Home Uncategorized A House Divided Cannot Stand

A House Divided Cannot Stand

by Kelly Crawford

I was reading a familiar passage to the kids this morning–Matthew chapter 12. Two verses in that chapter hit me with profound meaning in regard to what Satan has tried to do to the family through feminism, and other tactics.

Verse 25 says, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself cannot stand.”

(Jesus was responding to accusations that He had cast out demons in the name of Beelzebub.)

But focus on the meaning of that verse…“every house divided against itself cannot stand”.

What does a divided house look like? The opposite of divided is together, unified, whole, complete, bonded.

I think of a unified household as one where all the members have a common vision, purpose and goal. Generally speaking, the daily activities of each member of the family correspond together to meet that goal and fulfill that vision and purpose.

Now look at the typical American family:

Mom goes to her work. Dad goes to his work. Susie goes to her class, engages all day with her friends, and comes home and does her homework. Johnny does the same thing–his class, his friends, his homework. Divided.

(Notice the irony of the school system–they claim to be the superior institution for education. Yet, 8 hours a day is not enough to impart the needed knowledge? So they suck what’s left of their day right out–no time for reflection, or play, or just creative exploration, or simple communication–keep them busy, right up until bed time. Maybe they’ll be too busy to notice how ridiculous the whole thing is!)

Saturday comes. Dad may have his hobby…or maybe mom has hers. Or they must frantically taxi Johnny to his ballgame, or Susie to her gymnastics class. (Often a two-child family needs mom to take one child to one game, and dad to take the other to another game…wow…on the only day of the week where a family might actually have the time to spend together.) Divided.

Sunday comes. If they attend church, mom and dad go to their class. Johnny goes to his class, Susie goes to her class, and if there is a baby, they start early–send him away to his class too! Divided.

The division is obvious. But there is more at work here…BUSYNESS! DISTRACTION! STRESS! And the frantic schedules cause irritability at one another, which leads to a slow deterioration of relationships, which compounds the problem of division among members.

We haven’t even discussed the distractions of television, video games, and other electronic thieves…

What we have here is an A-1 DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD!

Do you think Satan doesn’t know what he is doing? “The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy”.

If a house is divided against itself, it CANNOT stand.

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12 comments

God's Dancing Child October 12, 2007 - 12:27 pm

Oh Kelly, how right you are!
I am so blessed by your words time and again.
You truly help my eyes stayed focused on the Lord’s best interest for my family.
Thank you! – Jess

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Kelly October 12, 2007 - 12:29 pm

Well said, todays modern american family spends so little time together. My husband and talk all the time about this whenever you see those PSA announcements encouraging parents to get involved with their children. Something is really wrong if TV has to tell parents to do their job!

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Jen October 12, 2007 - 3:07 pm

Hi Kelly-
I enjoy your blog. Although we don’t agree on everything, I appreciate your sweet spirit. My concern with this post is the “tone” that if one is involved in these things, it is sin. My husband goes to his job each day, our children attend school, our children are involved in community activities and sports, our children each LOVE their age-appropriate classes on Sundays. Our house is not divided nor, by God’s grace, will it be. As with all things in life, we have prayerfully decided where to get involved and how much time to commit and God has blessed that.

I respect your choices and the decisions you have made for your family. I don’t agree with all you have decided, but I would never tell you that because of those choices, Satan is having the victory in your home.

Of course, it’s your blog and you can write anything you like! But I would encourage you to be a bit more open-minded about those families who have made different,but not sinful, choices regarding their godly homes. What is right for your sweet family is not God’s plan for all families everywhere.

Blessings,

Jen

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Elizabeth October 12, 2007 - 3:46 pm

Kelly: I think I’m one of those families Jen speaks of. We love our Savior and yet, we live in this world—our kids go to school, they play sports, sing in the choir. We all have active, busy lives and yet, our home is not divided. In fact, it is blessed!

We believe that the Lord has led us each step of the way and each decision has been made prayerfully and carefully.

I might also add that we must handle carefully the Word of God–I’m a little dubious about your extrapolation of Scripture here.

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Elizabeth October 12, 2007 - 3:57 pm

p.s. the context of this passage is NOT the breakdown of the family unit as you suggest. the context is Christ exhorting the Pharisees for accusing Him of casting out demons by Satanic power. the whole point of this chapter–and the previous chapter–is that Christ was proving His divinity through His miracles and the Pharisees were determined to undermine His influence among the people.

