Bethnal Green

As I write, the news headlines are featuring a story about three senior school girls from Bethnal Green. It is believed they have left their families and embarked upon a journey in order to join the group Islamic State. Understandably, their families are distraught.

In our day, when the unity of family life is under great pressure, is it acceptable for religion to cause family division? The reality is that religious tradition or conviction can result in family division, pain, worry and separation. Devout people of various ‘faiths’ can become estranged from close family members who do not share similar convictions.

God invented the family unit and it is right that we should honour and protect it. Christianity majors on forgiveness and reconciliation, firstly between God and people, secondly between one person and another, starting with our families. Jesus claims sole authority to forgive wrong-doing so that he may reconcile us to God. Many a wayward son, daughter or spouse has experienced forgiveness from Jesus and this has resulted in the ‘prodigal’ being reconciled to estranged family members.

But what happens when our honouring of God with our obedience runs contrary to the wishes of family, friends or colleagues who do not revere God in the same way that we do? Jesus calls men and women to follow him with undivided loyalty. He warns would-be followers to be aware that this may bring family division, setting ‘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.’

Stark words indeed, but Jesus is just being bluntly honest because he knows that many oppose God and his words. The salvation he offers to us is free but it does not come cheaply. When a couple get married, all former relationships ought to be reorientated so that one’s marriage partner takes precedence; this is what is meant by the words, ‘A man shall leave his mother and father and be united to his wife.’ When a man or woman embraces Jesus, so to speak, he requires a similar reorientation.

We should not fear his wanting our complete loyalty to himself. He invites us to entrust ourselves, our relationships and whatever else we consider precious into his hands, and to believe that his purpose and intention for us are only and forever good.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, by the time you read this, those three girls had been reconciled to their families and, in God’s own time, discover a better (spiritual) journey to embark upon?