(49) I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled? (50) But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished? (51) Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: (52) For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. (53) The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Various have been the judgment of the godly concerning those expressions of our Lord, in the opening of this paragraph. What fire the Lord Jesus alluded to, doth not seem decidedly plain, so as to determine whose judgment is correct amidst the various opinions which have been formed, in relation to it. Some have conceived that it had respect to the work of God the Holy Ghost, Isaiah 4:4; Malachi 3:2. And others refer it to the consequent persecution which followed Christ's preaching: and they conclude that the words of Jesus so explain it. And in relation to the baptism Jesus speaks of, equal difficulty, in point of determination, hath arisen. It could not mean the baptism of water, for this Christ had gone through. Neither of the Holy Ghost, for Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost, Luke 4:1. The general tide of commentators runs in the supposition that he referred to our Lord's sufferings. But I confess it doth not strike me in that point of view; for what was the whole life of Jesus, upon earth anymore than a baptism? if so, from sorrows and exercises. But I leave the decision of it with the Lord, only begging to observe, that if Jesus was so straitened for the accomplishment of this baptism, whatever it might be, how ought the Lord's people to be on the continual look out, and humble waitings; for the baptisms of God the Holy Ghost?