Jesus discusses other Christians

[gmcbroom]

I have a question concerning the Christians in the Bible. I read a passage a few weeks ago that discussed briefly where Jesus was talking with his Disciples and they brought up the topic of running into other Christians. If I remember right Jesus told his Disciples not to bother them. I forgot what part of the Bible this was in. The reason I’m asking was to determine whether Jesus wanted to protect either his Disciples or the other Christians from each other.

As religion brings out the best and worst in people it would make since he would want to avoid potential conflicts.
Where is it located in the Bible so I can read it again.

 

[Della]

Mark 9
[38] John said to him, “Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.”
[39] But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me.
[40] For he that is not against us is for us.
[41] For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward.

This passage, in hindsight after the Reformation, has been interpreted by some to mean that we are to regard other followers of Christ as equally Christian. It can be applied in that way, of course, but Jesus never intended that there should be divisions/denominations/other ecclesial bodies other than the Church he founded. It’s not license for those outside the Church to claim they’re just as legitimate in their teaching, etc. We can say we are to see all who claim Christ and are baptized who are outside the Church as separated brethren. This passage isn’t proof for this, but it is a witness to the fact that even during Christ’s life people were drawing on the grace he brought to the world through his life, and later his death and resurrection.

 

[butterflygirl12]

The way I look at this passage is that Jesus is telling us that they are brothers and sisters of ours although separated and not in full communion. It doesn’t mean that everything they teach is correct but it does mean we are called to love them and pray for them. I have many friends and family who are not Catholic. Whom I love dearly and all though I disagree with them on certian things .We all do respect eachother and unite on what we do have in common. I believe the Lord does work through them. As he states in the this bible passage. Just not in the full way like he does through the Catholic Church because we have the fullness of truth. I believe he is trying to bring everyone back to his Chuch as well. I know he has used a number of my friends that aren’t Catholic to help me grow in my Catholic faith. They are very supportive of me even though they don’t agree with me on everything.

In Christ

 

[inkaneer]

The way I look at this passage is that Jesus is telling us that they are brothers and sisters of ours although separated and not in full communion. It doesn’t mean that everything they teach is correct but it does mean we are called to love them and pray for them. I have many friends and family who are not Catholic. Whom I love dearly and all though I disagree with them on certian things .We all do respect eachother and unite on what we do have in common. I believe the Lord does work through them. As he states in the this bible passage. Just not in the full way like he does through the Catholic Church because we have the fullness of truth. I believe he is trying to bring everyone back to his Chuch as well. I know he has used a number of my friends that aren’t Catholic to help me grow in my Catholic faith. They are very supportive of me even though they don’t agree with me on everything.

In Christ

I disagree. It seems contradictory to me to say that Jesus established a church but he also said that some other assembly is okay too. That didn’t work for Simon Magnus nor do I think it would work for Joseph Smith, Ellen White, Luther, Calvin the Wesley’s, John Smythe or any of the other denominational founders. Recall that we are told that these people were only casting out demons in Jesus’ name. The passage doesn’t say what else they were doing. Just goes to show the extent of power in the name of Jesus that even people outside the faith can cast out demons in His name.

 

[Mintaka]

St. Athanasius advised non-Christian pagans to perform an experiment to find out whether Jesus was God or not, by using Jesus’ name to dispel demons, thereby visibly disrupting pagan worship services or magical spells and divinations taking place on the street. He had perfect confidence that it would work, whoever said it. It wasn’t about faith, but rather about the power of Jesus’ name.

But I’m sure there were plenty of people who had Jesus’ divinity proved to them, who still didn’t want to follow Him, or were too proud to join His Church. The Roman world was full of pagans who weren’t Christians, never attended any church, but were willing to set up a little statue of Jesus among their many idols or use some of his names for magic words.

This guy who was dispelling demons was probably your standard dodgy guy (Jewish, in this case) who dabbles in fighting the occult by doing occult stuff. If he were alive today, he’d be willing to try anything from homeopathic remedies to feng shui to get rid of demons. He just found out that Jesus’ name worked, that’s all. He may have pretended to be a follower of Jesus in order to get more publicity. Jesus isn’t worried about this bit of trademark infringement, for the reasons he states.