There is a great deal being said in recent days about Jesus being divisive. What is a stunning turn of events is that it is not being declared by people outside the Christian faith who you would expect to have a negative view of Jesus. Instead, it is being proclaimed by people within the church as something of a badge of honor. In all my reading of history this is the first time I have ever come across this flipping of the script. So what is going on?

Here is how I see it. As the culture becomes increasingly distanced from several traditionally biblical values, the arguments over those values have escalated to, at times, a fever pitch. When you add the assassination of Charlie Kirk into the mix, the understandable result is that emotions are running high. The rhetoric from both sides has escalated. At the heart of the conflict is the contention by some that Charlie was divisive and that is why they never appreciated who he was or what he said and it is given as the reason why many flat out disliked and even hated him. I am not addressing whether their ideas about Charlie had merit or not. Frankly, for my purpose in this post, it is irrelevant if Charlie was or was not divisive. I mention it because of the response I am hearing from many Christians that not only is it acceptable to be divisive but it is somehow a character trait that demonstrates your bold allegiance to Jesus and the truth. According to that line of thinking, if you are following Jesus, you are going to be divisive, because Jesus was divisive.

Typically, the justification for being divisive has followed a well-worn path, which in recent weeks has turned into something more akin to a super-highway with thousands of people crowding the on-ramps. It goes something like this:

Person A: “I really don’t like what (fill in the blank with any name) said about (pick any religious or political subject) they are so divisive”.

Person B: “Well, Jesus was divisive. Look at how he turned over tables in the Temple and called the religious leaders hypocrites”.

And in that moment, any possibility of a substantive conversation about the issue is lost.

There needs to be a massive distinction made between being a person who is divisive based on their character, demeanor, or tone, and the divisive nature of the Gospel. Christians are called by God to be committed to truth, and if there is going to be division, it needs to come as a result of the content of the truth of the Gospel and not the way in which Christians present that truth. Frankly it is offensive to be told that Jesus died on the cross because human beings are sinners who have flipped off God and deserve to go to Hell. It is divisive to claim that Jesus and trust in Him is the only way to Heaven. It should not be surprising if that offends people and causes division. Jesus said as much when he said that even families would be divided over what they thought of Him.

What should not be divisive is the behavior of the person presenting that truth. People are quick to ignore the things people say if they cannot refute them and instead attack the character of the presenter. Followers of Christ should conduct themselves in such a way that there is no grounds from which people can reasonably attack their demeanor or motives. So what should that behavior look like? Let me give you just a few of the countless exhortations from scripture that answer that question.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Romans 12:14.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 12:1

Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you, doing so with gentleness and respect 1 Peter 3:15

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44

I could go on and on, page after page, with similar passages from God’s Word that describe what the demeanor of Christ followers should be at all times and especially when dealing with people who are far from God. The point of it all is that the behavior of followers of Jesus, the way we conduct ourselves, should be such that even when we have brutal truths to share from God’s Word, it will be God’s Word that people reject as unacceptable and divisive, and not our attitude or actions. Followers of Jesus should not be the stumbling block that gets in the way of people coming to faith in Jesus.

So what about Jesus turning over tables and calling people hypocrites? Look at who Jesus directed those actions toward. It was the religious leaders who should have known better and were actually leading people away from God by their actions. In every instance of him dealing with the sinners of his day, he was gentle yet firm. He treated them with dignity and respect as people made in the image of God. He risked his own reputation by hanging out with them and loving them. Why else do you think the religious leaders called him a drunkard? Not because he was ever drunk, but because be befriended those who were and spent time with them. Why were those people so eager to hang out with Jesus when His message was that they needed to repent of their ways? I submit that it was in large part because of the way He treated them. They did not feel put down, ostracized, ridiculed, or rejected by Jesus. They felt loved, respected, and heard.

Three stories from the life of Jesus should be what we talk about when we want to know how to engage people who are far from God. They are the encounters Jesus had with Zacchaeus the tax collector, with the woman at the well, and the woman caught in adultery. In all three of those encounters, you have people who first and foremost experienced compassion and love from Jesus, at the same time that they were experiencing rejection and vitriol from society at large and particularly from the overtly religious people. In all three cases they responded to Jesus with expressions of repentance. The woman at the well went and told those who ostracized her that she met the messiah, even after Jesus pointed out that he knew of her multiple marriages and sexual liaisons. Zaccheaus volunteered to repay anyone he had ever defrauded, four times over, simply because Jesus was willing to have dinner with him while the respectable people jeered at him as a sinner and tax collector. While we don’t know of the exact response of the woman caught in adultery, the implication of the story is that she did ‘go and sin no more” as Jesus instructed.

Isn’t it amazing that, even though Jesus brought hard truths into the lives of those people, they responded to Him with repentance? They didn’t accuse Him of being divisive or arrogant, or condescending, as we often hear people talk about Christians they encounter. Maybe there is some actual truth in what Paul said in Romans 2:4 that it is God’s kindness that is intended to lead us to repentance. That should not surprise us. Have you ever changed your mind about anything when the person trying to change it was condescending, rude, argumentative, and personally divisive? I know I haven’t. But when people have shown kindness, understanding, compassion, and love to me, I have been far more receptive to the hard truths, the potentially divisive truths, they needed to share with me.

Jesus wasn’t a divisive personality. But he wasn’t a pushover either. We should never believe the lie that to be kind, or compassionate, or understanding, or respectful, is somehow a sign of weakness. Strength and boldness are not always found in being louder and more forceful than the other person. It is not found in the mic drop moments of winning an argument. Jesus exhibited His greatest strength when He said next to nothing during His arrest, torture, and crucifixion. He demonstrated amazing boldness by eating with a tax collector, speaking to a Samaritan woman, forgiving an adultress in the face of powerful accusers, touching a leper, and forgiving His executioners while He surrendered His life on the Cross.

His message ways at times divisive. Make no mistake about that. It was the sword, He said, He brought. It was the sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God. It is a hard message that is painful for us to hear. But His love and compassion for people opened the door of their hearts to receive that hard message.