“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” Matthew 12:25
In today’s world, more and more, we are confronted with an “in your face” type of mentality, leading to a confrontational communication style. In many respects if it should be that you disagree with me, then it is my place to show you where you are wrong so that my view will triumph. That I would acknowledge merit in your argument or try to see where you are coming from is often looked at as weakness on my part.
Back in Jesus time, they certainly knew of and believed in the enemy; they called them demons and one of their chief leaders (some scholars say that the name is synonymous with Satan) was Beelzebub. Now demons did their work in interaction with and possession of people. So to be cast out of a person would be extremely damaging to a demon. Yet the religious leaders, not wanting to ascribe any Godly power or righteousness to Jesus, credited him with the power to cast out demons, for they had seen it with their own eyes, but said that power came only because Jesus had the power of a more powerful demon, Beelzebub. Jesus was purposely destroying his own kind to show his power.
Jesus answers them with a concept that is so critically needed in today’s world. He tells them that if truly he is casting out demons by having the power of a more powerful demon, to the detriment of the cast out demons, then the demonic kingdom will collapse. Demon fighting against demon would be a great thing for mankind because it would mean their destruction would be imminent. Of course Jesus went on to illustrate that was not the case by pointing out that his disciples, who the leaders knew and knew not to be the agents of Beelzebub, were casting out demons too.
But lets get back to the divided kingdom, city and house. During his time on earth, Jesus and his followers definitely had disagreements. When the disciples had divisive disagreements about who was the greatest amongst them, Jesus chastised them and warned them of the danger of those type of disagreements. Jesus often disagreed with the Jewish established leadership of the time. But why did He disagree? Was it to prove His own point? Was it to bring glory to Himself? Amazingly Jesus, as God on Earth, was a humble man. If you remember when a person came to ask him a question and started by wanting to give glory to man by calling Jesus “good” teacher. Jesus responded by asking why call me good, non is good but God in Heaven. No Jesus reason for disagreement and often vehemently so, was for the correction and hopefully restoration of the individual’s soul. He wanted to help through his correction, if not the people who he was directly addressing, at least the people in close proximity that might be listening. He had first hand knowledge of the Father, which he so desperately wanted to impart to this earth. It was not about His wining, but about the wining of all those around Him through His correction.
So that brings us back to today and the question why do we disagree or bring up our disagreements? Is it about our personally wanting to win, or are we genuinely caring and wanting to uplift the person or persons we are interacting with? Is our goal to build the house, city or kingdom stronger, or does that even enter the picture? Do we acknowledge that we do not have the absolute wisdom and knowledge that Jesus Christ had (and has) so therefore, there is value in listening to the other side to see if there is some commonality or at the very least to understand where the other person is coming from?
When we decide to voice our disagreement, do we do it on the basis of love for the other person. Jesus knew that His detractors hearts were hardened. That did not stop him from loving them anyway. How do we know? In the midst of His horribly painful death, He asked Our Heavenly Father to forgive them. Does that sound like a person who wished for a divided house?
It is not that we should not disagree. It is not that we should not voice our disagreements. It is that in deciding to voice our opinion, it should always be with the end result in mind of building the kingdom and bringing it together. It is not my way or the highway, it is can my way help build the highway for us to get where we need to go. Or will the insistence on my way bring about a detour, confusion and some/many getting lost along the way?
May it be that my interactions be based on and for the goal of Praising God and helping to build His kingdom here on earth.
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