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Purity
in Practice Pure. . .Webster tells us that pure means “free from impurities or contaminants; free from faults; containing nothing inappropriate or unnecessary.” Free from contaminants, faults – nothing inappropriate. That’s the call on our lives from God! A call for purity. For cleanliness, for righteousness. Last month, my husband and I had the opportunity to teach “True Love Waits” to our youth group. The theme for this year is “Crossing Bridges with Purity.” We spent a lot of time and energy encouraging those students to choose to be sexually pure until marriage. And as I studied, spoke, and listened, the Lord reminded me that purity isn’t just for the unmarried – it’s a call for every believer! This concept of purity kept pushing me. I wanted to understand what our Lord expects from us. Far too often, we in the Church, equate purity with virginity. While that is a vital part of remaining uncontaminated it doesn’t end there. As I pondered and prayed about the standard of purity for believers, I was reminded that there are five areas in each of our lives – physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual. God demands purity in each of these areas. Physical purity is the one that’s most visible most of the time. And it’s also the one that I think we understand the least. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” (NLT) The verses directly preceding these are discussing sexual purity; however, we cannot neglect the truth that our bodies are the sanctuary of Christ. We must be compelled to be physically pure. That’s a tough one for me. I don’t smoke or drink or use drugs – but I also don’t exercise like I should, I drink too many Mountain Dews, and I don’t give my body the rest it needs. Many of you are, I’m sure, just like me – especially about rest. There’s always one more load of laundry, one last trip to Wal-Mart, one more phone call – one more excuse for not resting. Ladies, God really has given us a clear time management plan and that plan includes rest. He took time to rest and enjoy His creation. And I have been more and more convinced that we, too, must take time to enjoy His creation – our family and friends, the outdoors, the home He’s provided for us, the talents He’s given us. As I have begun to recognize that resting is a part of purity – I’ve found that I don’t struggle so much with the other areas of purity. For example, mental purity. You’ve all heard that computer saying “Garbage in, Garbage out.” The application to our mental purity is almost too obvious to even state. The truth is what we spend time thinking about will eventually determine who we become. If we contemplate bitterness and anger there’s no question that our hearts will become cold and hard. Likewise, as we fill our minds with love and peace and forgiveness we will become vessels of Christ. Paul spells out clearly the standards of mental purity in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” The third area of purity becomes a little more difficult - emotional purity. As I’ve considered and studied what God tells us about our emotional purity I’ve discovered that we have to be very cautious with our expression of emotion. God gave us our emotions and they are all useful – Jesus felt compassion, anger, sorrow, joy, grief, and frustration. We must be careful about holding in our emotions for doing so can lead to impurity in thoughts and deeds; but, likewise, we must exercise discernment in the expression of our feelings. In Romans 12:15 we find that we are share our emotions with each other and we are to share in others’ emotions. We must work to allow our emotions to guide us to purity in action and thought. My mother and many other mothers throughout history have said, “You are who you spend time with.” Social purity is becoming increasingly more important in our world. Paul tells us that bad company corrupts good character (1Corinthians 15:33). Many in Christendom have convinced themselves that by spending time with people who live a lifestyle contrary to God’s word they are going to lead them to Christ. Well, that can happen; but more often than not – it doesn’t. Here’s an illustration of what usually happens in that situation. I am a relatively small person – 5’5” and about 120 pounds. My husband is 6’ and weighs about 300 pounds. If I am standing on a chair and Scott is on the ground and we are both pulling each other – I’m going to end up on the ground. He will be able to pull me down much easier than I can pull him up. And so it is with all of us. And so, we must be careful, with whom we spend our time. Finally – spiritual purity. For the standard here, I offer God’s words.
So the bottom line is this – purity is so important in every aspect of our lives. There are standards and blessings for following them. Likewise, there are consequences for living outside God’s purity. I urge each of you to seek purity. Make it a focus for your life. There are three simple steps to remember:
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