With us. . . Against us. . . With Him. . . Against Him. . .
Luke 9:49-50 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. (50) And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. Luke 11:23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. I had a quiet evening last night. Jackie, my wife, was on her way back from a conference in another city. I was listening to my audio Bible, as I tied the cords and strung beads for the door hangers of the little tracts that we pass out to the neighborhood around the church. I heard these verses from Luke read in succession over a period of fifteen minutes or so. These verses have rested in the back of my mind, for some time now, under a large question mark. They have seemed to me to be a contradiction. I did not know how to understand these two verses. How can we have on the one hand a statement: he that is not against us is for us . . . and on the other...