulty, trouble. When I say I am in dire straits, it means I am in trouble. So strait isn’t just narrow, it’s also referring to the stress and difficulty of the narrowness. People don’t want stress and trouble and difficulty, that’s not a gate they want to push through. They don’t want to hear they’re a sinner. They don’t want to repent. They don’t want to forsake this world’s pleasures. They don’t want truth. See, it’s all too strait for them. Preaching about hell, death, judgment, wrath… it’s too strait for them. Suffering for Jesus Christ? That’s a strait gate. And that strait gate keeps a lot of people from entering. They’d’ rather acceptance, comfort, ease, popularity, pleasure, riches, fun, games… lies. Because it’s not a difficult way.

The wide gate leads to the broad way. There’s a lot of wide gate religion out there isn’t there. Jesus Christ isn’t wide. He’s narrow and exclusive and strait. But people want a wide way. They want that wide gate of everyone’s right and everyone’s going to heaven. Accept everyone. Love everyone. Everyone serves the same God. Everyone’s truth is truth. Everyone is right. Everyone needs to be heard. Accept and believe every lie. Their wide gate accepts and justifies sin. That’s a gate they like. The wide gate has no reproof, correction, rebuke, or conviction of sin. And that wide gate leads to a broad way. MANY people are on it. It’s got a lot of traffic on it. Hey, that’s where everyone else are going, let’s take that path too. Everyone else says it. Everyone else believes it. Everyone else does it. Yeah, follow everyone else to hell. So long as you’re with everyone else right?

God is the God of division. God divides what’s right from what’s not right. God divided his Son from everyone and everything else. Truth, righteousness, judgment, justice, hope, peace, forgiveness, salvation, life, heaven… it’s ONLY in Jesus Christ. That means it’s not anywhere else. Truth by nature divides. Jesus Christ is the Great Divide. He will divide between saved and lost and heaven and hell. Did you know that? What side are you on? There was a thief on one side of Christ that went to heaven, and another thief on the other side of Christ that went to hell. Jesus Christ divides between heaven and hell.

Get on the right side of the Great Divide. I remember in John 21, when Peter went fishing with some of the other disciples and after a long night catching nothing, Jesus stood on the shore the following morning and they didn’t even recognize him and he said “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find”. See, the right is divided from the wrong. Get on the right side of truth, of the Bible, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s there you’ll find the great catch of salvation, hope, and glory. And as a Christian we need to make sure we are on the right side, not the wrong side, because on the wrong side is a barren and unfruitful life.

The right side is divided from the wrong side. Jesus Christ came to send division. Truth is divisive. And you will be accused of many things, and this is one of them. It’s not the worst thing to be accused of, just make sure it’s not being bad divisive like lying about people. But if you’re accused of being divisive for standing by Jesus Christ, and on his side of the Great Divide, let it be so. Be with the sheep on his right hand, not with the goats on his left. Be his wheat, not the tares. Be the grain, not the chaff. Get on the right side of the Great Divide.

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