Jesus Answers the Accusing Leaders in the StreetBible World
3:25Mark 3:25
And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Jesus spoke these words just after healing a possessed man who was both blind and dumb, when the Pharisees repeated the charge that He cast out devils through the prince of devils. The saying belongs to His repeated teaching on the conflict between Satan's kingdom and God's kingdom, that opposition arising within a kingdom brings its downfall. Christ is not divided against Himself and does not work against Himself, nor does Christ work against Christ.
The Pharisees had seen works of healing that no human power could do and that could not be explained naturally, yet they attributed God's holy power to Satan. By stubbornly closing their eyes to the evidence and speaking against the Son of God, they sinned against the Holy Spirit and committed the unpardonable sin. To attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan in this way is to cut oneself off from the fountain of blessing. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character may be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the person may still be brought to see the error and repent, and whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ. But one who wilfully rejects the Spirit and declares it to be from Satan cuts off the channel by which God communicates with the heart and places himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him, for it is by the Spirit that God works upon the heart, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is no more that God can do for the soul.
The same principle applies to God's people, that a divided house, household, or church cannot stand or endure. Division weakens them, while unity helps them stand, and unity of purpose and harmony in Christ bring strength. The church must serve in unity of the Spirit with its members working for the good of the whole body, and the Spirit can bring even the most discordant people into harmony. Believers are therefore to press together as God gathers them into the unity of the faith, against Satan's effort to separate close friends.
Contention lets Satan gain control and destroy a church's peace and harmony, and a church divided by alienation, quarrels, and bitter dissension cannot stand. Even a small matter can kindle bitter conflict and fierce controversy, with bitterness and hatred, shattering and blasting hopes and dividing families. Uncontrolled wrong feelings and careless words widen dissension, while taking sides and multiplying mutual accusations widen it further, giving Satan an opening to divide and destroy the church and hinder the advancement of truth. Such division dishonors God, leaves the church vulnerable, and makes its witness ineffective. It damages the witness by leading onlookers to reject religion, to mock Christianity and feel satisfied with their irreligion, and to remain impenitent in strengthened impenitence, a result Satan works to bring about and celebrates.
The same divided condition appears when those who preach the gospel are controlled by jealousy and competition and a narrow party spirit. Each then seeks to advance his own sect and stands in antagonism to others instead of desiring the real advancement of the work of Christ and the conversion and moral elevation of the people. The gospel is thus presented as divided against itself and marked by narrowness and bigotry unworthy of Christ rather than by Christian liberality and union.
Jesus spoke these words just after healing a possessed man who was both blind and dumb, when the Pharisees repeated the charge that He cast out devils through the prince of devils. The saying belongs to His repeated teaching on the conflict between Satan's kingdom and God's kingdom, that opposition arising within a kingdom brings its downfall. Christ is not divided against Himself and does not work against Himself, nor does Christ work against Christ.
The Pharisees had seen works of healing that no human power could do and that could not be explained naturally, yet they attributed God's holy power to Satan. By stubbornly closing their eyes to the evidence and speaking against the Son of God, they sinned against the Holy Spirit and committed the unpardonable sin. To attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan in this way is to cut oneself off from the fountain of blessing. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character may be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the person may still be brought to see the error and repent, and whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ. But one who wilfully rejects the Spirit and declares it to be from Satan cuts off the channel by which God communicates with the heart and places himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him, for it is by the Spirit that God works upon the heart, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is no more that God can do for the soul.
The same principle applies to God's people, that a divided house, household, or church cannot stand or endure. Division weakens them, while unity helps them stand, and unity of purpose and harmony in Christ bring strength. The church must serve in unity of the Spirit with its members working for the good of the whole body, and the Spirit can bring even the most discordant people into harmony. Believers are therefore to press together as God gathers them into the unity of the faith, against Satan's effort to separate close friends.
Contention lets Satan gain control and destroy a church's peace and harmony, and a church divided by alienation, quarrels, and bitter dissension cannot stand. Even a small matter can kindle bitter conflict and fierce controversy, with bitterness and hatred, shattering and blasting hopes and dividing families. Uncontrolled wrong feelings and careless words widen dissension, while taking sides and multiplying mutual accusations widen it further, giving Satan an opening to divide and destroy the church and hinder the advancement of truth. Such division dishonors God, leaves the church vulnerable, and makes its witness ineffective. It damages the witness by leading onlookers to reject religion, to mock Christianity and feel satisfied with their irreligion, and to remain impenitent in strengthened impenitence, a result Satan works to bring about and celebrates.
The same divided condition appears when those who preach the gospel are controlled by jealousy and competition and a narrow party spirit. Each then seeks to advance his own sect and stands in antagonism to others instead of desiring the real advancement of the work of Christ and the conversion and moral elevation of the people. The gospel is thus presented as divided against itself and marked by narrowness and bigotry unworthy of Christ rather than by Christian liberality and union.