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October 27, 2013 |
| Purity | ||
Purity in the Christian sense means being without flaws or imperfections. In the same sense that pure silver or gold contains nothing in it that isn't silver or gold, a pure Christian would contain nothing that isn't Christ. 1 Peter 1 says
7 So that the proof of your faith may appear, which is worth more than refined gold tried in the fire, for glory and honor and praise at the revelation of [Jesus] The Messiah,
In this lesson we will look at becoming pure and staying pure.
The Christian walk is a walk toward purity. But for each of us that walk takes a different path. For some, purity in one area would be too difficult of a step, so instead the Holy Spirit takes us through areas where we can achieve purity. Later on the step that was too difficult before is now possible for us. This is why we need to be careful about criticizing fellow Christians for their walk.
Early in the life of a new Christian we expect to see that person hungry for the word of God and we expect to see that person begin the process of purification. This begins by throwing off all the evil actions of our old nature and then it continues with a progression of refinements. The Apostle Paul said it would be this way in Colossians 3:5-10.
5 Kill therefore [whatever belongs to your earthly nature]: fornication, impurity, [lust], wicked desires, greed (which is idol worship). 6 For because of these things, the anger of God comes upon his disobedient children. 7 And you walked in these things from the first, when you were employed in these things. 8 But now put off from you all these things: …
Paul continues on with the list of things we must purify ourselves from and we'll return to that but first we'll look at what he has said so far. He provides a list of the things that we must kill. By saying "kill" he means they should be done away with completely and never come back. He says it even more clearly in the next verse. When God's children disobey and do these things the anger of God comes upon them.
This short list sounds like it comes from the Ten Commandments and that makes sense. The Ten Commandments are the moral law of God.
The word 'employed' here is interesting. It can have various meanings and we can't tell which meaning Paul intended but each of them has value to us. Employ can mean 'paid work'. In that sense we were the workers of evil and the wages of our sins were death. Employ can mean 'keeping busy'. In that sense the evil lives that we led kept us busy, even entertained, so we would not see the truth. Employ can also mean 'used'. In that sense we were used by evil to achieve its goals.
So then, there are things that the Christian must bring to a complete stop. But Paul goes on to say there is another step. Having killed those things, now the Christian must rid himself of other things. But where 'kill' showed a complete slam-on-the brakes stop because of the anger of God, Paul now uses the word 'rid'. Ridding yourself of something is a process. Here in South Texas we could use scorpions as an example. New houses often have a problem with scorpions. Various poisons and techniques are applied to get rid of them and after a while you hardly ever see them again. But you are always aware that there could be another one someday.
Refining metals like silver or gold is like refining Christians. It also has a first stage and then a refining process. First the rock in which the metal hides is crushed and heated to get the metal out. But the metal is very impure so a series of processes are done on the metal to remove the impurities.
And what are these impurities that we Christians should remove from ourselves. Paul tells us as we continue the verses above
8 But now put off from you all these things: anger, fury, wickedness, blasphemy, impure speech; 9 Neither should you cheat one another, but put off the old man with all of his ways, 10 And put on the new, who is made new by knowledge in the image of his Creator,
This is a short list but some of the items in it are very broad. Wickedness for example covers many things as does impure speech. But the list is not Paul's main point here, not even close.
Paul's main point is the putting off of the ways of our old selves and adopting new ways. He talks about these as the old man and the new man. But how do we know the characteristics of the new man if we have never been a new man before. Paul says we are made new by knowledge which leads us to becoming the image of our creator. That knowledge comes from the Bible and the Holy Spirit.
By saying "in the image of his creator" Paul's reference is undoubtedly to the creation story and specifically to Genesis 1:26 which says
26 Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness …
From that we see that Paul is saying that we were created in the image of God but we fell away from that. Now we must purify ourselves to become as much like the image of God as we can.
Metal can be made very pure. But greater and greater levels of purity are harder and harder to achieve. This is also true of Christians. We live in bodies whose desires are sinful and we live in societies that are sinful. Impurity is all around us. As Christians we know that God does not expect perfect purity from us, but only that we continually move in that direction.
