“Teacher,” said John, “We saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” – Mark 9:38-41

Church, let’s look hard at this.

In this passage, the disciples have come to Jesus basically to tattle on someone who is casting out demons in His name. It was as if they were trying to stake a claim to God’s power — as if they owned exclusive rights to Jesus.

Jesus’ answer was clear, and it was common sense: if someone is casting out demons in His name and it’s actually working, then he’s not an enemy.

But what if that guy is preaching love and my church preaches repentance? What if that guy is preaching faith and my church preaches rules?

What Jesus said here is “as long as you are not against me, you are for me.”

What if I disagree with the doctrine? What if my pastor said that guy is a hack?

Frankly, Jesus says here to mind your own witness. The Christian church today is so busy tearing itself apart that we’re driving others away. Take the plank out of your own eye.

God has given us all different spiritual gifts, and in the same way, we all react differently to different spiritual gifts. There is not only one way to preach the gospel, and we can see that in the Bible itself where we see four different versions of the same story and we learn different things from each one. The important thing? Jesus is Central in each one. Jesus is the Lord of all creation who died and rose again to save us from an eternity that we definitely earn every day by assuming that we know everything about Him and are the only ones with the truth. 

I already hear some of y’all being like, “There’s only one way to heaven, and it’s Jesus.“

That’s exactly what I’m saying. 

Just because somebody preaches differently than you or focuses on different attributes of what it takes to be a Christian or uses a different method of bringing people to the cross, it’s not yours to judge whether they are right or wrong. In the end, if they are bringing people to Christ, it’s His business, not yours. 

Christians, just like the Pharisees of old, we are our own worst enemies, and worse, by condemning each other constantly we are directly blocking the way for a lot of people who might simply learn about Jesus differently than we preach. 

You’re not the only one with the answer. ❤️