A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’A man’s foes will be those of his own household.And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
4 sermons cite this verse
… I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Jesus is saying something that's very countercultural to say, if obedience to Me, Jesus, and obedience to your parents are at cross-purposes, then so be it. You must obey Me. As you've heard me say many times, quoting C.S. Lewis, these hard sayings of Jesus are only good for us if they are hard sayings. They're not good for us if we like them. That's right, Jesus said that it's going to make us all fight in our family. We must be the godliest family ever. We sure are fighting. No, it's meant to counteract something that should be strongly and naturally felt, namely, you want to honor your parents. The dynamic changes, as I've suggested, when children get older. You say, well, really? I mean, maybe that's some common sense. Is there anything from the Bible that suggests that? Well, there is. We get a clue from Genesis 2.24, for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. Without dwelling too much on that verse, it is striking that it says the man will leave his father and mother. You might think of it because a woman usually takes the man's name and the man becomes the head of the family. …
… against her mother-in-law. And the man's enemies will be the members of his household." This is not a group exercise, not a matter of race, not a matter of circumcision, not a matter of family, not a matter of community. You must enter alone. The kingdom grows one soul at a time. You have to break away from the crowd, and even the most intimate people in your life who are very frequently going to be your enemies. There's more. You must enter this narrow gate. You must enter alone, and you must enter with a certain measure of force. That may sound strange. You might think, well, I thought it was easy. Don't you just pray this prayer? You see the TV evangelists say, repeat after me, and you're in. It doesn't seem too difficult. In fact, it seems ridiculously easy. Just parrot this prayer. But this is not easy. And we know that because at the end of verse 14 it says, there are few who find it. …
in Hell. Though we thought that surely the pit would shut its mouth upon us, yet here we are living to praise God, as we do this day, and all our fears are gone! We rejoice in Christ Jesus. God "has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." "Heaps upon heaps" of fears have we had—bigger heaps than our sins—but there they lie, troops of doubters. There are their bones and their skulls, as Bunyan pictured them outside the town of Mansoul, but they are all dead, God having worked for us deliverance from them! Another set of foes that God has slain includes our temptations. Some of us have been tempted from every quarter of the world, from every point of the compass. Sometimes it has been pride. At another time, despair. Sometimes it has been too much of the world and at other times it has been too little. Sometimes we have been too strong and puffed up. At other times we have been too weak and cast down. There has sometimes been a lack of faith and at other times our fervency may have been inflamed by the flesh. The best of men are shot at with the devil's worst darts. You have been tempted by Satan. You have been tempted by the world. Your nearest and dearest friends have, perhaps, been your worst tempters, for "a man's foes shall be they of his own household." There has not been a bush behind which an enemy has not lurked. There has been no inch of the road to Canaan which has not been overgrown with thorns! …
It is a gloomy thing to bring to your remembrance, my dear Friends, but it is often brought to mine, and I know it is good for me—what you were by nature, and what you still are, unless the Grace of God prevents it. Remember old John Bradford's remark whenever he saw a man go by his window to Tyburn to be hanged—and he lived at that time where he saw them all—"Ah," he said, "there goes John Bradford if the Grace of God had not prevented." It is said that a Scotchman once went to see Rowland Hill and, sitting down, he looked at the lines in his face. He looked a long while, till Rowland smilingly said, "And what are you looking at, my Friend?" "I am looking at the lines in your face, Mr. Hill." "And what," said he, "do you make of them?" "Why, that if the Grace of God had not saved you, you would have been a great rogue." "Ah," said Rowland, "and you have hit the mark!" It is even so, and even worse than that! If the Grace of God had not come into our hearts and made new creatures of us, we had been equal to the devil, or, at any rate, it would not have been our fault if we had not excelled even Apollyon, himself, in rebellion and enmity to God! A third thing the Psalm brings to our remembrance is— III. OUR MANY ENEMIES. David says that his enemies laid snares for him, sought his hurt, spoke mischievous things and devised and imagined deceits all day long. "Well," says one, "how was it that David had so many enemies? How could he make so many? Must he not have been imprudent and rash, or, perhaps, morose?" It does not appear so in his life. He rather made enemies by his being scrupulously holy. His enemies attacked him not because he was wicked, but, as he says in this very Psalm, they were his enemies because he loved the thing which is good. Now, you must not suppose that because you seek to live in all peaceableness and righteousness, that, therefore, everybody will be peaceable towards you. Far from it! Our Lord put us upon the right tack when He said, "I came not to send peace upon earth, but a sword." The ultimate result of the religion of Christ is to make peace everywhere—but the first result is to cause strife. When the Light of God comes, it must contend with the darkness. When the Truth of God comes, it must first combat error. And when the Gospel comes, it must meet with enemies—and the man who receives the Gospel will find that his foes shall be they of his own household. You shall not be helped by an ungodly father, nor be cheered onward by an un-Christian mother. One would think that even nature, itself, might lead parents to admire that which should make their children virtuous, preserve them in this life and bless them in the life to come. But such is the enmity of the human heart against Christ and His Gospel, that hundreds of parents have been monsters to their children when those children have been obedient subjects to Christ! Why those stakes, those dungeons and those racks? Why the snows of Piedmont dyed scarlet with human gore? Why the glens of Scotland marked with the lurking places of the saints? Because this world hates the people of God! "You are not of the world," says Christ, "even as I am not of the world, and therefore the world hates you." It is good to be reminded of this, that we may not be astonished at the fiery trial as though some strange thing had happened to us! It is the part and lot of the follower of the true to have to contend with deadly odds. …