“And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand — the principle is stated at the political level: a kingdom in civil war destroys itself. The historical examples are available in abundance in every generation. A kingdom requires internal cohesion to exercise external power; division at the center guarantees defeat. Jesus is applying a self-evident political truth to the spiritual realm: if the kingdom of darkness is fighting itself, it will fall. But Satan's kingdom is not falling through internal division — it is being destroyed from outside, by a stronger power that is binding the strong man and plundering his house.
Church Fathers on Mark 3:24
The meaning of the example is this: The devil is the strong man; his goods are the men into whom he is received; unless therefore a man first conquers the devil, how can he deprive him of his goods, that is, of the men whom he has possessed?
The Lord has also bound the strong man, that is, the devil: which means, He has restrained him from seducing the elect, and entering into his house, the world; He has spoiled his house, and his goods, that is men, because He has snatched them from the snares of the devil, and has united them to His Church.
Or this is meant; that he will not deserve to work out repentance, so as to be accepted, who, understanding who Christ was, declared that He was the prince of the devils.
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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