In the verses from Colossians above you may have noticed that purity appears twice. The first time just as purity, the second as impure words. The first impurity certainly covers impure sexual relationships but it probably includes a range of spiritual impurities which would include worshipping false gods.
The New Testament speaks of purity in many places which emphasizes the importance of purity to us. Here is a sample of the references to purity.
In 1 Corinthians 7:7 Paul says that some find it easier to be pure according to the gifts that God has given
7 For I wish that all people might be like I am in purity, but every person is given a gift from God, one in this way and one in that way.
2 Corinthians 7:1
1 Therefore, because we have these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from all impurity of the flesh and spirit and let us cultivate holiness in the awe of God.
Gal 5:19
19 For the works of the flesh are known, which are fornication, impurity, whoredom, 20 The worship of idols, witchcraft, hate, contention, rivalry, rage, insolence, dissensions, divisions, 21 Envy, murder, drunkenness, reveling and all such things; those who are committing these things, as I said to you from the first, I say now also, that they shall not inherit The Kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 2:2
2 For the sake of Kings and Rulers, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil way of life in complete reverence to God and purity. 3 For this is pleasing and acceptable before God Our Lifegiver,
Titus 2:11
11 For the all saving grace of God has been revealed to all men; 12 and it leads us to reject wickedness and the lusts of the world and to live in this world in purity, in righteousness, and in the worship of God, 13 While we look for the blessed hope and the revelation of the glory of The Great God and Our Lifegiver, [Jesus] The Messiah, 14 who gave himself in our place to redeem us from all evil and to purify a new people for himself, which is zealous of good works.
Philippians 2:14
14 Do everything without complaining and without division, 15 that you would be perfect and without blemish as purified children of God who dwell in a hard and crooked generation, and appear among them as lights in the world.
1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not been revealed until now what we are going to be, but we know that when he has been revealed, we shall be in his likeness, and we shall see him just as what he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope upon him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
When I returned to the faith after a long time away, I found myself to be like a polluted lake. I hadn't always been like that. There was a time when I was clear and pure. But I had adopted the ways of the world. The effect was that I had seen many things, heard many things, and done many things that had left me polluted.
Faced with the job of cleaning up I found that the biggest things were easily removed with God's help. For a lake. this would be like removing old tires, rusting cars, floating debris, and so on. For a Christian this would be the things that Paul said we are to kill. But after this the water was still murky with pollution. I found that the next step to cleaning the lake that was me was to stop the pollution that was still going into it.
And this is really the Christian experience of purity - cleaning up the things that are already in us and keeping out the things that would pollute us. For the things that are already in us we seek forgiveness and put them behind us. But keeping out the evil things will be a lifelong task.
Our bodies come with built-in desires that are wrong. There are desires for things that we desire just because we desire things. There are things that appeal to the desires of our body and senses. And there are things that appeal to our desires to feed our egos, sense of importance, and so on. Our world is full of things that would feed our desires and there are lots of people who would help us find them.
The Bible breaks the sinful desires of our bodies into three areas1
Let's look at these one by one and think of all the things we can that fit under each category. Note that some things fit in more than one category.
| Oxygen / Oxygen Bars | Cigarettes / Nicotine |
| Alcohol | |
| Sex | CNS / Coffee, caffeine |
| Voyeurism | Appearance / clothing, jewelry |
| Exercise | Health / pill popper |
| Music | |
| Vistas |
| Sex | Jewelry |
| Possessions | Cell-phones, smart phones, play stations, etc. |
| Wealth | |
| Beauty | |
| Shopping / Shopaholic |
| Deserving | |
| Work / Workaholic | Attention seeking |
| Success / Gambling | Self-centered |
| Arrogance | Competition / Keeping up with the Jones's |
| Boastfulness | Impure language |
Is it wrong for me to do this?
1 John 2:15
15 Do not love the world, neither the things that are in it, for whoever loves the world does not have the love of The Father in him.
1 1 John 2:16