Mark 9:38-41, Anyone Not Against Us Is for Us

³⁸ John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” [Perhaps John is suffering from over-zealous partisanship as Joshua did in Numbers 11:26-29.] ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. [If they are giving the credit to Jesus (“in his name”), then they are not like his foes who tried to discredit him.] ⁴⁰ For the one who is not against us is for us. [The minimal loyalty test!] ⁴¹ For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. [There is an important theology of the Spirit in this passage. The scribes and Pharisees had seen the work of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry and misinterpreted and opposed it, crediting it to Beelzebub. Now Jesus’ own disciples, seeing and admitting the work of the Spirit by others done in the name of Jesus, want to forbid it. What is the difference between the two if they oppose the work of the Spirit, even for different reasons?]