Thursday. [Rom. 15:17-29; Matt. 12:46-13:3]

   For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother. By this the Lord gives us to know that the spiritual kinship which He came to plant and raise up on the earth is not the same as fleshly kinship; although in the form of its relationships, the spiritual is the same as the fleshly. The spiritual also contains fathers and mothers—they are those who give birth to people with the word of truth or the gospel, as the apostle Paul says. And it contains also brothers and sisters—they are those who are born spiritually from one person and grow in one spirit. The connection between [spiritual] relatives is founded on the action of grace. It is not external, not superficial, but as deep and alive as the fleshly connection, only it has its place in another much higher and important sphere. This is why it predominates over the fleshly, and when necessary, it brings the fleshly as a sacrifice to its spiritual interests without regret, in full certainty that this sacrifice is pleasing to God and is required by Him.

Wednesday. [Rom. 15:7-16; Matt. 12:38-45]

   In every person who lives unrepentant in sin there lives a demon, as if in a house, who takes charge over everything within him. When by the grace of God such a sinner comes to contrition over his sins, repents and ceases to sin—the demon is cast out from him. At first the demon does not disturb the one who has repented, because there is much fervour within him in the beginning, which burns demons like a fire, and repulses them like an arrow. But then, when fervour begins to grow cold, the demon approaches from afar with its suggestions, throws in memories about former pleasures and calls him to them. If the penitent does not beware, he will soon pass from a sympathy to a desire for sin; if he does not come to his senses and return himself to the state of his former soberness, then a fall is not far off. From desire are born the inclination for sin and decision to commit it—the inner sin is ready; the outer sin is only waiting for a convenient occasion. When an occasion presents itself, the sin will be accomplished. Then the demon will enter again, and begin to drive a person from sin to sin even faster than before. The Lord portrayed this with the parable about the second return of the demon into the clean, swept house.