Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (19)

 

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes (καθαίρει) it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean (καθαροί) because of the word which I have spoken to you.” John 15:2 – 3.

 

In the 7^th reflection in this series, we noted that the Greek word for “prune” is closely related in Greek to the word for “clean.” The idea of pruning was connected with the idea of cleansing, we see this in the Greek text as John relates the words of Jesus, and this takes us back to John 13:10 – 11, in which Jesus says, “…and you are clean (καθαροί), but not all of you.” We also discussed how, in English, the idea of pruning can be related to the idea of cleansing and cleaning up.

 

How might we think about, “You are already clean [pruned] because of the word which I have spoken to you”? In 15:2 we are being pruned, then in 15:3 we are already pruned – what is happening?

 

Let’s go back to John 13:10, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean…” We can be completely clean, and yet we need to wash our feet. Jesus has cleansed us, and yet the Father continues to prune us.

 

Throughout the Scriptures we see that we experience finality and completeness and fulness on the one hand in Christ Jesus, while continuing to grow into and grow out from the fulness and completeness and finality that we have in Christ Jesus on the other hand. The failure to recognize this fundamental element of our relationship with Christ and with one another is debilitating – the work of our High Priest is perfect and complete (Hebrews 10:10, 14; 12:2). 

It is as if we were wearing eye patches, some of us over the left eye and some of us over the right eye, we see one aspect of the work of Christ or the other, we experience one facet of relationship with Him or the other. No wonder we keep bumping into each other! No wonder we keep running into the furniture of the Temple and thinking that it shouldn’t be there!

 

We rest in the fact that we are already clean because of the Word of Jesus, and at the same time we rest in our Father’s pruning and cleansing. Isn’t it nice to have all this attention from the Trinity? See how God loves us so very much!

 

Let’s ponder the association of the Word of God with cleansing and pruning.

 

In John 17:17 Jesus prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” To be sanctified is to be made holy and pure and also to be set apart, to be devoted, to be consecrated. Both of these core meanings are embedded in the idea of sanctification and they can’t be separated when it comes to the woman or man or young person in Jesus Christ – they are just as one as the two natures in the Incarnation.

 

While, the Lord willing, we will explore the working of the Word in John 17 more fully when we come to John 17, we read, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me out of the world…for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them…I have given them Your word.”

 

So when Jesus prays that we will be sanctified in the truth, in the Father’s Word (17:17), He is praying in the immediate context of Chapter 17, in the intermediate context of the Upper Room (chapters 13 – 17), and in the greater context of the Gospel of John, which begins, “In the beginning was the Word…” Of course, we can also say that John 17:17 is spoken in the context of the entire Bible, for we see the Word from Genesis to Revelation, we see God revealing Himself through His Word, always through His Word. (As others have pointed out, can it be an accident that the longest chapter of the Bible is the grand Psalm of the Word (Psalm 119) and that it is found virtually in the center of the Bible?)

 

How does Jesus Christ cleanse His Bride, the Church?

 

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25 – 27).

 

How are we sanctified? How are we cleansed? How are our spots and wrinkles dispelled? How is holiness and blamelessness manifested in His Bride?

 

And consider that Jesus says, “If I then, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14). That is, as Jesus has cleansed us with His Word, we are to cleanse one another with His Word.

 

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thanksgiving in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16; see also Ephesians 5:18 – 21; 4:14 – 16).

 

God’s Word is living and active – it is alive! (Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23). This Word is to live within us, and we are to share it with others. We are to have a continuous feast with one another, sharing the produce of the land, planting and harvesting, harvesting and planting. The Word of God is to be more than second nature to us, it is to be our Nature, for as the Fathers taught us from Scripture, Jesus became as we were so that we might become as He is. This is what we see in the Upper Room, it is how we are to live life together.

 

Every Christian is to be the Incarnation of the Word. Every congregation is to be a local embodiment, the Incarnation, of the Word. Every locality ought to have a collective Incarnation of the Word manifested in the unity of congregations and individual Christians. This is the vision and prayer of Jesus Christ (John 17). This is the vision and calling of God throughout Scripture. This is our destiny.

 

This is the City whose Builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11). This is our Father’s House (John 14:2).

 

Anything less…is less.

 

And anything greater? Well, there is nothing greater.