And John answered him saying, Teacher, we saw some one casting out demons in thy name, who does not follow us, and we forbad him, because he does not follow us.
The Lord has just corrected the disciples for arguing over who was greatest. John speaks up at once, and he expects credit: he had stopped a man from using the name of Jesus. So the verse asks whether being in the right company is the same as being right.
John reports the ban as if it were good service. One writer sees it differently, and notes that John spoke for all of them, not just himself:
Even John shows how little the glory of Christ, which makes a person content to be nothing, had entered his heart yet... So John turns to our Lord right after this, complaining of someone who was casting out demons in His name — the very thing they had failed to do. Was this not a matter for thankfulness of heart to God? Not at all. Self in John took fire at it, and became the mouthpiece of the strong feeling that stirred them all. "Teacher, we saw" — not just "I." He spoke for all the rest.
John gives one reason for the ban: the man was not following them. One commentator weighs that word against the Name:
They had put far too much importance on the "us." After all, it is only a group of people, and each one is of no importance in himself. All the importance, as the Lord has just shown them, lay in the Name. The man had cast out the demons — the very thing they had just failed to do. He had done it "in Your name." So he had the power of the Name, and they had the imagined importance of the "us."
The disciples had just failed to drive out a demon themselves. One writer ties that failure to what they lacked:
They followed the Lord. In that they were right and happy. But there was a lack. The disciples asked the Lord why they could not cast out the demon. He replied, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer" (v. 29). These disciples followed the right Person, but they lacked spiritual condition. The man they tried to forbid did not follow with them, but there must have been spiritual condition with him.
Older translations of verse 29 read "prayer and fasting."
Christ Himself had put the disciples where they were. That right place still did not give them power.
Mark's, you will remember, is the Gospel of service, and the question here is ministry. Now the power of God in this does not depend on position. A position may be entirely right — that is, according to God's will. Even so, it will not give ministerial power to the people who hold the truest position... They were right to hold to Christ and follow no one else. But they were wrong to let any reason stop them from recognising God's power at work in another man. He was not in that blessed position which was their privilege.
The Lord's reply sounds like the opposite of His words in Matthew 12:30. One writer explains what each saying is about:
The Lord answers, "Do not forbid him." If the man had power to cast out demons in Christ's name, then he was not an enemy of Christ. He was not against them, therefore he was for them. Matthew 12:30, on the other hand, tells us, "Whoever is not with me is against me." There He speaks of the determined opposition of Satan's power. In that there could be no compromise.
The Lord did not tell John to join the man. He told him to stop interfering. That gives a rule for anyone who meets service done outside their own circle:
If God puts His seal on a man's work for Christ, let no one hinder him. Let him work, even if he serves in ways we cannot share in good conscience. To work with him might involve us in compromising some truth we see in the Word. Let him, however, work in his Master's name. He is His servant, not ours.
The same spirit is quiet. We hold back encouragement and feel sure we are right to:
We are too quick to assume that spiritual power runs only along the lines we move on. We are too quick to criticise another's devoted service because it is not cast in our mould... So we close up our sympathies, we give him no word of cheer, and brighten his life with no kind deed. We leave him severely alone, and in doing so we sincerely believe we have our Master's mind. But it is not so.
- The Name, not the group. The man stood on one thing: he acted in Christ's name. The disciples objected over one word: "us."
- Position is not power. Christ Himself called them to their place. They still could not cast the demon out. The right place does not supply strength.
- Condition supplies it. What the man had and they lacked was spiritual condition, the thing the Lord traced back to prayer.
- Two rules, two questions. Where Christ Himself is the issue, there is no neutral ground. Where service in His name is the issue, whoever is not against us is for us.
- Leave him to his Master. You are not asked to join his methods, only to stop hindering him — he is Christ's servant, not yours.
But Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no one who shall do a miracle in my name, and be able soon [after] to speak ill of me;
The disciples had just failed to free a demon-possessed boy, and now John reports stopping a stranger who succeeded where they could not. His only fault was that he did not travel with them, and the Lord's answer turns on the weight of His own name.
John speaks for the whole group. What could have been a cause for thanks becomes a complaint instead.
John proves how little the glory of Christ, which makes one content to be nothing, had entered into his heart now... So John turns to our Lord straight after this, complaining of someone who was casting out demons in His name — the very thing they had failed to do. "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name." Was this not a matter for thankfulness of heart to God? Not a bit of it! Self in John took fire at it, and became the mouthpiece of the strong feeling that stirred them all. "Teacher, we saw" — not "I" only; he spoke for all the rest.
The Lord's reason is about timing. A man cannot use that name as power over Satan one moment and abuse it the next.
They had only just failed to cast out a demon, despite having authority. They should have known that anyone who could do it must have some right to. Christ's name was not something a man could use as a magic word. There must have been some reverence for that name in one who could use it as a word of power against Satan. Such a person could not turn quickly round from this to speak evil of Christ.
Kelly names what the man had and the disciples lacked.
He certainly had faith in the Lord's name, and by faith in that name he was mighty to do what the disciples, sadly, were too weak to do.
The man's success was not neutral. One writer asks who made the demons obey.
God clearly owned this man, since he was casting out demons in Christ's name. Would the demons have obeyed if it were otherwise? The events of Acts 19:13-16 give us the answer. Satan does not cast out Satan.
Elsewhere the Lord says what sounds like the opposite. The difference lies in what is at stake each time.