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Jen October 12, 2007 - 4:07 pm

Elizabeth,

I had the same uneasiness you did about the exegesis of this passage. So, I asked my hubby, who is a pastor and has seminary training and also did a bit of research myself. I found exactly what you did. We must handle God’s word very carefully! Thanks for your explanation.

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Word Warrior October 12, 2007 - 5:34 pm

Jen & Elizabeth,

I really appreciate your comments about this post. While I don’t feel the need to recant my statements, I don’t want to disregard your perspectives either.

As a reminder, any time I address a subject such as this, making a blanket sweep, there are always exceptions, such as your families.

I did not give a disclaimer to such families, because I’ve explained this point so many times before. Maybe I should have anyway.

The post points to “the typical American Family”. I would not consider yours the typical Amer. family, and there are lots of reasons that factor into that.

The division that occurs in this typical family, accompanies a lack of realization and concerted effort towards unity. I’m sure your family doesn’t lack that.

The main point of the post was to show how Satan has so cleverly distracted parents from even realizing what’s happening to their families. And you must admit, even though your family is not typical, most families do fall prey to this division addressed in the post. It is a problem, and I felt the need to confront it.

Concerning the Scripture reference…notice I made it plain what Jesus was referring to in that verse. The verse itself provoked my thoughts…that’s not taking Scripture out of context.

When I read the words “house divided against itself”, it made me analyze what a “divided house” looks like. I NEVER said that Jesus was describing a family’s activities in these passages. Just because I read something from Scripture, and it provokes thought about another subject, does not mean I’m using the Scripture as a proof-text…I simply said that reading that particular verse made me think.

Again, I appreciate your sharing your concerns, and I appreciate the tenderness with which you shared.

I will be more careful in the future to qualify the “blanket statements” I make…I do not wish to offend.

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Word Warrior October 12, 2007 - 5:43 pm

I did debate about including a “disclaimer” type of paragraph with this post, and then I changed my mind. Perhaps tomorrow I will post a “Part 2–The Disclaimer” 🙂

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Mrs. C October 13, 2007 - 6:04 am

LOL Kelly I like your little picture with the commentary…

Well, I *do* see what you’re trying to say, although I would also add that the physical separation is sometimes BECAUSE of our family unity. For example, my husband goes to work because we share the goal of raising our family together. We’re physically divided but sharing the same goal.

He has also been the one that has decided that the older children will attend public school for the time being. If I were to outright rebel against that decision, I would be CAUSING my house to be divided. Make sense?

I think most of us reading your blog know about the “disclaimer” almost instinctively… you know… it’s ideal for a woman to stay home but if your husband is a drunken loser, it’s probably best for you to have a job so the kids can eat. But that doesn’t mean that the IDEAL changes. Gotcha. LOL!

I guess I’m wondering what you’re trying to say the IDEAL is though in this instance. I’m not picking on you, just asking for clarification. Is it a family farm, maybe? So everyone is in the same location?

Mrs. C

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Word Warrior October 13, 2007 - 9:16 am

I think there is another misunderstanding about this post…by mentioning “dad goes to his work”, I was not implying a family farm (although that would be nice!)

Obviously, most dads go to work (mine included).

But when the rest of the family can be united and “support” dad in his work (be available when he gets home, look for things to relieve his time at home, etc.), then unity can be heightened.

The unity I’m talking of in this post involves close relationships, as a result of spending lots of time together (despite dad being gone a lot of it), a general working toward life together…being careful not to get swept into the “divided rat-race…maybe I’m having difficulty conveying exactly what I’m talking about, but I’m trying!

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Mrs. Anna T October 13, 2007 - 11:27 am

“Mom goes to her work. Dad goes to his work. Susie goes to her class, engages all day with her friends, and comes home and does her homework. Johnny does the same thing–his class, his friends, his homework. Divided.”

So true, Kelly. And as for other distractions?.. It feels so frustrating when you cook a good meal and lovingly set a beautiful table, and then your family members come and carry their dinner plates away on trays so they can eat in front of the TV.

PS: Hope you, your precious littlest blessing and the rest of your family are well.

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Elizabeth October 13, 2007 - 2:24 pm

Kelly: thanks for the clarification and I should have mentioned that I DO AGREE with your general point of families going 18 different directions at once and how that can be detrimental to the family unit.

:0)

hugs to you and your new baby!

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