Interested Lying
H. R. Haweis, M. A. Mark 3:22-26 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casts he out devils.… From the accounts of Matthew and Luke we learn that Jesus had been casting out a deaf and dumb devil. The work was one of Divine goodness and mercy. The religious world of the period looked on and called it bad. He cast out devils, they said, through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Let us beware of thus giving the lie to the moral sense, for it is the very sin against the Holy Ghost, and we may be terribly near it without knowing it. The tendency is a common one. If goodness, or truth, or mercy touch my pocket, or my honour, or my interest, my pleasures, or even my prejudices, I will destroy and deny them, when and how I can. That is the tendency. These are spots in our feasts of charity, blots on our professions. I have known medical men deny cures not wrought by the accredited methods. The disease has been cast out by fraud, by quackery, or not cast out at all, say they. When I was in Italy, and the regular Piedmontese army arrived at Naples after Garibaldi and his irregular volunteers had done all the work down south, one heard nothing but abuse of Garibaldi and his men by the king's officers. They hated them, they cheapened their valour, they sneered at their sacrifices, even denied their exploits, attributing all to chance, luck, even to mistake. General Garibaldi had won, well, in spite of his stupidity. Such interested lying is not confined to the doctor or the soldier; it is found in the Church. I have heard clergymen deny the good work and righteous fruits of congregations opposed to them. I have seen in the country war between the orthodox rector, who could not fill his church, and the dissenting baptist, whose church over the way was crowded. The fruits of the Spirit were there, the devils were defeated; but the rector still stood out that it was by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. WEB: The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul," and, "By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons."