Matthew 12:43-45

Matthew 12:43-45

And when an unclean spirit should come out from the person, it comes through waterless places while seeking a place to rest and it does not find any.  Then it says, “I will return into my house from which I came.”  And after coming it finds it empty having been swept clean and made beautiful.  Then it goes out and takes with it seven other spirits more evil than itself and after entering in live there.  And the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first!  Thus it will also be for this evil generation.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

 Here is a scary thought that we can glean from this passage.  Notice that when Jesus speaks about an evil spirit coming out of a person that Jesus does not talk about the evil spirit being destroyed.  The spirit is driven away.  It is chased away.  But Jesus knows something true about humanity and the fallen condition of this world.  Evil can never be utterly and totally destroyed in this life.  God will deal with that after this world passes away.  But we will be wrestling against evil all of our life.

Is it depressing to think that we’ll never be free of evil in this life?  In what way can this truth actually be reassuring with respect to our faith?  Is complete freedom from evil ever possible on this side of the resurrection of the dead?

Second Thought:

Jesus is also giving us a hint of human psychology.  Any person can be reformed if through will-power, effort, and constant resistance to evil.  But look at what Jesus says.  If all that happens is the evil influence is removed, then the house – that is, the person – is swept clean but it remains empty.  Thus, what Jesus is telling us is that part of reforming the human being is not just cleaning house but changing house.  The time we used to spend doing evil must be filled with something good!  If I have a sinful vice that I want to stop, it will be easier to reform my thoughts and behavior if I stop doing it in conjunction with also starting a better action.  If we want to conquer evil and put it aside, we need to do more than restrict behavior.  We need to restrict behavior in conjunction with supporting positive action.  In this sense, religion that is all about “Thou shall not do” will never be enough.  We need to say, “This behavior will lead to bad consequences so instead do this positive action.”

When have you been successful at eliminating evil from your life only to fall back into the bad behavior later on?  Why did you fall back into the bad behavior? 

Third Thought:

Let’s also look at the consequences of not filling our life with good.  When we don’t fill our life with good, Jesus reminds us that evil is likely to bring friends.  In fact, Jesus tells us that the ending condition will be worse than the starting condition!  When we don’t fill our life with good, we are simply asking for evil to come in, take root, and grow into worse behavior.  I believe this is along the same lines as the old proverb that “Idle hands are the Devil’s playground.”  It’s not enough to just not do evil.  If all we do is “not do evil” we are just setting ourselves up for a time that we do find ourselves slipping into evil behavior.

Where in your life have you seen idle time drift into sinfulness?  Do you think humans beings are prone to trouble when we are idle?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 12:46-50