Parable: Evil Spirit Returning to an Empty House

     Ignorance about spirits, evil and otherwise, is universal. The desire to know about them leaves people open to superstition, legend, and religious error. All we need to know about the spirit world is in the Bible, but few are content to stay with that.
     Jesus told a parable about an evil spirit dispossessed of its “house” which was able to return later with reinforcements because the house had been allowed to stay empty and was not filled with righteousness and the presence of the Lord God.
     He explained that none could cast out a “strong man” unless he himself is more powerful. Only one more powerful than evil spirits could cast them out of persons they possessed. But the person to be cleansed has an obligation to seek and accept the Lord’s help, to correct his own life and  fill it with good so that he does not sink into sin again, and be worse off than before.
      Nature abhors a vacuum. If one’s life is not filled with good, the bad will fill it by default. Negative virtue is never enough. The only rightful tenant of the house of any person is the one who cast out the evil spirits (or, in our case, sin and guilt), which is to say, Jesus the Lord and Savior. If the cleansed person returns to evil, either by intention or default, he ends up worse off than before the Lord saved him.
     If we let Him, the Lord can break the power of Satan and sin that holds us down. But He will not and cannot unless we do our part to get free and stay free.

- via The Encourager, the weekly bulletin for the Dongola church of Christ, Dongola, IL.  Gerald Cowan serves the congregation as minister.  He may be contacted at Geraldcowan1931@aol.com