“Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste"

Matthew 12:22-37 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

²² Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. ²³ All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” ²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

²⁵ And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? ²⁷ If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹ Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

³⁰ He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. ³¹ “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³² Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. ³⁵ The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. ³⁶ But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

 ^“ He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” There can be no neutrality with Jesus, no partial commitment. Either you are a believer and a follower of Christ or not. In Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus says to the last day church:    ”I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”          When Jesus called His disciples they left everything behind and followed Him. Jesus may not ask us to leave our jobs, our homes and our families, but He does ask that we put Him and the Father first in our lives. Being a Christian is not a default setting. Being a follower of Christ is something that needs to affect everything else we do every day.

Some human philosophy will include Jesus as a good teacher, one of many ways to God. That idea cannot be reconciled with Jesus own words. He says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  (John 14:6) Either Jesus is who and what He says He is or He is a liar or a lunatic. Jesus says:   “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.”    Much of the church today is divided against itself, debating and fighting over doctrines and traditions. In some ways these divisions, over traditions and preferences have made a way for the human philosophies of tolerance, inclusion and political correctness to permeate the church. The church today is divided over how to deal with sin.  The kingdom of God however is not divided.

Jesus says:    ”I and the Father are one.”(John 10:30) When Jesus prayed in the garden the night before He was crucified, the prayer He prayed, the prayer that caused Him to sweat drops of blood was more than a prayer about His own circumstance. Jesus prayed that night, while the disciples slept asking more than that the Father would “remove this cup.” Jesus prayed and agonized over the future of the church, His disciples and all believers. That prayer is recorded in John 17. Verses 13-21 says:

But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

We have been sent into the world, not to be part of the world, not to embrace the sin of the world, but rather like Christ to be a light to the world. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so people could choose to remain in sin. Romans 5:8 says:  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.       “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus died to save the world from sin, not to enable the world to sin. If we are to stand with Him, if we are in unity with Jesus and the Father then we too must, like Jesus love sinners yet hate sin. Jesus says:   “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. ³⁵ The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.    We cannot try to reconcile sin and unrighteousness with God’s will.  1 John 1:5 says:    This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.   Jesus says: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) Jesus says: “the kingdom of God has come upon you”

May our prayer be: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.