1Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
These Jewish exorcists were guilty of fraud, but also of violating the third of the Ten Commandments. They were essentially using God’s name in vain. They were attempting to use the power of God for their purposes. They had learned that the name of Jesus had power, and here they were, not even Christians, invoking the name of Jesus to cast out evil spirits. They made the big mistake of invoking the name of Jesus when they had no relationship with him. Jesus doesn’t share His power and glory with those whom He does not know.
Notice that they commanded the evil spirits to come out “by the Jesus whom Paul preaches”. They didn’t say, “We cast you out in the Name of Jesus, whom we love and serve.” You see, they were trying to borrow the name of Jesus for their exorcism show. Many so-called servants of God try to borrow the name of Jesus for their purposes, efforts, and endeavors. They claim to heal others or possess a special revelation, all while using the name of Jesus; however, their conduct leads one to question whether they truly know Him or have a relationship with Him at all. It is dangerous to use the name of Jesus without knowing Him. However, to the believer, there is power in the name of Jesus!
Jesus said that His followers would share in His power. (Ephesians 1:19-20; John 14:12). You and I are empowered to do great things in His name and in His power. Without a relationship with Him, we might find that if we try to do battle in His name, the demons will merely answer back, “Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you?” Those seven sons of Sceva were attacked by the demon-possessed man who beat them senseless and ripped off their clothes. Draw near to the Lord, and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8) The power is available, but you must know Him and love Him. He said, “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) As Gloria and Bill Gaither penned, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name. Master, Savior, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all heaven and earth proclaim, ‘Kings and Kingdoms will all pass away, but there’s something about that name.”