A few weeks ago, I talked about holiness – how holiness isn’t so much about being empty of sin as much as it is being filled with all good things. You can empty out a space for Christ, but unless it’s filled with Him and His goodness, all you have is an empty room – not a holy room.
Today, I’d like to propose that purity, too, is not so much a heart that’s vacant of sexual thoughts as much as it’s a heart that’s 100% filled with the very definition of purity – Jesus (1 John 3:3). Let’s look at a collection of definitions of the word “purity.”
Purity: 1) the state of not being mixed with anything else. 2) the fact of being clean or free from harmful substances. 3) freedom from adulteration or contamination. 4) the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc. 5) freedom from any admixture or modifying addition.
From these definitions, we can see that purity is more about being uncontaminated and unmodified than about being without any substance at all. For example, if you have “pure gold,” it’s gold is fully gold – it has no traces of other metals or impurities. If a dress is “pure white,” it’s totally white – it hasn’t been stained or tinted any other colors.
James wrote that one of the ways to be pure and undefiled before God is to, “keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). Other ways to be or become pure include living according to God’s word (Psalm 119:9), hoping in being made new in Christ’s second coming (1 John 3:3), being filled with wisdom from above (James 3:17), not taking part in the sins of others or being quick to lay hands on others (1 Timothy 5:22), loving others with knowledge and discernment while approving of what is excellent (Philippians 1:9-10), and doing everything without grumbling or arguing or complaining (Philippians 2:14-15).
As Christians, we have the opportunity to be pure. Yes, we live in a world where purity is not appreciated by general culture – Jesus told His disciples, “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). There’s a purity that can still be blossoming in a wise person who is standing in the middle of wolves.
This opportunity to be pure has its rewards. The most explicit is in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Other rewards include God being good to you (Psalm 73:1), being able to stand in the holy presence of God (Psalm 24:3-4), and receiving blessings and being called righteous by God (Psalm 24:5). My favorite is summed up in Titus 1:15: “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.” You actually get to purify the environment around just by being pure, yourself!
