`I did not come to bring peace on earth ; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.` This is what the Lord said. To be written: I did not come to reconcile the truth with the lie, the wisdom with the folly, the good with the bad, the justice with the injustice, the animality with humanity, the innocence with fornication, God with Mammon, but I brought a sword to cut and separate them so that they won’t mingle. With what to cut them and separate them, Lord? With the sword of truth. Or with the sword of the word of God, which is quite the same. Because the truth is the word of God and the word of God is the truth.
Apostle Paul advises us: `take the spiritual sword that is the word of God.` And saint John saw in a vision the Son of God in the middle of seven candlesticks and from His mouth was coming out a sharp sword. What else can be the sword coming out of the mouth if not the word of God, the word f truth? This sword brings salvation to the world, not the peace of good with the bad and this is what it was, what it is and will be till the end of times.
That this understanding is right it is seen in what Christ says forwards: `I came to turn the man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter in law against her mother in law. Because if the son follows Christ and his father remains in the darkness of lie the sword of Christ’s truth will separate them. The truth is more worthy to be loved than the father. Ans if the daughter follows Christ and her mother remains obstinate in denying Christ what kind of union can be there? Isn’t it Christ sweeter than the mother? It is the same with the daughter in law and her mother in law. But do not misunderstand this – that the man who loves Christ should separate physically from his relatives all of a sudden. It is not written anything like this. It is enough to have the souls separated and not to receive anything from the thoughts and deeds of unfaithfulness. Because if the believers would separate themselves from the unbelievers, in the world would be two opposite sides. Who would teach and correct the unbelievers then? The Lord bore faithless Judas for three years.
Apostle Paul writes: `the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife and the unbelieving woman is sanctified through the believing man.`
I can tell you how saint Teophilact of Ohrida interprets these words of the Lord: By father, mother, mother in law it is understood what is old and by son and daughter what is new. Thus God wants that His new divine commandments defeat all our old sinful habits.
(Saint Nikolai Velimirovich, Questions of the world of nowadays, Sofia Publshing, p. 39)
