Immediately after Jesus did an unprecedented miracle, the Pharisees responded with, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” The Word is not silent as to what Jesus thought about that statement. It says, “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.””
The Jews – and especially the Pharisees – ought to have known that very well. For Jewish history includes the divide of the house of Saul (with Jonathan his own son siding with David), the historic divide of between the northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) kingdoms, the treason of Baasha against Nadab, the treason of Zimri against Elah, the further historic divide of the northern tribes between Omri and Tibni and so much more. All of them lead to some manner of bloodshed among the King’s people, and ultimately, to the Jewish exile. Indeed, the word of God is littered with the word “rebelled” in describing the Jewish nations and its kings.
It is a spiritual principle that a divided group of people is sure to see failure: They will never accomplish what they originally purposed to do. It is for this reason that Satan purposed to divide God and His creation back in the Garden of Eden. Satan knew that if those made in God’s image were one in purpose with God, that God’s plan for the whole of creation would be all but a finished work. Satan’s only hope for obstructing that plan was to divide God’s people from God Himself, and so cut them off from ever being able to worship Him in holiness. This he did quite effectively. Disunity is disaster.
Jesus obviously knows that. Jesus also knows that Satan knows that! He said, “If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?” Satan, who used this very tool against those God created in His image, would surely not have a significant kingdom if his own were against him – He could not stand if he himself was divided. Moreover, Satan would never divide his own kingdom because even he knows that nothing helpful comes from civil war!
A civil war is the low point of any society. It is quite literally the full breakdown of civility. People of the same nation taking up weapons against each other is an obvious sign that the enemy does not need to take up arms against it to see it defeated. It is already defeated. Those watching have only to watch to see just how far it can fall.
It is no wonder that God is united as the Trinity. It is no wonder that who His people are rightly called to be is also a united whole. To that end Jesus would later pray for all of us, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
We participate in Christ’s purpose by doing all we can to live out the answer to that prayer – because if one thing is certain, it is that the Father is answering the Son’s prayer! So if we are not united, we can know that whatever is compelling us toward disunity is absolutely not of God at all.
Believers are never told to become one; we already are one and are expected to act like it.
Joni Eareckson Tada
APPLICATION: Intentionality
We are always wise to abide by the catchphrase started in 1627 by Rupertus Meldenius: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”