#DailyDevotion Whose Side Are You On? There Are Only Two.
Luke 11: 21-28 21“When a strong man, completely armed, guards his palace, his property is not disturbed. 22But when someone stronger than he attacks him and defeats him, he’ll take away his whole armor, in which he trusted, and divide the plunder. 23“Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who doesn’t help Me gather, scatters. 24“When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, he goes through dry places looking for rest but doesn’t find any. Then he says, “I’ll go back to the home I left.’ 25He comes and finds it swept and decorated. 26Then he goes and takes home with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and they go in and live there. In the end that man is worse than he was before.” 27When Jesus said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and called out, “Blessed is the mother who bore You and nursed You.” 28“Yes,” He said, “but blessed are those who continue to listen to God’s Word and keep it.”
Who is the strong man? Well if we look to verse 24 it is the devil. He is the one being cast out (or his minions). Now Jesus is the “someone stronger.” He had been casting out demons and the Pharisees were accusing him of doing it by the power of Beelzebul. Having freed people from demonic possession there is a bit of a warning here that their house, their temple, their body needs to be filled and not left uninhabited. Having been freed will they put their faith in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit or walk on their merry way and be re-possessed by their previous demon and several others?
When we are freed from bad, sinful habit what do we do? Do we pray the Holy Spirit take up residence in us to protect us from going back to our old ways of darkness? Do we follow his promptings to do good and fill our lives with his life and light? Or do we go on merrily thinking we got this and be taken suddenly again by these sinful habits? We need to ask the Holy Spirit to fill our lives with his life, light and way and good works.
Jesus makes a pronouncement, “Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who doesn’t help Me gather, scatters.” If your faith is not in Jesus, it doesn’t matter how much outward good you may do. You are opposing Jesus and scattering people away from him. It is not enough you don’t worship false gods like Zeus, Maia, Gaia, the Sun, the Moon etc. It is not enough to try to avoid doing evil and go about doing good works. It’s not enough you think Jesus is a prophet or a good man. There is no middle ground with Jesus. You are either with him or against him. You are either gathering with him or scattering against him. In your spiritual life there is no sitting on the fence. What does it looks being on Jesus’ side? Confessing your sins to God and to one another (often to a pastor), being baptized into Jesus, confessing your faith in Jesus and what he has done for you, and listening to God’s Word and keeping it. Now keeping God’s Word is a two fold thing. Those who listen to God’s Word and keep it Jesus says are blessed. Now to keep Jesus’ word is to remember it, to tell others about it, talk about it, teach it to your children, and to put it into practice. As you have opportunity to do good and so love to your fellow Christians you should do so. When you have an opportunity to love an enemy take it and do so.
Blessed Jesus, as you are the stronger man who has cleansed our bodies, also fill us with your Holy Spirit so we may be your temple and be blessed in our lives. In your precious name we pray. Amen.