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These are brief studies, not
“teachings” or “doctrines”.

     Jesus is going to teach something important to his disciples and he will use the fact that he had just ‘overcome’ a demon (in casting the demon out of a person, i.e. 'dispesing' the demon from the person ) to illustrate his teaching. For the kind of people who are disciples and/or the people who might become disciples, Jesus' teaching reaches past ‘demons and spirits’.
     ‘To divide’ here means to disperse from one and/or to hand over to others. ‘Armed’ and ‘armor’ can just as well be money, finances, stocks and bonds, etc., because these are things that we use to ‘keep’ (i.e. hold on to) our homes and goods ‘in peace... wherein we trust for our wellbeing’.
    It is interesting that Jesus was using the casting out of a demon to illustrate a teaching about his strength to 'disperse' or to remove something from someone...while most Christians today are interested in the passage for “learning more about demons and spirits and how to war against them”.
    So for a moment, if you will, please forget about “demons and spirits”…because Jesus quickly moves from the example of his power over the demon to speak straight to those who might be interested in 'discipleship' more than in ‘seeing a heavenly sign’.

     Jesus is speaking to various kinds of people in the crowd. The disciples are listening. The people crowded around Jesus (in varied modes of listening) are listening. There are 1) those ‘wondering’, 2) those condemning, and 3) those believing while yet ‘seeking a heavenly sign’.
    May I suggest that this encompasses all of mankind through the ages that gathers around Jesus (i.e., not the great many that could not care less one way or the other like the many Israelites passing by and not bothering to join the crowd around Jesus).
     Jesus continues to make this passage about him…but also about those who would have something to do with him (for or against, good or bad). The disciples are ‘with’ Jesus. The ‘wonderers’ have not yet made up their minds about Jesus. And those ‘seeking a sign from heaven’ believe that Jesus is from heaven...ah, but are these ‘with’ Jesus...in the sense of his concern for them to become like his disciples? (A few verses later we will see a woman testifying of Jesus.)
     Moreover, these latter believers seem ‘strong’ in their belief that Jesus is of heaven…so much so that they know he can perform a sign from heaven…and that he ought to do it because they ask him…and that…well, after all they want to be part of Jesus proving himself to the condemners…thus their ‘tempting’ request…almost in chorus…that he perform a heavenly sign for the crowd.

     At this point I will reconsider 21-22 regarding myself and how God used this passage with me:
    I was a ‘strong man’ ‘armed’ with my Masters Degree in electrical and ocean engineering...and with a good paying job, and with my abilities, and with the several houses that we owned and rented, etc. Ah, but (having first conquered my willingness) I was ‘overcome’ by the very man (and his Father) who is speaking to the people in this passage. He 'dispersed' my ‘amour in which I trusted’ (though I had loved God dearly for a long time), and then for over five years the ‘spoils of our savings’ diminished to nothing.
    In other words, when all was sold and we moved to Wyoming, we offered all of it to him for His purpose in us. We would be glad to live on his provision, which we expected it be in some kind of ministry. However, the ‘spoils’ (our savings now owned by God)...which we expected Him to use in our new life for Him...were used up in five years while we “waited upon the Lord”. Only then did He begin providing for us in His manner, as He chose to do, and He still does.
    God did not take from us our 'spoils', instead He allowed us to live on our 'spoils' until they were gone. As the 'spoils' were near dissapearing, He began to deal with us (in a way different than before) about 'faith'. God has different methods of provision for His different purposes.

     Wealth gotten by vanity [for this illustration 'by my own self worth'] shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour [i.e. by the hand, in this case 'by God's Hand'] shall increase. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire [of it] cometh, it is a tree of life. Whoso despiseth [i.e. counts of little value] the word [of God's personal instruction for him] shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment [God has for him] shall be rewarded.
Proverbs 13:11-13

     It is interesting (to Barbara and me) how God might ignore what a person has done in his strength (even if the thing done was done with God’s helping hand) and then God turns unexpectedly to do new and different things for the person who has surrendered to Him.
     Ah, and God may repeat the process when He begins another new thing. Indeed, He may allow, or cause to be ‘dispersed’, the very thing or money which the surrendered-one thought was being provided for some new thing. This usually works to focus the surrendered-one upon God instead of being focused upon incoming provisions and what the provisions might be for. In other words, stop looking at what you can see and instead focus upon on your unseen God. The new something may be separate from past somethings...with past somethings having very little to do with the new thing of the future.
     On the one hand, it can be confusing, but not so much if the surrendered-one has been, and continues to be, fully dependant on his King. And on the other hand, it really can be a great relief to see something ‘dispersed’ (i.e. like spilled water seeping into the ground). Indeed, you may have been working hard to protect a provision, but when it is gone then gone also is the striving to protect it. This, then, may provide relief and a new opportunity to gaze as a little child toward the Father...not so much for answers, but just to gaze.

