17th Angel said:
Love it... Heh, Indeed who is he? To say you have to love him more than your family? I believe him not to be the son of god but if he and god were real then still, what is the point??? As I have said a few times you get given this free will, but then have to act like a dog with blind loyalty.
It would be helpful to look at the context of the passage.
Early in Matthew 10, Jesus is sending His disciples to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, a meesage that has been lost in the legalism of 1st century Judaism. Jesus is always contending against the scribes and Pharisees because of their hypocrisy and reliance to their vain traditions (as evident back in Matthew 5).
For those who reject the message, the disciples are instructed to brush the dust off their feet at that house or city. The Gospel of the Kingdom will not sit well with some folks. Jesus tells them that you will be hated by men for His Name's sake and will suffer persecution.
They will also find that the message of the Kingdom will not sit well with family members, for it is foreign to them.
It is the message of the Kingdom that is the sword that will divide, not a physical sword that will separate families. And the message is basically this:
What people fail to understand is that our love for our family, our friends, our lovers and spouses, our sons and daughters, pales in comparasion with the Love of God. When we connect with God and experience His love, THEN we will know the magnitude of that love and it will change us so that we will be able to love our family, our friends, our lovers and spouses, our sons and daughters with a Love not of our own, but generated by the Spirit of God in our lives. We will become more forgiving, more understanding as God's Love flows through our lives. Broken relationships will have a better chance of being restored and we will see people as God sees them in a spirit of compassion.
Through Christ, we can access the throne of God and receive forgiveness and mercy in time of need. God's Spirit will dwell in us to achieve His Purposes for our life. But many will reject this because of pride, of their reliance of a religion that relies on self, rather than God, on sins that hold people in it's power such that they would rather follow their own destruction rather than the salvation of God.
Jesus first preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Repent seems like such a strong and opposing word for most people. That word has been associated with the negative connotation of the warning "or else!" But to repent merely means to recognize God's way, rather than our own, as superior to obtain a life that is fulfilling and full of joy and peace. For a life of sin only bring sorrow and pain and hate and will destroy our lives.
God is more worthy to be loved than any other human relationship we can foster. God's ways and commandments were never intended to be the spoiler of life. But the boundaries God sets is intended to bring the highest good to every relationship. How many times has your sin our someone else's sin messed up your life or others? But if we can live in that harmony that God has established, then we can all begin to see the healing start. That is the kingdom of God. That is the message that will both bring families together or divide families.