It is not as in Matthew 12, where the power of unbelief rejects Christ at Satan's prompting... "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." When it is a question between Christ and the darkening, blaspheming power of the devil, the only safety is being with Christ. The only service is gathering with Him. But sometimes no such question is raised. Instead someone little known, and perhaps knowing little, is true to the Lord's name as far as he knows it. Then let us be glad to own him, and the honour the Lord has clearly put on him, even though "he does not follow us." He is no enemy, but a friend of that name which he owns as best he knows.
John's word was "with us"; the Lord's word is "not against us." That small change carries the whole correction.
John had said they are not "with us," but even so, the Lord can say they are "not against us." The disciples were making too much of this wretched "us" — the weak little company gathered round Christ. They were making too little of Christ Himself, the glorious Person they were gathered round. The Lord reminds them that His Name is everything. The smallest act, even giving a cup of cold water to one who belongs to Christ, will not lose its reward, if done in His Name.
Owning another's service does not mean joining it.
Some work is done in the name of the Lord Jesus, yet not within the circle formed round the true centre. And what are we to do? We should meddle as little as possible. We should be glad to own whatever is done in His name, and hold fast to Him as our security, our joy and our boast.
- Name — The man's power came from Christ's name, not his own. No one can use that name as a magic word while despising the One who bears it.
- Proof — A miracle done in that name shows reverence for it. No one turns from using that name to abusing it.
- Distinction — Where a person openly opposes Christ, "not with me is against me." Where a person honours His name as best he knows, "not against us is for us."
- Correction — John's measure was "with us." The Lord's measure is His Name. In the disciples' eyes the little company had grown large and Christ had grown small.
- Practice — Do not hinder work God has clearly owned. Own it with a full heart, interfere as little as you can, and hold to Christ Himself.
for he who is not against us is for us.
John had just stopped a man from driving out demons in Jesus' name. His only reason was that the man did not belong to their group. The Lord's reply turns their test around. It also raises a question: how does it fit with His other saying, that whoever is not with Him is against Him?
The disciples judged the man by his link to themselves, not by his link to Christ. One writer notes where John put the emphasis.
The trouble was that the "us" was spelt in capital letters. John told the Master, "We tried to stop him, because he was not following US."
Notice the shift in the Lord's own wording. John says the man is not with "us." Jesus answers that he is not against "us" — the same little word, weighed a new way.
The disciples were making too much of this wretched "us" — the weak little company gathered round Christ. They were making too little of Christ — the glorious Person they were gathered to. The Lord reminds them that His Name is everything. The smallest act will not lose its reward, if it is done in His Name — even giving a cup of cold water to someone who belongs to Christ.
John had just failed at this same work himself. That failure gives the rebuke its sting.
The wrong of the situation was that John tried to stop a man from doing good — good that he himself had no power to do. The distressed father of a demon-possessed boy said to the Lord, "I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able" (Mark 9:18), and John was among them. They were powerless. These disciples followed the right Person, but they lacked spiritual condition. The man they tried to forbid did not follow with them, but he must have had that spiritual condition.
A generous heart is measured by how it reacts when someone else has more power than we do.
It is a sure mark of singleness of eye and largeness of heart when we rejoice honestly in seeing others possess a richer measure of spiritual power than ourselves, even though they do not follow us, and it is an equally sure sign of a narrow spirit when we do not.
Elsewhere the Lord says what sounds like the opposite: "Whoever is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30). Commentators read the two sayings as answers to two different dangers. One puts it in a single line.
Here the passage commends patience with others, in contrast with a narrow party spirit. Matthew 12:30 speaks of a loose indifference that touches Christ personally... Matthew supplies the principle applicable to ourselves, Mark that applicable to others. Neutrality here means aid; indifference, in Matthew's Gospel, hostility to Christ.
The difference lies in who is being weighed, and against what.
When He was exposing the Pharisees, He speaks solemnly and firmly — "Whoever is not with me is against me." Worldliness had set them against Him. But He speaks in other terms of those who owned Him in their affections and in their testimony, even if they perhaps lacked the strength of faith that set them in full company with Him — "The one who is not against us is for us."
The man's standing was defective, but his aim was Christ's aim, and that decided the matter.
In the Lord's conflict with Satan, everyone working toward the same end was on the Lord's side. That was true even of a man who never openly stood as one of His disciples. His confession and his way of life might be faulty. But as long as he was not against the Lord in His war with the power of the enemy, he was for Him. Paul in prison shows the same attitude toward those who preached the gospel from different motives (Phil. 1). In every way, the apostle said, Christ was preached, and so he rejoiced.
The temptation is to assume that God only works through our own methods.
We are too ready to think that spiritual power is only found along the lines we move in. So we criticise and find fault with another's devoted service, because it is not cast in our mould or carried on by our methods... So we shut up our sympathies, we give him no words of cheer, and brighten his life with no kindly deed. We leave him strictly alone. And while we act like this, we truly believe we have our Master's mind. But it is not so.
Yet the correction does not tell the disciples to leave their own ground.
The faithful should value true service wherever it is, but they can only gather with Christ... We should interfere as little as possible, and fully own whatever is done in His name. But we must hold fast to Christ Himself as our security, our joy and our boast.
- The name decides. The man's right to act came from Christ's name, not from the disciples' approval. What counted was his link to Christ, not his link to them.
- Capital "US." John's reason was he was not following us. The Lord shifts the test from "with us" to "not against us."
- Powerless critics. The disciples had just failed to cast out a demon themselves; they forbade a work they could not do.
- Two sayings, two dangers. Matthew 12:30 guards Christ's personal claims on me; Mark 9:40 guards my heart toward others. Neutrality here means help; there it means hostility.
- Own it, but stay. Recognise real service wherever it appears. But never leave the One you are gathered to.