     Verses 21-22 are about Jesus referring to himself as the ‘stronger’ of two strong ones, and this is why and how he cast out the ‘strong’ demon. Then verse 23 makes it clear (as far as Jesus doing his work is concerned) that there are only two positions: ‘with him’ working or ‘against him’ working. That is, if a person is in the vicinity of Jesus doing his work then he or she should either leave or become guilty before God of one of these two.
     Jesus returns to the example of casting out the demon. He is not so interested in teaching about unclean spirits as as much as he is interested in teaching about how a person...cleaned up inside...can fall back into a state worse than his initial state…that is, if the person does not fill the clean space with something stronger than which was 'dispersed' from it.
     Therefore, forget for a moment about the spirits coming and going. Become concerned with filling up the clean space inside with things of the ‘stronger’ one regarding his purpose. This does not make the 'dispersed' person stronger, but the ‘strong’ thing that had been there cannot return. (It is true if the person never had an ‘unclean spirit’ in the first place, for unclean spirits are always looking for a home.. The person following ‘with’ Jesus is strong only in own weakness.
     Example: Being moved by God to renew one’s self is a cleaning experience. But the clean space is supposed to be for something ‘stronger’ than what had been there. Many a sincere Christian goes through many rededications, but then years later nothing significant has occurred in him. The result in the inner man can be somewhat of a hardening to other similar wooing by God. Indeed, God may give up wooing the person who had been very sincere toward Him. We are speaking of a child of God growing in regards to church, to doctrine, to service etc., yet he or she had not allowed the clean space in him to be filled with the One who had done the cleaning.
     Here is a child of God who still is not ‘with’ Jesus. Instead he may well be working for God while at the same time he is not ‘with’ Jesus in Jesus’ ‘gathering’. This is Jesus’ teaching. It is not about demons and unclean spirits. It is about spaces cleaned or 'dispersed' by Jesus ( like the man who no longer had the demon). Being cleaned by Jesus is for a Jesus-purpose, which has something to do with Jesus-gathering. Seldom do we know about the purpose or the gathering until later because this is what Biblical faith is all about.

     Christians usually calculate that this verse could not possibly be about Christians because Christians do not want to think that it might be about Christians. Note that the word ‘wicked’ did not occur in the passage until now. Moreover, it has less to do with spirits as it has to do with empty clean spaces ‘swept and garnished’…which spaces were accomplished by Jesus’ work. In his travels, were there many evil and wicked people from whom Jesus cast out demons and unclean spirits? Answer: No…only the ones that sought him; only the ones who desired to be set free by the Son of God, their Messiah. Every real Christian is a sinner who at one time had to respond “Yes” to Jesus’ bloody sacrifice.
     Dear Christian reader, next time God convicts you of something and wants His way with you (and pray that He does come to you for this) then allow Him to clean a space in you and also allow Him to fill the space with something ‘stronger’.

     This dear lady is one of the believers in Jesus (i.e. that he is the Son of God come from heaven and he can perform heavenly signs). Here is her method of working for Jesus: it is giving testimony, if you will, that this man is The One.
    She may not yet understand that he is the Messiah, but she surely knows that he is straight out of heaven. And she knows that ‘the womb [i.e. of Mary] that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked’ were surely ‘blessed’.
    However, Jesus viewed this as a distraction. He continued teaching his disciples and those of the crowd who might be interested in discipleship.

