50 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
It is so easy to create division and separation between people. Jesus gives his disciples an easy test. There were some people who were following Jesus and performing miracles, but they were not part of the official “in” crowd. They did not make the official invitation to the dinners. But yet they were carrying out the ministry Jesus assigned to the disciples. The disciples stopped them because they were not officially sanctioned sponsors. But Jesus makes a simple distinction that can serve us today. There are those who oppose the Gospel. There are also those who are neutral or support the Gospel. Only those who oppose are against us. The rest can be considered on our side. As Christians we can work with people whose total message might be different from us, but who support some aspects of the Gospel message. If part of our outreach is feeding the poor, we can join with others in that effort. Our motivation might be different from theirs, but we can work side by side with them. We can remain true to our message in the middle of a larger effort to help the poor. We don’t necessarily need to start a separate outreach effort. We can join with them as long as we are not forced to compromise our message in the process. If they are not against us, we can join with them. Or perhaps they can join with us in our efforts. In the military I have the privilege of working side by side with people of many denominations. On the outside we would probably all be focused on our own individual ministries. But in the military we join together for the cause of Christ. Some of the side issues get ignored and we celebrate what we share in Jesus. I will miss that cooperation when I exit the military.
The Arnold Journey 