Verse 49
And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out demons in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. But Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against you is for you.
THE MAN WHO DID NOT FOLLOW
A thing of considerable importance that comes to light here is the fact that the apostles were not continually in the company of Jesus, indicating that there may have been a number of occasions when the Lord had sent them out "on their own." The incident in view here would seem to have taken place upon an occasion of their absence from Christ different from the sending "forth" of Luke 9:2.
We forbade him ... This was the true sectarian spirit! If he is not "with us," away with him! By Luke's record of such a blunder here, as well as by his recording the ignorant proposal of Peter in the transfiguration event, he forever refuted the notion that Luke "corrected" certain passages in Mark in order to show the apostles in a more favorable light. Such conceit is popular in the critical schools but utterly foreign to the word of the Lord.
He that is not against you is for you ... is antithetical to another statement of Jesus, "he that is not with me is against me" (Luke 11:23), thus requiring us to understand that there are situations in which either premise is true. The one in view here condemns the savage type of sectarianism which demands that every good effort must be edited and controlled "by us"; whereas the second emphasizes the truth that whosoever has not taken a stand for Jesus is, in fact, against him. Both are fully true.
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