Mark 3:11 Commentary and Bible Study

Other passages tell us that he would command the demons not to make him known at the same time as he drove them out. Mark doesn’t specifically say so, but elsewhere, whenever it mentions his silencing the demons, it also mentions that he healed those who were possessed and cast the demons out. But, of course, the Lord didn’t exactly want the demons to be testifying to who he was. God owes nothing to Satan, and cannot allow a situation in which he does owe anything to come about. How can the Lord of glory be indebted to the father of lies? Christ says, ‘I receive not testimony from man’ (John 5:34); how much less does he receive it from demons! Would Christ encourage men to believe what demons say and to rely on their testimony? Certainly not. Nevertheless, Scripture records that they could not help admitting who he was. For another reason also he forbade them to speak. It would have just encouraged the scribes and the Pharisees to say, ‘There you are, the demons are obedient to him, so he must be lord of the demons’; their response is recorded in the next few verses. So he silences them, but Mark mentions it particularly, because he pays attention to all the Old Testament prophecies concerning the ministry of Christ, and how he fulfils the predictions. Christ’s character marked him out as being truly divine. His deeds, his miracles but even the demons, says Mark. Every piece of evidence is put in, but he healed them and charged them that they should not make him known.