But no one is able to enter a strong man’s house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can thoroughly plunder his house. (Mark 3:27 NET)
The “strong man” in today’s promise is Satan, or the chief demon working in a person’s life, and Jesus tells us that if we want to take back what he has stolen from us, we have to tie him up. Clearly Jesus has the power and authority to do that, but do we? Does the run of the mill, sincere but inexperienced Christian have the power to tie up the devil and take back the health and family and peace that the devil has stolen from him? Absolutely! The promise of being able to thoroughly plunder the house of Satan and demons is not just for the Lord Jesus, but for all of us.
Several hundred years ago an Irish politician in the British Parliament (Edmund Burke) was one of a few members of Parliament that supported the American Revolution. Though it made him unpopular with his colleagues, he felt he had to stand up and support the revolutionaries in the new world, fighting for their freedom, and is credited with a very true saying: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Though he meant this in a purely political way, this applies perfectly to our spiritual life. All the devil needs is for no one to oppose him, no one to tie him up, for no one to rebuke him. And sadly, most Christians find themselves in this group of people. If their bosses treated them unfairly at work they would complain and fight for their rights; if a waiter at a restaurant got their order wrong and brought them a dish they did not order, they would insist on another; if their cable company was over charging them they would become indignant and demand their money back; but these same people, many times, do not have the courage to confront the devil and his demons who have robbed them blind their entire lives.
Whoever ties up Satan has to be stronger than him. Jesus implies that He came into the world for this very purpose—to enter the house of the strong man and seize his possessions—but this is also our purpose in life. The first step in tying up Satan is to understand that he and his demons have attacked and robbed us, and then to get angry and indignant at the state of our lives. The second step is to understand that we have the authority and power to tie up the devil and thoroughly plunder his house. Because we believe in Jesus, are following Him, and trust that he destroyed Satan at the cross… we have this authority. But authority has to be used, otherwise it is useless, and that is the third step.
When this passage speaks about stealing the strong man’s property and plundering his house, Jesus is not teaching us to be thieves, or to take what is not ours. He is teaching us to take back what the devil took from us. The house that we are to thoroughly plunder is our own lives. God wants us to take back the control of our lives from the devil and surrender them to Him. When we do this, we are not stealing anything, we are taking back what is rightfully ours and putting Satan and his demons in their place.
We have been given this mission in life. God’s amazing power is at our disposal. We have the power to tie up the devil and his demons. Let’s be good people who do something, who triumph over evil!
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