(By Crystal Holmes)

Agree to disagree? Keep the lines of communication open – even at the cost of the truth? I think not. The only time Jesus held His peace was before the high priest at His “trial”. He openly told people He came to send division (Luke 12:51) and a sword (Matthew 10:34). He didn’t come to “make peace”. He didn’t come to blend in with the crowd, blindly accepting the doctrines of the Pharisees and other religious leaders. Agreeing to disagree rests on the basis that people don’t want to confront others (or be confronted); they don’t want to suffer rebuke for anything – especially for their SINS! If they are rebuked for their sins, then their pride is wounded, and their carnality is awakened! And Jesus said that He came to rebuke others! He came to throw their carnality back in their faces and force them to make a decision about the truth. If Jesus wanted to agree to disagree, He wouldn’t have condemned His dinner host and fellow guests of wickedness!

Luke 11:37-39. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

Then Jesus went on for another 15 verses or so telling them how VILE they were! How WUDE! He told them that they were hypocrites who allowed the deeds of their fathers who killed God’s prophets. He condemned them for tithing the smallest of things while neglecting the weightier things of the law. This does NOT sound like a Jesus who wanted to keep the lines of communication open! If He had wanted to agree to disagree – to not rock the boat – to not cause a scene – He would have told His disciples not to say anything that might offend the Pharisees. But He didn’t! He didn’t tell His disciples to say or not to say anything special, and He didn’t want to agree to disagree!

Luke 19:37-40. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

You see, if Jesus HAD agreed to disagree, He would have been associated with the Pharisees. He would have let them sit on the fence instead of being backed into a corner and forced to make a decision. He would have been one of them – if not in letters, certainly in spirit. And He had come to show the people that this spirit was WRONG and that the Pharisees were WRONG! That God WOULD NOT AGREE WITH THEM!

Even some of His followers were offended and turned away from following Him! He had forced them to make a decision about the truth, and they decided they didn’t want it that bad.

John 6:60, 66. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? …From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

If Jesus HAD agreed to disagree, He would have been lax in doing the work of the Lord. He would have been slack and deceitful about it, and He did not want to be cursed for that!

Jeremiah 48:10. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

So Jesus had to bear His sword and get some blood on it by DISagreeing to disagree! He had to bloody His sword by rebuking others and forcing them to decide – once and for all – if they would obey God or not. Since you are “to walk even as He walked” (1 John 2:6), YOU are NOT to agree to disagree! You are to rebuke others as Jesus rebuked them – with as little severity as is necessary to MAKE them decide what they will do with the truth! And if YOU choose to keep the lines of communication open at the cost of the truth, then YOU, too, will be CURSED for doing the work of the Lord deceitfully, for keeping your sword back from blood. And you can be sure that your blood will be on someone else’s sword.