Our worst self is ill at ease in such a wholesome atmosphere.
Sermon on the seven spirits of god free#
But the flesh is weak and the evil is strong, and the process of keeping our house clean and free from the demon self proves more drastic than we suspected. Once the way of Christ is presented to us and we accept its challenge, we attempt to reform our lives, with the result that our house becomes swept and garnished: the old evil propensities are forced out. Normally, in our unregenerate state, our house of life was the abode of many unclean spirits: we were harboring many fleshly ways, many unchristian interests and attitudes. The people were in danger of a relapse into even greater evil if they did not open their hearts to receive the words of Jesus.Ī spiritual lesson vital to the alert Christian also can be drawn from this parable. 45 shows Jesus’ meaning: “So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” In the form of a parable our Lord foretells the degeneration of the people who imagine that they have nothing to learn from Him, although He has more wisdom to impart than Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba. When Christ comes to live in us the devils keep their distance. Otherwise our emptiness invites a worse fate. Our world needs that passionate and positive commitment. When shall we learn that our hearts are made for a Divine indwelling? When shall we learn to say, “I believe with all my heart”? Death held no terror, for He was their Resurrection and Life. They feared no darkness, for He was their Light. Yet soon their table was spread, for He was their Bread of life. But the followers of Christ had invited Him to live in a house which, when He first came, was not even swept or garnished. So seven other devils arrived, such as money, greed, self-righteousness, and contempt for those without the Law. The Pharisees had cast out the gross sins, but they left life empty of any loyalty beyond themselves. It doesn’t greatly help a man to know what he does not believe, unless he knows also what he does believe. Nature and human nature both abhor a vacuum: no faith is almost worse than a bad faith, for no faith invites a swarm of bad faiths no life remains empty of worship. At best it is only a prelude to a new loyalty. Reformation is never enough, no matter how thorough the cleansing.
There is a terrible persistence in wickedness: it returns, and the soul not indwelt by the rightful tenant is always beleaguered. Dust gathers in the corners rats gnaw at the floorboards. His “last state is worse than the first.” Empty houses never remain empty. Finding it swept and set in order–but empty–he summons seven other devils each worse than himself and they, in alliance too strong for the man, come to possess him. Then, homeless, returns to look from far at the house he came from. The demon, expelled from a man’s house of life, wanders in a wilderness. It may frequently have happened that one seemingly cured from demoniac possession suffered a relapse, and that his state became worse than before. Jesus’ parable may have been suggested by the case history of an insane man who was thought to be healed. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first.…” Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 12:43-45: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
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