Cleaning House

“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and then he divides up his plunder. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept (empty) and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”¹

Many people, when they first come to Christ, clean house. That is, they stop doing bad things. They stop drinking, doing drugs, cursing, hanging around bad people. Metaphorically, they empty their house and reprogram their actions. They prioritize their loves: God first and everything else under him. Then they start replacing their bad habits with good habits: praying, reading the Bible, going to church, hanging around Christians—doing Christian things. This is all very good and right.

However. This passage tells us that a clean and tidy house is quite vulnerable. The story clearly explains that even if we are strong, even if we guard our house, and even if we wear armor, we will be attacked and could be overpowered by someone stronger, and everything we have worked for will be stolen from us. This is quite disconcerting! Cleaning house seems like the right thing to do—and it is! But the fact is, if all we are doing is cleaning house, we are Pharisees. And frankly, any disciplined person can keep a house cleaned.

John Flavel (1628-1691), an English Puritan Presbyterian minister wrote a book called Keeping the Heart, and had this to say about that:

“To repress the outward acts of sin, and compose the external part of your life in a laudable manner—is not great matter; even carnal people, by the force of common principles, can do this. But to kill the root of corruption within, to set and keep up a holy government over your thought, to have all things lie straight and orderly in the heart—this is not easy.”*

And so, in order to not be destroyed by stronger things, we must do more than simply clean house. We must get to the heart of the matter. Flavel says this about that: “To keep the heart demands constant care and diligence from us to preserve our souls to remain in the holy state of grace which God has raised us to live in. It requires frequent observation, deep humiliation and earnest prayer. It includes walking more carefully with God, constant and holy jealousy over our hearts and realizing God’s presence ever with us and before us. It is the hardest work.* It is a constant work and the most important business of a Christian’s life.

Cleaning house gives us the feeling that our lives are in order but that is not necessarily true. Cleaning house gives room for other thing to move in. Cleaning house actually leaves us empty. It is up to us to decide what things to invite back in. Doing good things will help us with good habits but the things of the heart are what really need attention.

To rid ourselves of our bad habits is an incredibly hard thing to do because we love our ungodly habits. We mistakenly believe that the wicked people we read about in the Bible are those who are evil and bad. While this is true, it is only partially true. Wicked people are simply ungodly people; that is, people who live their lives without God.

The deception is that these wicked people may be very good people who do very good things—like the Pharisees—whom Jesus called vipers and blind guides and hypocrites and white washed tombs. If we are honest, we see that if all we are doing is cleaning house, we are mostly acting like the Pharisees.

Jesus explained that a “kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.”² Many people have divided houses—houses that are probably quite clean and tidy! But they serve two masters—which Jesus says is impossible to do, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”³ So what are we to do? God requires that we choose whom we will serve—one or the other. There is no room in the house that is not God’s. Jesus declared in the middle of this disturbing passage, “He who is not with me is against me.” We are either godly people (those who live their lives with God) or ungodly people (those who live their lives without God). We are wise or foolish; we are of God or of the Devil. Many people would rather choose to be a Christian in moderation—not fanatical about anything, but Jesus declared “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”⁴

A clean and tidy house will eventually fall because it has no substance, no life inside because it is empty and void. Our houses must be first emptied but then cleansed “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,”⁵ and after that be “filled with all the goodness of God,”⁶ which will take all the rest of our natural lives. If we do not fill our house with “all the goodness of God,” it will soon be filled with other things. We clean our houses to begin the process of restoration—turning our bodies into the temple of God himself, filling it up with the things of God, and then “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”⁷

The Pharisees were really good at looking good and being good. That is certainly one way to live. But if we want our lives to be more than that, then “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”⁸ It includes walking more carefully with God, constant and holy jealousy over our hearts and realizing God’s presence ever with us and before us. It is the hardest work.* Guard your heart.    

¹Luke 11:21-26   *Flavel, John. Keeping the Heart. Aneko Press, 2022, pg. 9.   ²Luke 11:17   ³Matthew 6:24   ⁴Revelation 3:16   ⁵Titus 3:5   ⁶Ephesians 3:19   ⁷Philippians 4:7   ⁸Proverbs 4:23 NIV