Title: A Strong Warning/ Topic: Unity

Today’s Reading: Job 20; Mark 3; Mark 4

Scripture: Mark 3:22-29
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons."
23 So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. 28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."

Observation: The religious leaders are offended that Jesus has violated the Sabbath by performing miracles and casting demons out of people on that Holy Day. Their response to Jesus' actions is to accuse him of being in collusion with Satan. Jesus explains to them the principle that no kingdom divided against itself can stand. Therefore, if he was casting out demons by satanic power, Satan's kingdom would be destroyed and his end would be be a present reality. Jesus then gives a very stern warning; that if they attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan (that is blspheming the Holy Spirit) they will never be forgiven for that sin!

Application: There are whole ministries today that are dedicated to denigrating other ministries for a lack of what they consider to be doctrinal purity. There are some that go so far as to say that speaking in tongues is of the devil (even though it is clearly taught in the Bible) and that Christians that engage in that practice are deceived by the enemy. In my estimation, those kind of declarations come dangerously close to the sin that Jesus said was unforgivable. The lesson for all of us is that unity in the Body of Christ is extremely important to God (we don't want to weaken the Church's effectiveness by dividing God's kingdom). Related to this, we had better be very careful not to fall into criticism of ministries that don't align with our tastes. There is a balance between watching our life and doctrine closely, studying the scriptures in order to be able to refute those who teach false doctrine in order to lead others astray from the faith (as we are told to do in 1Tim., 2Tim. and Titus by Paul) and being critical of other ministries who do things differently from the way we do. It's not always an easy balancing act, but in light of the seriousness of disunity and defaming something God may be doing, I would rather err on the side of caution and leave the judgment to God.

Prayer: Father, may we concentrate our ire on our true enemy, Satan, and not on each other! Make us one as You, our Lord God, are one. May we truly love one another so that the world may know that Jesus s Lord.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.