22.05 | Pruning the Dodgy Bits
Ephesians 5:1-21
‘… for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.’
Ephesians 5:8-10
We recently celebrated the baptism of a young lady in our church. She’s a wonderful person — full of love for Jesus and people, and has been walking a humble journey into knowing more and more of the Father’s heart for her. As she shared her story with the church, she reflected on how Jesus, like a gardener, both grows us and prunes us. That His work is both increasing the good, and removing the bad. In her words, ‘He is pruning the dodgy bits.’
She was tapping into something ancient and powerful: that an apprenticeship journey with Jesus of Nazareth includes the steady growth of the things of purity and love in us, and the steady removal of the things in us that are broken. It includes growing goodness and decreasing wrongdoing.
Paul’s words today are confrontational.
But sexual immorality and all purity or covetousness must not even be named among you …Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking…..
Culturally, we recoil from such language. In a culture espousing endless freedom, and yet with such murky undercurrents of personal entitlement mixed with chronic insecurity, we quickly view any critical language as liable to damage our fragile interior world. Criticism, we think, is shaming. Criticism is limiting. Criticism is imposing external power over my internal rights to do as I please.
And yet, the wise have always known the value of confrontation. The value of being called out. The sheer potential of that moment when a trusted adviser looks into our lives and calls us upwards and beyond.
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, as the ancient proverb goes.1
Growing and pruning. This is the Way of the journey with Jesus. It is the abdication of the pride and self-protection that endlessly avoids critique. It is the wisdom of the character who knows that confrontation is less about harsh criticism, and more about accurate diagnosis. It is the understanding of the one who realises that it is the greatest love that desires the greatest holiness for us. And that, contrary to our every cold and religious inclination, this love is not received on the merits of our holiness, but that His great love for us is the very motivating force behind why He longs us to attain to the liberated wholeness of the holy.
C.S. Lewis, using a metaphor from George MacDonald, put it this way:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
And yet here’s the clincher.
He never does this without our permission.
We can fight Him, ignore Him, critique Him, and ghost Him. We can run like Jonah and hide like Adam and lie like David.
And yet, there is another alternative.
To relax. To let go. To receive the pruning of our Lord, inviting Him to get to work on all our dodgy bits and allowing Him to rebuild us into the palace that the Father of all love envisions for your life.
Reflect:
Which part of the Scripture today confronts me.
How do I receive this? Shame? Guilt? Defensiveness?
Relax. Soften into the humility that allows His love to come and get to work.
Tell Him where you want to make changes. And invite Him in.
Pray:
Father,
You are welcome in this house.
I give you permission to break down these walls
And remodel this soul according to your pattern
Confront me, reveal me, prune me, and grow me,
That this life may journey ever deeper into the paths of holiness
And the utter surrender that leads
To walking in the pure light of eternity.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
1 Kings 1-2 | Psalm 68:1-18
Proverbs 27:6