And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy Name, and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us. Luke 9:49,50
During the Second World War, an uneasy alliance was forged between the western allies and the Soviet Union. In particular, the leaders of the United States and Great Britain had great misgivings about collaborating with the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin, one of the most bloodthirsty tyrants of all time. But because all three countries were at war against Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany, the Americans and British developed policies for cooperating with the Soviets during the course of the war. On the eve of the Nazi invasion of Russia, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is said to have remarked to his personal secretary John Colville that ‘if Hitler invaded hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons’. Churchill was referring to an approach to international alliances that is based on the concept know as ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. This concept has made for some strange bedfellows and ill-matched alliances. But it is a valid policy when it comes to spiritual things.
John’s concern with the man who he spoke of was that the man was not one of those who spent their days in the company of the Lord Jesus. Who was that man? Although we know little about him, we do know that he was opposing the same evil forces that the Lord Jesus did, and he was doing it in the Name of the Lord Jesus. More than that, he was apparently successful; note that John did not say he was trying to cast out the demons but that he was casting them out. He was more successful than the disciples earlier in the chapter who had been unable to cast the demon out of a boy. This man was very obviously more than just an enemy of the Lord Jesus’ enemy. He was very obviously a friend. So why was he not following the Lord Jesus in the same way that the disciples were? Maybe nobody taught him that it was the right thing to do.
As Christians, we have far more friends than we realize, many of them fellow saints who do not follow the Lord Jesus in the same way that we seek to do. In the sector of religion that we would term evangelical Christendom, there are many groups that have not been taught how they ought to follow the Lord Jesus in terms of being gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they don’t know, they follow the guidance of leaders who are likewise ignorant. But that is not to say that they are not spiritual. Untold numbers of these people are faithful, devoted Christians with vibrant testimonies, many of them more godly than almost anyone we know among our Assemblies. Sadly, these numbers are dwindling as these misguided churches drift further and further away from the Biblical patterns. But if these folks are truly saved, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And if their lives are devoted to serving the same Lord, they are our friends. -Jim MacIntosh