Luke 12:51

51 Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront!

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've come to start a fire on this earth - how I wish it were blazing right now!

50 I've come to change everything, turn everything rightside up - how I long for it to be finished!

51 Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront!

52 From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be - Three against two, and two against three;

53 Father against son, and son against father; Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; Mother-in-law against bride, and bride against mother-in-law."