Matthew 10:35 Commentary and Bible Study

Christ is quoting Micah 7:6: ‘Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. ⁶ For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house’ (Micah 7:5-6). This is the prophet’s way of describing the great change that will take place at the coming of Christ. No longer will there be a mixed multitude, as with Israel of old. In Old Testament times all born to the nation were called the people of God, and were in a covenant relationship with God by virtue of being born into the nation. However that national covenant did not save. It gave various outward blessings and privileges, but when the Son of God came into the world, his preaching told Israel they needed to enter into the kingdom of heaven for they were still outside it, despite being Israelites by natural birth. They needed to be individually born again. This was what caused such offense to many Jews. No one becomes a child of God by being born into a nation, not even the nation which God privileged so greatly and to whom he gave ‘the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises’ (Romans 9:4). Natural birth produces physical life, but to enter the kingdom of heaven we must be born of God and obtain spiritual life.Even within a single family some may seek the Lord, and some may turn away; some belong to Christ and some do not. The change made by conversion is so great that it will divide even members of the same family. Family ties are strong and family loyalties are not easily broken, but the gospel divides even sons and fathers, daughters and mothers, brothers, sisters, and those related by marriage.