“And John answered Him, saying, Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, who does not follow us. And we forbade him, because he does not follow us. But Jesus said, Do not forbid him. For there is no one who shall do a work of power in My name, yet be able to speak evil of Me quickly. For who is not against us is for us.” Mark 9:38-40

The problem for the disciples was that the person, who was casting out demons, in the name of Jesus, wasn't part of their group. The person believed in Jesus, but he maybe did things differently or belonged to some other group of believers. When they told Jesus about it , He told them not to stop the person. He told them that no one can do a work of power in the name of Jesus and then turn around and speak evil of Jesus. Then Jesus went on to say, “For who is not against us, is for us.” Later on, as Jesus was trying to prepare the disciples for His death He said to them, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I loved you.” John 15:12.

Unfortunately, Christ's words were forgotten when the early Christians were setting up churches so Paul devoted the whole chapter of Romans 14 to teach about accepting people with different beliefs and ways of doing things. But all through Christian Church history people have mistreated and persecuted each other because of differing beliefs. Even to this day it is still happening. People of different religions fight over the differences in their beliefs. The members of the different religions are unkind to each other because their fear of the other church's leader, or of the way they worship.

There is no reason why people of different faiths can't get along. We may have different beliefs, but if we're all Christians, then we all believe in Christ and believe He died for us. We all are working for the same goal. That goal is to spread the Gospel to others and to finally go home to Heaven. We need to quit worrying about what other churches are doing or might do, and spend more time concentrating on our own personal relationship with Jesus. He is the real leader of the Christian faith. He is also the One with the most influential power in this world. Not some president of some country or a leader of some church. Only God can truly rule this world and He does rule it. He is paying attention to what is going on, and things are going to happen just as He sees best to get our attention back on Him so we can go home to Him.

Trust Him and be accepting of everyone just as they are.