Luke 4:31 ¶ And came down
to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. 32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for
his word was with power. 33 And in the
synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried
out with a loud voice, 34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with
thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. 35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy
peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he
came out of him, and hurt him not. 36
And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word
is this! for with authority and
power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. 37 And the fame of him went out into every place
of the country round about. 38 And he
arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s
mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. 39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever;
and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. 40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that
had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands
on every one of them, and healed them. 41 And devils also came out of many, crying out,
and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for
they knew that he was Christ. 42 And
when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people
sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from
them. 43 And he said unto them, I must
preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. 44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
In Capernaum Jesus
drives an unclean spirit out of a man. His teaching and miracle make him famous
round about. Christ’s teaching is profound and powerful and many are edified
and blessed by it, obviously.
Simon is another name
for the apostle Peter. See Luke 6:14.
We learn here that
Jesus has the power, the authority, to command unclean spirits, to drive them
out of a person. An unclean spirit
clearly is an entity and not just a twisted mind in an individual. It is an
entity that can have a negative impact on a person, taking control of part or
all of his or her mental functions, reasoning ability, emotions, and will.
An unclean spirit would lead a person to depravity and moral decay as uncleanness is often referred to as
sexual and moral license and depravity or even ritual pollution under the Law.
An evil spirit is a reference to a
spirit being that is malicious or bent on doing harm. Evil spirit refers to intent while unclean spirit refers to condition.
While most of what we
do that is wrong, unclean, or evil comes from our own sin nature, our own
twisted spirit of mind, it is clear that on occasion a person is afflicted by
something from outside of them. However, there is no evidence that this can
happen to a Christian filled with the Holy Ghost so blaming your wickedness on
an evil spirit is rather a waste of time and dishonest. These spirits bent on
driving human beings mad are also called devils,
the objects of worship for religions throughout history as man devolved after
the Flood and the dispersal at Babel.
Deuteronomy 32:17 They
sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that
came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
1Corinthians 10:20 But I say, that the things which the
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils, and not to God: and I would
not that ye should have
fellowship with devils.
Jesus heals Simon’s
mother-in-law and many others of diseases. He also drove these devils out of
many. He commanded the devils not to announce that He was the Messiah, the Christ,
which they knew to be true. Christ does not desire the testimony of devils
which would be good preaching material about unbelieving people with an agenda
furthering the Christian message because it fits some worldly agenda of theirs.
He tells the people who
sought Him after He went to a desert place, which was often His practice for
prayer and to be alone, that He must also go to other cities of the Jews as His
mission required, Jesus then began preaching in the synagogues all over
Galilee.
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