Matthew 12:45, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures an unclean spirit coming back with seven spirits more wicked than itself to enter and live in a person again, so that the last condition is worse than the first. When a person is set free from evil but leaves the heart empty instead of fully surrendering to God and receiving the Holy Spirit and Christ's indwelling, the evil returns with greater power and daily surrender with continual watchfulness and prayer is needed. Merely breaking with Satan and leaving off bad habits only sweeps and garnishes the house, and the vacuum must be filled by inviting in the heavenly Guest with the love of God and the graces of the Spirit, or the soul is left without true sanctification in unbelief. Jesus applies this to His generation, whose last state would be worse because it rejected Christ after receiving the invitation of mercy and persistently refused the call to repent. Rejecting the Holy Spirit leaves a person cut off from the channel through which God brings repentance and faith, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected nothing more can be done for that soul.

Setting and Imagery

The verse belongs to a bold denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees after they charged that casting out of devils was done through the power of Satan. It was spoken at a time of whole nights spent in prayer and days so thronged by crowds that there was not even time to eat, when friends thought the labor was wearing Him out and feared for His reason. His brothers were unbelieving, stung by reproach, alarmed by the tumult and indignant at His words, and they induced Mary to join them in trying to persuade Him to cease His labor. The verse stands in the section Matthew 12:22-50, paralleled by Mark 3:20-35, that leads to the question of who His brethren are, and it pictures an unclean spirit returning with seven spirits more wicked than itself to enter and dwell there, so that the last state of the person is worse than the first.

Empty Heart Repossessed

Freedom from evil that leaves the heart empty does not protect, for without full surrender to God and the receiving of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of Christ the evil returns with greater power and the final condition becomes worse than before. Control by Satan may be broken for a time through grace, yet without daily yielding to Christ there is no abiding indwelling to hold the heart, and the person becomes wholly dominated again. An emptied life that is not filled remains open and unoccupied to Satan and other evil spirits, so the heart must not be divided but kept under Christ's control by continual watchfulness and prayer and daily surrender.

Merely breaking with Satan and refusing his work and leaving off bad habits only sweeps and garnishes the house, leaving an empty heart and an unfilled vacuum if the heavenly Guest is not invited in. That vacuum must be filled with the love of God and the soul furnished with the graces of the Spirit through connection with God and union with Christ and use of the reservoir of power at command. Without that filling the expelled spirit returns with seven other spirits more evil than itself and dwells there, so the last state is worse than the first, leaving the soul without true sanctification in the dark, cold, sunless cave of unbelief, unable to catch the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.

When evil influences are not removed and the soul is not truly changed, the later condition becomes worse, for the soul must be cleansed of false teaching and spiritual defilement so Christ can dwell within, and turning from the deceiver is necessary to become free. So also one who begins reform but does only partial work ends worse than at the start, satisfied with weak, fitful efforts when Satan suggests enough has been done to save a good name, and stopping when perseverance is required. Such a one cuts off a few branches while cherishing the old root of sin to send out fresh shoots, starts up the hill but stops after a few steps, gains only faint self-knowledge and a faint sight of defects, and leaves corruptions unconquered that break out again into incurable evils. When influences out of harmony with the Spirit come like a mighty tide, all good resolutions are washed away and the impressions of the Spirit are effaced, leaving the last condition worse than the first.

An unguarded, empty house becomes a dwelling for evil spirits, and its last condition is worse than its first. This holds for those who speak of needing the Holy Spirit while its influence does not shape character, for evil spirits find room in them and inherited and cultivated evil tendencies develop, harming the work of God and potentially costing souls. In the same way, when Satan is only partly cast out the last state becomes worse than the first, as with men in responsible positions who have been reproved and warned but are not yet thoroughly converted and fully yielded to the guiding power of the Holy Spirit. With Satan not fully cast out of their minds and without being established and settled they cannot conduct the work in right lines, and very little would bring back the former confusion where leading men exercised unauthorized controlling authority over fellow laborers, in worse form than two years before.

Generation Rejecting Mercy

Jesus turned the warning upon His own generation, which was sliding into a worse condition by neglecting His call and the Spirit's invitation to repent. Its last state would become worse than its first because it rejected Christ after the invitation of mercy had been given to it. Persistent refusal of the call to repent is the most common form of sin against the Holy Spirit, with each rejection moving the person a step nearer to the rejection of salvation itself. The Jewish people committed the unpardonable sin in rejecting Christ, and anyone may commit the same sin by refusing mercy, rejecting Christ's messengers, and listening instead to agents who draw the soul away from Him.

Continuance in that rejection leaves no hope and no pardon, until at last even the desire to be reconciled to God is taken away. Rejection of the Holy Spirit cuts the person off from the very channel through which God works to give repentance and faith. When the Spirit is finally rejected, nothing more can be done for that soul. Other sins can be forgiven when the sinner repents and believes, but deliberate rejection of the Spirit shuts out that response.