<p>12:30&nbsp;<em>He that is not with Me is against Me</em>- The original is memorable- either&nbsp;<em>meta</em>&nbsp;Me, or&nbsp;<em>kata</em>&nbsp;Me. The Lord is speaking here from&nbsp;<em>His</em>&nbsp;perspective. For He Himself observed that Judas 'ate&nbsp;<em>with Me</em>', but lifted up his heel '<em>against</em>&nbsp;Me' (Jn. 13:18). It's simply not so that all those who claim to be with the Lord are therefore with Him and on the same side as we who know we are in truth 'with' Him. He is simply observing an ultimate truth- that finally, there will be (and therefore is not now) any middle position in relation to Him. It's not therefore for us to insist that anyone who claims to be 'with Him' is so merely because they say so. Let His words sink in to you personally: &ldquo;He who is not with me is against me&hellip; he that is not against us is for us&rdquo; (Mt. 12:30; Mk. 9:40). We may think we are not against the Lord&rsquo;s cause, even if we&rsquo;re not as committed to it as we might be; many an unbaptized young person has told me this. But to be &lsquo;not against&rsquo; Jesus means we must be&nbsp;<em>with Him</em>. Nobody can be passively &lsquo;not against&rsquo; Jesus. If we&rsquo;re not whole heartedly with Him, we&rsquo;re against Him. That&rsquo;s how His demanding logic goes. A relationship with Him demands the whole person;&nbsp;<em>you</em>, your very heart and essence.</p>
<p><em>And he that does not gather with me scatters-</em>&nbsp;In connection with the gathering of spoil from the strong man's house in :29. There is a tendency to use this verse as a general statement of principle, but the surrounding context is specifically about the Lord's healing miracles being part of the spoil He has plundered from the 'Lord of the house', Beelzebub / Satan. We saw on :28 that people were faced with the choice of accepting the Lord's miracles were performed using either God's power, or Satan's. The whole issue pushed the audience to a crucial choice- of accepting of Jesus as God's special Son, or as Satan. The miracles were proof that the Lord Jesus had bound the power of Satan- the power which people believed was behind illness. If you didn't want to go and gather the spoil, then you were actively scattering it abroad. This hyperbole was used to force all the cautious people who remained undecided to realize that ultimately, there is no such thing as agnosticism. If you are not eagerly gathering the spoil the Lord has now released, then you are actively working against Him.&nbsp;</p>