"I have come to cast fire upon the earth" - fire signifies God's judgment, in the sense of purifying and consuming

 "I have come to cast fire upon the earth" - fire signifies God's judgment, in the sense of purifying and consuming (cf. Lk 17:29-30). We also see the issue of the Holy Spirit, who comes as tongues of fire (cf. Lk 3:16; Acts 2:3, 19). The way of thinking of some false Christians who understand fire as a way of destroying the "other sinner", the one who has not yet made a choice for Jesus, does not fit in here. It is the same logic of those who wanted to pull out the weeds before the time of harvest. In this mentality, a "flood" of fire is appropriate, a day for fire to destroy everything (cf. Zeph 1:18; 3:8). What is wanted here is not the destruction of people, but of sin, of the evil that destroys man. The fire that Jesus wanted to bring is the one that purifies and, at the same time, saves. It is understood by His Word, His Message and His Spirit.

2. “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how anxiously I wait for it to be accomplished!” – here he refers to the immersion in the death of Jesus himself (cf. Ps 124:4-5). This reality will indicate the bath of regeneration of those who are born to God through baptism, to form the new people of God (cf. Acts 1:5; 2:38; 2 Pet 2:5-6). The death of Jesus is a judgment of God on the world: it is a victory that saves and condemns. It is salvation for all who have opened themselves to God’s love; it is condemnation for those who have not given importance to the gift of himself for their good, and have even abandoned him, despising him as a plague. 3. Jesus comes as a “devouring fire, like an overflowing torrent” (cf. Is 30:27-28, 30), so that we cannot understand anything other than God’s judgment on humanity. Since the incarnation, God's action has been decisive for everyone. In himself, the Son of God judges the world. In his emptying, in the words he speaks, in the way he serves people, in his way of being a prophet, in his death and resurrection. The entire life of Jesus Christ demands an absolute choice. Before him, one cannot "sit on the fence": one is either for or against. Thus, the death of Jesus makes this judgment of God present more directly, showing it as a fire that devours. 4. Reading it this way, we understand why the presence of Jesus clearly indicates division. Since he is peace, he does not intend to establish in the world a peace of political agreements, of absence of conflicts in the name of fame and of silence in the face of the injustices of the world, or even to avoid hurting A or B. The peace that Jesus carries with him is the fruit of a decisive choice and, therefore, absolute, and he must be the chosen one. There will be no true peace outside of HIM. In this case, the division does not occur through a game of self-interest, but because of Truth, the greater Good, and salvation itself. And this should not cause either astonishment or fear. Many people who do not want to embrace this reality create problems, distance themselves, and perhaps even isolate themselves. Those who have truly had an encounter with Jesus do not want to return to the past ever again, and do not cling to ideologies and the various so-called “intelligent” ways of thinking of man, because now, in the name of Jesus, what is not true is discarded. Choosing Jesus allows man to see the world through the eyes of God. A big and affectionate hug.