Daily Bible Reading 26th September 2026 // Luke 12:49-53
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
These verses take up, in more detail, what Jesus has already said in 11, 12, about persecution. The general sense and link with what has gone before is surely clear: Jesus has been enjoining faithfulness to Himself (35-48); here, He makes it plain what the context of that faithfulness is likely to be - division, turmoil, opposition, and even persecution. There is ample challenge here: Jesus does not mean that anyone contemplating discipleship will get the false idea that it will all be great fun. It will cost, and at times it will cost a very great deal. Not peace, but division, not harmony, but disunity within families. Fire, however (49), does not refer to this disturbance. It is the fire that causes it, ultimately, but it is not itself the disturbance, 'Fire' sent by Jesus refers to the fire of the Spirit of God and the fulfilment of this word is seen in Acts 2, in the events of Pentecost. Here, once again in the context of the challenge of discipleship we have the immense encouragement of grace. It will not matter how hard and tough the situation will be, if the fire of God is burning in it!