Whenever summer begins, I naturally think about the fall.
“Cursed is the ground for your sake … Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,” God told Adam after he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I don’t know if these promised thorns and thistles include the barrage of weeds that flourish in my flower bed every summer — no matter how dry or hot — but I hesitate to call them “very good.”
However, I inherited more than a cursed earth from Adam. I inherited Adam’s fallen nature — a nature where the weeds of sin can flourish.
However, through the blood and resurrection of Jesus — the second Adam — and the indwelling of the Spirit, I can overcome this nature and live in righteousness. Through this grace, I can keep temptations from growing into sin — and I can keep that sin from flourishing if I fail — when I apply a few principles I’ve learned pulling those pesky weeds.
First, I must sacrifice distractions and remain vigilant. I would much rather read than weed on Saturday mornings. I would much rather anything that weed, but if I don’t deliberately dedicate time, those weeds will soon grow unwieldy.
Likewise, when I’m distracted by life’s cares and pleasures, temptation’s seeds more easily take root in my heart, and if I stay distracted, they’ll grow more easily.
Second, I must learn to recognize weeds, particularly because some seemingly look as beautiful as flowers. If Mom had not once warned me, for instance, I would have surrounded the flower bed with weeds that I mistook for flowers (the fact that they were growing in a ditch probably should have tipped me off).
Of course, I don’t need Mom to identify the obvious weeds, just as I don’t need much discernment to recognize obvious sins — those gross actions that even the secular culture condemns (for now at least, and not consistently). However, the Bible says people sin when they intentionally or unintentionally fail to do His will. They sin when they sacrifice His standard for their own standard, even if that standard doesn’t involve lying, stealing, or hurting people. When God told Jesus to fast for 40 days, Satan only tempted Him to eat. When God told Adam and Eve to trust Him, Satan simply tempted them to trust themselves.
And today, Satan might tell them to gossip; he might tell them to unleash their anger on social media; he might tell them to indulge those lustful thoughts.
The world won’t gasp in horror, but Jesus might still weep.
Third, to remove weeds, I must remove their roots. Of course, I would prefer to yank them out at the surface. I don’t have to work as hard, and it immediately looks clean.
And yet the weeds will grow back if I don’t dig deep.
And if I don’t dig deeply into my heart, sin will more easily grow back.
For instance, a young man, Eric, once confessed to his pastor that he cheated on his wife — and he blamed God.
Apparently, Eric said, he felt attracted to a coworker, but he prayed that God would keep him from sinning with her.
The pastor then asked Eric if he asked his wife to pray for him. The pastor asked if he avoided the coworker.
No, Eric said. Actually, he and the coworker ate lunch together every day.
And inevitably, this compromise led to greater compromise.
“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished,” Solomon writes in Proverbs 27:12.
“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you … And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you,” Jesus said in Matthew 5:29 and 30.
Finally, I don’t pull weeds just for the sake of pulling weeds. I pull weeds so the flowers can thrive. I pull weeds so I can look away from the computer screen and indulge in the colors of creation blossoming outside my office.
And God didn’t just save me from sin — and give me the power to resist sin — so I can go to Heaven someday. He saved me to thrive now through the Spirit. Through the power of salvation, I am free to study the Word, pray, love others, make a joyful noise and give.
I’m free to live abundantly.
And I’m free to replant the seeds of Eden’s perfection until the day the more-than-very-good Redeemer returns to reign forever on a new, weed-free earth.
baumofchet@gmail.com
