Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 12:29 - 12:30
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Another illustration:
v. 29. Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
v. 30. He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad.
In case they were not yet convinced, He will attempt to establish His position by another parabolic saying. Every demoniac is a captive of Satan, bound, body and soul, in his power, to do his will. But Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil, 1Jn_3:8. He wants to take the stronghold of the enemy and wrest his prey from him. This Jesus did, not only in the individual cases when He cured demoniacs, but by His entire life, suffering, and death, by His active and passive obedience in behalf of all men. He has gained a complete deliverance from the bondage of the devil. On His side, in His strength is victory, and there alone. This fact gives emphasis to the warning statement as to the alternative: either for or against Christ. There is no middle ground in this decision, there is no neutrality in this fight. This referred not only to the Pharisees, whose enmity was growing more evident every day, but especially to those among the people that were still undecided. The so-called neutral people that do not wish to oppose Christ outright, but also do not wish to antagonize the children of the world, the wise blasphemers, are, in the last analysis, enemies of the work of Christ and hinder the coming of the Kingdom. Instead of gathering with the Lord of the harvest, their hesitancy, their vacillating policy, harms His cause.