Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste
and house will fall against house.
It is said that the good is a unifying principle, drawing all things toward God who is himself one. By contrast evil is said to be a principle of division, fragmentation, and dispersion. Yet in this world of ours we sometimes see those whose influence we know to be good welcoming division. By contrast, we sometimes see evil at work that seems highly united in belief and practice. These fanatical outliers are often the ones who seem to leave the least room for diversity in their ranks. Yet this is hardly something for which we give them praise. What should we make of all of this?
We must insist that evil is ultimately a principle of division. It does sometimes ape the appearance of goodness, in a cheap imitation of true unity. However, the supposed unity that is at the heart of fanatical groups is quite different from true unity. It is achieved by violence that is both the normal visible kind and also the hidden ideological kind. It is imposed and enforced. The supposed harmony of evil groups cannot issue organically as though everyone were individually and naturally reaching out toward a higher goal and then joining together in common pursuit. Instead, the the goals of evil are such as can only be attained briefly by a select few. Thus the best one can hope for in such a group is contractual nonaggression. But even then it will only by maintained as long as it was beneficial. Whenever someone has the sense that he can get away with seizing more for himself he has no real reason not to do so. There is nothing in the mock unity of evil that can prevent anyone from throwing another person under the bus if that seems convenient. For these reasons, no mattered how united evil superficially appears to be, there are always small cracks that are just waiting to give way under pressure.
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Jesus was doing something that was genuinely good. It was meant to help draw all men to himself, so that, together with him they could share life with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He himself was the supremely unifying influence since he himself was the way, the truth, and the life, and since besides him there was no way to the Father. Why then, did he say that he came to bring not peace but division? We can say that he came to bring division to that which only had appearance of unity in order that the true unity that was found in him alone could be made known. There were, in the time of Jesus, various groups, each with their own consensus about the truth. But they couldn't all be right. And there was no way that such limited perspectives could provide the lasting basis for a kingdom. We see the obvious problem with such tensions when Paul led the Sadducees and the Pharisees into an argument about the resurrection. Jesus came to expose lies and the father of lies in order that the truth and the way to our heavenly Father could be revealed.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace,
his possessions are safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.
The enemy used his strength to subjugate others. These were his possessions whom he kept "safe" only in the sense that they weren't stolen from him. But Jesus used his greater strength to give freedom to captives such as these. He said to those who listened to him, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (see John 8:32) and that "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (see John 8:36). And yet somehow this freedom would conduce to a unity that was greater and more real than the one that the devil tried to impose and enforce.
But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order.
Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits
more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there,
and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.
One tempting illusion that is not actually a possibility is the idea of neutral ground. Without committing to the way of goodness we leave ourselves open as easy pickings for the powers of darkness. We aren't strong enough fight on our own, and aren't meant to be. We're meant to find our strength by participating in something bigger, better, and more beautiful than any of us alone. To this end, let us listen to Paul writing to the Galatians:
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (see Galatians 5:1).
Newsboys - I Am Free (Who The Son Sets Free)
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