Mt 10:35 For I have come to turn
‘A man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;
Mk 10:28 Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.” 29 “Truly I tell you, said Jesus, “- no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and to receive eternal life in the age to come.…”
We heard passages strangely often at my former church, and there was a pride in choosing church over family members who weren’t ‘in the church.’ The church, we were taught, was our real family. Family members and friends ‘in the world’ (who weren’t members) could begin attending if they wanted to see us. I didn’t realize at the time, but this was a huge red flag as to how they would treat those they disagreed with IN the church. We were as dispensable to the pastor as the family and friends he taught us to leave behind. And we were learning to simply dispense people even as we were led to believe we were following Christ by doing so.
Putting church before people made sense at first. But Jesus wasn’t saying that a man should leave his wife, or a son or daughter should no longer honor their parents, and he certainly wasn’t saying that he had come to break up families…
When the church divides, part 1
When the church divides, part 2
When the church divides, part 3
When the church divides, part 4
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I was brainwashed in the same way please also publish second part
Parts 2-4 have been published. Thank you for the comment!