Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 12:45

"Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation." — Matthew 12:45 (ASV)

Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

If idolatry did not return to the Jews, the devil of pride, self-conceit, and many more came and fought against the Son of God, so that they became worse than they were before. The first devil of the Jewish people was nothing compared with the seven devils which afterwards possessed them.

We have seen some men of this kind. Under temporary conviction, they have given up certain outward sins, but afterwards, they have become ten times worse than they were before.

We have known a man to be a drunkard, and we have rejoiced to see him give up his drinking. Yet, when he has made a self-righteousness out of his temperance and set himself up against God and his truth, we have truly believed that he has had within him seven devils worse than the first.

A man may reform himself to blacker stains, and wash himself with the waters of his self-righteousness until he becomes harder to cleanse than he would have been at first. Oh, for the mighty hand of One, who is stronger than the prince of hell, to throw the devil out, and then he will never come back again! But if he goes out by mere human persuasion, or by our own wills and wishes, he will most certainly come back to us. If the Holy Ghost turns him out, he will never gain an entrance any more.

He takes another walk. He is so pleased with his elegant mansion that he calls upon other demons and invites them to his adorned home. The evil ones join him, and the inhabitants of the house are now eight times as many as before. They enter in and dwell there. They take the fullest possession and make a permanent stay.

Their residence is so secure that their future removal is unlikely, and now the man is worse than he was at first, for the unclean spirits are more numerous and more wicked. The sinful man becomes more proud and more unbelieving, or he becomes more vicious and more blasphemous than at the beginning.

So much for a hopeful reformation, which, indeed, was hopeless from the very first, because Jesus was not there and the Holy Spirit had no hand in it. Cunningly, the unclean spirit submits to an apparent surrender of power so that he may establish his dominion all the more firmly. No doubt, relapses into sin are, like relapses in disease, even more dangerous than the original malady.

In Christ’s day, the Pharisees and others were in this case. The spirit which led the Jews to idolatry was gone, but the true God was not spiritually loved nor even known, and so the demonic power still held them in possession. In the future, even in that wicked generation, in the form of hatred for Christ and fanatical contempt for other nations, the evil spirit which had depraved Judaism would still display itself in an even more hideous shape, as it did from our Lord’s day onward until the destruction of Jerusalem, when the people seemed to have gone quite mad, under a diabolical influence which made them hateful, and hating one another. We may fear that our present age of culture and advancement will go onward until it reaches a similar goal. It is progressing towards infidelity, and advancing towards absurdity, while at the same time worldliness is rampant and holiness is ridiculed.