May your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
This post builds on The Faulty Walnut and God’s Remedy and Think and Practice Whatever is True and Think and Practice Whatever is Noble and Think and Practice Whatever is Right.
Purity of Life
According to experts, blowing out candles on a birthday cake multiplies the bacteria on the frosting by 1,400 percent!1 It may not be a serious health risk, but some people may choose cupcakes or ice cream instead of a big cake for their next party. In the Bible, pure is not referring to being germ-free, but being morally clean, holy, wholesome, and good. God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is holy and pure. And He saves Jesus’ followers so that we resemble Him. Christ says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”2 This is bigger than sexual purity, but includes that. We’ll come back to sexual holiness later in this post.
The Holy Spirit Uses His Word to Purify Us
Psalm 19:9 says: “The fear of the Lord is clean and pure, enduring forever.” In this Psalm, “the fear of the Lord” is a synonym for God’s Scriptures, and verses 7-12 are all about the Lord’s Holy Bible. It says:
God’s Scriptures are perfect, trustworthy, refreshing our souls, and making us wise.
His precepts are right and radiant, giving joy to our hearts and light to our eyes.
His Word is pure, enduring, stable, and absolutely just and fair.
His Bible is more precious than pure gold and more delightful than honey.
The Lord lovingly warns us that choices have consequences, rewarding or regretful.
He shows us our errors so we can resist temptation and repent and come back to God for forgiveness and cleansing after we have stumbled.3
In summary, purity of thinking and living comes by the Holy Spirit working in us with His Holy Scriptures.
Then Psalm 19 ends with two prayers:
Keep me also from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
We can use these prayers every day! What could be more practical? God requires purity from us and enables us to pursue Christ-like wholesomeness and avoid contamination.
Good Dripping or Bad?
Pastor Deepak Reju tells of living on the top floor in a small apartment. When it rained, leaks in the roof dripped through the ceiling. So they placed buckets around the apartment to catch the water. It dripped slowly, one drop at a time, but the buckets filled up faster than Deepak expected. Dripping is good for us if it means immersing our hearts, minds, and lives in the truth and practice of Scripture. As we assimilate food physically, day by day, we can feed on Jesus Christ, and that’s purifying.
But we pollute and poison our brains and behavior if we let bad things drip into our soul. Things like bitterness, sinful anger, blame, and resentment. Things like coveting, envy, and jealousy. If we let apathy towards God or others, self-pity, or overvaluing people’s approval drip into us, those buckets soon fill up with bad stuff and spill over and ruin us and others.
Pride may be the biggest polluter, thinking we are smarter, more talented, better looking than others. Thinking we have more or are better in any way than they are. Pride ruined Lucifer (Satan) and made him fall.4 So the Lord lovingly warns us against pride throughout the Bible and commands us instead to do what is fair and just to our neighbor, and to be compassionate and loyal in our love. Let’s not take ourselves too seriously, but take God more seriously.5
Sexual Purity
Sex between one husband and one wife is one of God’s good gifts to humanity. Sex was not invented in the 1960’s. The Lord created sex within marriage in Genesis chapter 2. He designed sex within marriage to be committed, intimate, bonding, enjoyable, enriching, and highly esteemed. God said that a man should leave his father and mother and embrace his wife and they become one flesh. Adam and Eve were naked together and they were not embarrassed or ashamed.
So Scripture says: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”6 Sex itself is not the problem. Sex outside the Lord’s loving commandments is the problem. Pastor Ray Ortlund says that sex is like fire. In the fireplace (in a one man/one woman marriage) sex keeps us warm. Outside the fireplace (traditional marriage) sex burns down the house. Sex outside of heterosexual marriage can leave us lonelier than ever and destroy us and others.7
In 1 Corinthians 6:18, Christ says: Flee and run away from sexual immorality. Turn away from sexual looseness in thinking and behavior, away from visual or written things that tempt us to sin. Jesus says: Shun impurity in thoughts, words, and deeds. We instinctively run from oncoming traffic, dangerous animals, and burning buildings. How do we run from sexual sin?
Pastor Trent Hunter’s strategy is F.L.E.E.
Fill yourself with Christ.
Lock out Satan’s lies.
Exchange lies for truth.
Expose yourself to God’s light.8
Hunter’s whole article is helpful and I commend it to you. We can think and practice what’s pure by focusing on Christ Himself. Jesus said to a woman hurt by sexual sin: “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask Me, and I would give you living water….Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this Jesus meant the Holy Spirit.9
God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as the Lord is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)
Prayer
Create in us pure hearts, O God, and renew steadfast spirits within us. Restore to us the joy of Your salvation, and grant us willing spirits, to sustain us. Keep us from any deadly sins, and we will sing of Your righteousness. Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your unfailing love. According to Your great compassion blot out our transgressions. Then we will teach Your ways to rebels, and they will return to You. Help us for Jesus’ sake. Amen.10
Notes (various Bible translations): 1 Journal of Food Research, Paul Dawson, et. al, Clemson University, May 22, 2017, and also “Fear and Purity” by Bradley Baurain. 2 Matt 5:8. 3 Paraphrase of Psalm 19:7-12. 4 1 Tim 3:6; Isaiah 14:12–14; Ezek 28:12-18. 5 Eugene Peterson on Micah 6:8. 6 Heb 13:4. 7 Prov 6:27-35, 7:21-27. 8 See: www.thegospelcoalition.org/f-l-e-e-strategy. 9 John 4:1-26, 7:37-39. 10 Prayer draws on parts of Psalm 51.