Luke 11:14-26

Good News Translation

Jesus and Beelzebul^(A)

¹⁴ Jesus was driving out a demon that could not talk; and when the demon went out, the man began to talk. The crowds were amazed, ^15 (B)but some of the people said, “It is Beelzebul, the chief of the demons, who gives him the power to drive them out.”

^16 (C)Others wanted to trap Jesus, so they asked him to perform a miracle to show that God approved of him. ¹⁷ But Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long; a family divided against itself falls apart. ¹⁸ So if Satan's kingdom has groups fighting each other, how can it last? You say that I drive out demons because Beelzebul gives me the power to do so. ¹⁹ If this is how I drive them out, how do your followers drive them out? Your own followers prove that you are wrong! ²⁰ No, it is rather by means of God's power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come to you.

²¹ “When a strong man, with all his weapons ready, guards his own house, all his belongings are safe. ²² But when a stronger man attacks him and defeats him, he carries away all the weapons the owner was depending on and divides up what he stole.

^23 (D)“Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering.

The Return of the Evil Spirit^(E)

²⁴ “When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it travels over dry country looking for a place to rest. If it can't find one, it says to itself, ‘I will go back to my house.’ ²⁵ So it goes back and finds the house clean and all fixed up. ²⁶ Then it goes out and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself, and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in worse shape than at the beginning.”