Matthew 10:34

Matthew 10:34. Think not, as you naturally might.

To send (lit, ‘cast') peace on the earth. The immediate result (and purpose, too, since with God and Christ results are all purposes) was not peace, by external means.

I came not to send peace, but a sword. He was revealed ‘that He might destroy the works of the devil' (1 John 3:8); the inevitable result of His coming into a world lying under the wicked one, is strife. There is probably an allusion to His own sufferings and death, more fully brought out in Matthew 10:38. He gave up His own life to the sword He sent. Yet the sword which Christ sends brings true peace, while the false peace, which men expect (‘think not'), brings in eternal warfare. The ‘peace on earth' of which the angels sang (Luke 2:14) is not earthly peace, but God's peace among God's chosen ones.