When John saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name, he tried to stop him. His reason is revealing: “because he does not follow us” (Mark 9:38). Notice that John did not say the man was misusing Jesus’ name or teaching something false. The problem was that he was not part of their group.

Jesus corrected him: “Do not forbid him…for he who is not against us is on our side” (Mark 9:39–40). John saw a competitor. Jesus saw a colaborer.

Our world is filled with variety. There are thousands of species of butterflies, and Louisiana alone is home to well over a hundred. I have never watched a tiger swallowtail circle a lantana worrying because a gulf fritillary got there first. They share the flowers. There is nectar enough for both.

Hummingbirds are another story. Put several of them around a feeder and one may spend more energy chasing the others away than it spends drinking the sugar water. There is plenty for everybody, but apparently nobody told the hummingbirds.

Sometimes the church behaves more like the hummingbirds than the butterflies.

First Church is thriving under its new pastor while Second Assembly is struggling. Another congregation is baptizing people, filling seats, starting ministries, or reaching families we wish we were reaching. The real danger is not numerical. It is attitudinal. Somewhere inside us, admiration can turn into comparison, comparison into envy, and envy into competition.

But another church’s blessing is not our loss.

Paul says that through the church “the manifold wisdom of God” is being made known to the principalities and powers (Ephesians 3:10). The church proclaims that wisdom not merely by what it preaches, but by what it becomes. In Christ, people who were divided have been made one. Hostility has been put to death. Old barriers have been broken down.

That means jealousy, rivalry, and territorialism contradict the very message we are supposed to display. When churches compete as though another congregation’s success threatens our own, we begin reproducing the attitudes of the world Christ came to overcome.

But when we rejoice because Christ is being honored somewhere besides our sheep shed, when we celebrate another church’s growth, pray for another pastor’s ministry, and thank God when people are being reached by someone other than us, we display something different.

We demonstrate that the Kingdom is bigger than our congregation, our denomination, our ministry, and our name.

John said, “He does not follow us.” Jesus essentially answered, “But he is serving Me.”

Perhaps that is the question we need to ask when jealousy begins to rise. Not, “Are they one of us?” Not, “Why are they growing and we are not?” Not, “Why did God bless them?” The question is, “Is Jesus being honored?”

If He is, then there is no reason to chase anyone away from the feeder.

There’s plenty of grace to go around. Stay faithful! ©