Replacement

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 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. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.  – Matthew 12.43-45

This an interesting lesson. Jesus tells the story here of a man who had been possessed by a demon and then had the demon cast out. The image is of the demon wandering about and finding no place to remain.

Meanwhile the man does nothing about himself and the demon finds seven other demons and comes back to dwell in the man who is clean, but still empty.

This sounds like a strange kind of story, but I think there is a principle here that we can apply.

As Christians our lives change. We see things in our lives that are not pleasing to God and we slowly and surely over time strive to get rid of them. When we do that it is important that we replace the evil with good and godly pursuits. If we don’t replace the bad things with good things we are liable, like the man in the story, to go back to our old ways. This principle of replacement is vital for us not to slip back into sin. We can’t be just be empty vessels and hope we don’t turn back. We must take an active role in replacing evil with good so there is no room for the evil to return.