Mattew 12

Unity

“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:” (v. 25)

Division always leads to desolation, whether in a kingdom, a city, or a church. Many churches are destroyed, not from outside attacks of Satan, but from the inside attacks of her people. Once divided though, the church is vulnerable to attack from outside forces, as is true with a city or state or government. This is true in a family setting too, as we have seen in our country today. If Satan can destroy the family, he can destroy the church from within, and he is doing a fairly good job of destroying families today. We know that the church, as a whole, will prevail even against the “gates of hell”, but each local, individual church will have its troubles if the people are not “in one accord.” We need to be sure that we, each one of us, do our part to preserve the unity of the church, and all head in the same direction. It is our duty to do so.

The Pharisee’s committed blaspheme in accusing Christ of casting out devils by the power of Satan, and ignoring the obvious work of God. They had to know that no man could do these things, except God is with Him, as they said in another place, but they had too much pride to give Him the glory, and maybe lose some of it themselves. Their pride led to a greater sin, the sin of blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, (v. 31), which will not be forgiven them. These “religious” men were not true believers, and had carried their unbelief to the point of scorning the things of God. That is what blaspheme is, scorning the Holy Spirit of God.

The name Beelzebub, sometimes rendered Baalzebub, means “lord of the flies” and fits Satan pretty well, but can you imagine others giving this title to our Savior? Some say “lord of the dung heap” or manure pile, which sums Satan up pretty good too. Either way, it is a title of reproach for a being of great reproach. The point though is that we cannot fight on two fronts and expect to win the battle. Armies have been divided for strategic purposes, but they were still in the same battle, against the same enemy. We, as Christian soldiers, can wield the sword from all directions, but must be careful to aim it at the Adversary, and not each other. Swinging a sword in wide sweeps is not wise when your brother is close at hand.