“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword...” Matthew 10:34

Jesus, heralded by angels as bringing peace (Luke 2:14), now claims he brings a sword. This is not a contradiction, but a clarification: Peace with God comes through Christ, but this often brings division with the

world. The light of Christ is intolerable to a sinful world - truth divides.

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. John 3:19-20 ESV