Unclean

An unclean spirit (1:23) 

Mark was a very difficult colleague. He was capable at his job, skilled and successful, but had a tendency to be obstructive and rude to certain fellow workers. His supervisor, Peter, was a particular target. This continued for a number of years until Peter spotted a pattern. Mark was only rude to his Christian colleagues, and, most importantly, he picked on those whom Peter knew were Christians but Mark didn't. It was clear Mark knew something that humanly he could not know and Peter decided that Mark had an unclean spirit. In a moment of solitude, Peter prayed against this 'spirit of darkness', commanding it to be gone in Jesus' name. Immediately and for the next five years until Mark left the job, his treatment of Peter changed. He became pleasant and supportive. He remained difficult to other people but was no longer able to pick out Christians. 

Today we often assume that the idea of an unclean spirit hides ignorance, either about mental illness or about the nature of physical reality. It may be though that we are falling into an old trap of not taking spiritual opposition to God seriously enough. Are we ready to 'discern the spirits' (1 Corinthians 12:10)? Jesus did.