Choosing Sides?

"If you're not with Me, you're against Me." That's Jesus speaking, and I've always read and heard that verse as "if you're not *for* Me...", but in the NIV it's translated as *with*, and that makes all the difference in the world, doesn't it? Being *for* something is more about belief and being onboard with a mission or vision. But being *with* means more than the mental assent - that you're living life together, placing yourself alongside another.

We're never, because of our fallen natures and still-being-sanctified lives, really completely *for* Jesus... but in His grace and by His mercy we can be *with* Him, even when we mess up. At the same time, He's never really completely, because of His infinite and new-every-morning mercies, totally *against* us because He is *for* us to come to Him and live the abundant life He richly offers in relationship with Himself. And He is, according to His promises, always *with* us, too. That is so whacked out.