     See Matthew 19:16-30 about the Rich Young Ruler. He came seeking the word of God, even unto becoming a disciple. Yet, he could not ‘keep’ the word that Jesus offered, because while he was focused upon offering himself into discipleship (and surely offering his riches also), Jesus would have him go sell (i.e. ‘disperse’) his riches, give to the poor, and then follow.
    At the time, even Jesus’ disciples did not comprehend why Jesus turned him away in this manner; couldn’t they use the man’s riches in Jesus’ ministry? Ah, but the Father's work had to be accomplished by the Father and His riches.
     The dear woman also was not getting it. She desired to bless Jesus with her testimony and her recognition of him, even in a crowd that had haters and condemners of Jesus who might report her to the temple leaders who might disallow her from entering the temple. Like this woman, this is the kind of thing that you, dear reader, and I might wish to do for Jesus. But note that this woman was not ‘with’ Jesus. She was, in fact, ‘scattering’…though she did not realize it even in giving testimony.
     Luke included verses 27 and 28 to illustrate how the children of God so easily miss, in their own understanding, ‘the word of God’ because their hearts and their clean inner spaces (cleaned by Jesus) are not yet ready to be filled with the Word. Indeed, we (each and every one of us) miss out on ‘the word of God’ until we are ready to receive it…in that, ‘many are called [at any given time] but few are chosen.’ I suspect that soon enough this dear woman did “get it”...perhaps when she heard the clear testimony and knew it to be true that Jesus had risen.

     Jesus is giving another example: Two kinds of ‘light’ are mentioned (i.e. here our use of the word ‘light’ is twofold). One is the light source, which in this verse is the ‘candle…on a candlestick’. The second is the radiance of the candle’s flame, which is light to see by. The purpose of a candle is to make light (i.e. radiance), and the light (radiance) is for the purpose of seeing what there is to see. Now Jesus will apply the example.

     Think of the moon as you attempt to walk at night in the moonlight. Though the sun is the actual light source, the moon by gathering in sunlight and reflecting it to the earth becomes a secondary light source. Similarly, the ‘light of the body is the eye’ where the eye is the light source of the body and it can make ‘thy whole body also is full of light’; however, the eye can only do this ‘when thine eye is single’.
     Therefore, Jesus says that the (spiritual) eye is like a lens that, when focused ‘singularly’, draws (spiritual) light into itself and then passes it into the body. Indeed this kind of light can invade the ‘whole body’ for God’s good purpose in His child.
     Therefore, we now combined these two verses with the above discussed verses: The clean space can become full of this kind of ‘stronger’ light…and this kind of ‘stronger’ light is death to the creatures of darkness because the creatures of darkness must have darkness as their light.
     Dear reader, we know that the creatures of darkness actually can abide just a tiny bit of light which might creep into their dark dank holes, and we know that “darkness is the absence of light”. Moreover, the basic meaning of the word ‘evil’ is hurtful; and we know that an unfocused spiritual eye is not ‘single’. Therefore, we know that the light from Jesus’ teachings, which strikes our (spiritual) eye, can become defused such that only a little of the light enters our Christians spiritual body. (Jesus is speaking of and to Christians.) Therefore, we know by Jesus’ words that there is clean space inside a Christian where things of darkness (i.e. things of the world) might dwell… which space needs to be cleaned or 'dispersed' and filled with ‘stronger’ things.

     Dear reader, we are not particularly speaking of demons and unclean spirits in Christians; instead we are speaking of a Christian’s values and heart desires that are not pure …and that such worldly values and desires cannot abide the pure light of the word any more than can the creatures of darkness abide the pure light of the word. Therefore, should the pure light of the word be allowed to somehow enter the Christian’s innerman, then the values and desires that are not pure will have to leave…that is, if the Christian holds on to the newly entered pure light of the word...that is, if the Christian is allowing his or her innerman to be 'dispersed'.
     Are we not sinners, though saved? Is there not a place in each of us where God wishes to 'disperse'? Is it not true that the pure light is the ‘gathering kind of light’? Is it not true that the diffused light (even though it radiates purely from God toward a child of God) results in the pure light of the word being ‘scattered’?
     Therefore, we know that a single eye that passes though the focused full pure light will enlighten the whole body. Such light is the word of God when it is taken in and kept. This condition makes for a blessed condition, as we live and walk before a pleased Heavenly Father. It is such a condition which allows a person to be ‘with’ Jesus’ whenever he might be ‘gathering’.

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These are free printable Bible studies by C. Ronald Johnson at Christian Wilderness Press