The Unclean Spirit

Matt 12:43-45. Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation."

Luke 11:24-26. "When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

Here we have an “unclean spirit”, or demon, that goes out of a man. The original language in both Matthew and Luke would imply that it has been forced out of the man, and not simply left voluntarily. This demon then goes out among waterless places seeking rest.

The imagery is that of a dry, barren, hostile land. A land not “watered” with the gospel. Where else would a demon go? Then it says to itself “I will return to my house from which I came”. Here, the language is that of one who left voluntarily and now decides to go back. The demon says to himself “I was not cast out, but left of my own will”.

Returning to the house (the man), the demon finds it “swept and put in order”. It is clean, but it is vacant – empty. There is no one or nothing to guard the house from intruders. Notice here that the demon does not immediately reoccupy the man, but goes out and brings back seven other “spirits more evil than itself”. He goes and gets his friends, who are worse than he is, to come live with him in the man.

The man who had the demon cast out, had his “home” cleaned and put in order. His life was together. He “cleaned up his act”, so to speak. Unfortunately, he did not replace the evil influence (the demon) with any type of good, or positive, influence. A house needs someone to watch over it – to guard it. Jesus says that if we abide in Him, He will make His home in us (John 14:23). Who better to guard over you than Jesus? In one of our earlier parables, Jesus explained that the home of a strong man cannot be invaded unless the strong man is first bound (parable of divided kingdom). There is none stronger than Jesus. He cannot be bound. If your home (yourself) is filled with Christ, nothing can overtake you.

If your home (yourself) is not filled with Christ, however, any vacancy created by “cleaning house” will only be filled by other influences. Notice that the first demon brought back others that were worse than he was. Whatever vacancy that was created originally is now filled with something worse.

Now look at the parable again, but replace “demon” with “habit” or “addiction”. We all have habits or addictions that are not healthy. It can be overeating, smoking, drinking, pornography, gambling, etc. We all can clean up our lives on our own to a certain extent, but there comes a time when we have to let Jesus take over. Otherwise all we are creating is an empty house. Empty houses attract vandals. Vandals start small – just looking in the windows. If nothing is done to deter them, however, they will become bolder until they have broken into the house and destroyed the inside. The “house” is then worse off than it was in the beginning. Jesus Christ is the ultimate deterrent.

Are we fighting off the demons in our lives only to be beaten back time and again? We succeed in one area of our life only to struggle in another area? Sometimes things will go great for a long time. Everything is perfect. But nothing lasts forever, except, that is, Jesus Christ. He alone is eternal and never changing (Heb 13:8), and only He alone can make permanent and eternal changes in our lives. Jesus is the ultimate, eternal deterrent, but He can only take care of you as long as you give Him the keys to the door.