“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.” Matthew 12:25 NIV
Unity is a common prayer I pray for our country. The division I see in daily life breaks God’s heart, and mine. In today’s verse, Jesus has just healed a demon possessed man. When asked who this could be doing such a thing. The Pharisees, judgy religious leaders, said it was just satan looking after his own. Stop a moment and think about what the Pharisees are actually saying. A demon has done his job, possessing a man. Satan, his boss, comes along and undoes the work his employee has done. That doesn’t even make sense to me. But that is what the Pharisees are saying has happened.
Jesus is once again correcting them. A team has to work together in order to reach their goal. A country has to be united to stand strong.
One of my favorite warm up drills when teaching kids tennis is the cone drill. I take several round, soccer cones and scatter them all over the court. Some of the cones are upside down, some rightside up. I split the kids into two teams. One team has to turn the cones right side up, one team turns them upside down. I give them a minute to accomplish their goals. Do you know what happens when they are finished? The cones are usually about the same as when we started. Nothing gets accomplished because they aren’t working together, they’re working against each other. A household divided against itself will not stand.
A household divided against itself will not stand.
One of the most famous speeches in American history was only 271 words long. It came at a time when our country was at its worst division. And it contained these words:
“conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln, when elected president, appointed all three of his rivals to his cabinet. Men that valiantly opposed his ideas and thoughts, he chose to work with daily. Because he did, he helped unite a divided nation. He treated all men as equal, he valued the opinions of those who opposed him. He knew Jesus well, he knew a house divided could not stand. The same truth still applies today. We all are created equal in Christ. We are one nation under God. If we can start to have conversations with people whose opinions may not be the same as ours, we will begin to build a united nation once again.
Question of the Day:
What is one thing you can do today to promote unity?
Further Reading: Genesis 37:1-38:30 NIV, Matthew 12:22-45 NIV, Psalm 16:1-11NIV, Proverbs 3:27-32 NIV
