Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Purity Tactic

Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the Pure in heart, for they shall see God." 

Purity Rule no. 1
Don't have sex before marriage.

Purity Rule no. 2 
Keep your hands off of the opposite gender. 

Purity Rule no. 3 
Don't watch pornography. 

Ect... 

"Why do you Christians create rules that they refuse to follow themselves?" A frustrated teenager asks in indignation. "I saw online the other day that more 'Christians' are divorcing their spouses than non-Christians! Obviously your little purity tactics aren't working very well." 

We've been given a pretty rough name, ladies and gentleman.... 
Is our "little purity tactic" failing? Are we no better than those who are not God's children? 

I remember sitting in a youth group lesson on sex and dating when I was thirteen and watching all of these Christian teens giving their testimony about how they had just recently stopped their sexual intimacies with their girlfriends or boyfriends. It had been tough, but God helped them through. Then, growing up, I watched as one after another, the teenagers that I looked up to fell into this same thing. What was happening? I didn't know what to think. These people were breaking all of the purity rules that were set in place! All of the youth group, parent, bible rules on not touching each other, or telling dirty jokes were just thrown out of the window. 

It's true, purity has become a under-cooked issue in a lot of hearts, but inevitably, we will all fight this battle. Once, I heard a woman tell me you will fall if your idea about purity was to just: not have sex. She said that your goal must be to please God, and then you will not fall. This is one of the truest statements I've ever heard. 

Purity needs to be defined a little bit first, because it is a very misconstrued idea. When Christians take on the view that purity is kept in order to be able to give yourself to your spouse on the marriage night, then we miss the mark completely. Purity is so much more than relationships and abstinence. There are several forms of purity. 

1. Purity of the mind. 
2. Purity of words.
3. Purity of lifestyle. 

You see, we cannot live a life pleasing to God's standards unless we possess three forms of purity. When we practice purity of the mind, not only are we avoiding thinking about sexual things, but we are building a wall to protect ourselves from ANY unclean thing! Because purity is cleanliness. And we can't have cleanliness if we are involved in dirty things. This applies to Purity of the mind. You cannot think pure things if you are putting in dirt and grime. (Video games, movies, music, bad friendships) I'm not saying that all video games are of Satan, but I am saying that if you are involved in something that does not glorify God's standards in the Bible, then you are not keeping yourself pure from the world.

Purity of words is speaking truths and (obviously) cleanly things. If you want to keep your words pure, then we have to keep our heart pure. Which (like above) means to stay away from ungodly things. If you put dirt in a cup and then pressure wash that cup, what will come out? Dirt right? Right! So if we're putting dirty things into our heart, then dirty things are going to come out of our mouths. 

Purity of lifestyle is to live according to God's word, which is the most pure way of living that we could have. If we were to wear shirts with secular things on it, wear revealing clothing, not guard our mouths, not guard what we go to see, not guard anything on the outside... people are going to notice. People watch Christians, and if they see that you aren't pure in your lifestyle, then you lose your witness because you aren't any different from them. 

All of these pure things, if put into practice, will lead you closer to the Lord. And if you are close to the Lord, then you will not be tempted to do the hated things of the Lord. Keep yourselves clean. Drop evil with the Lord's help. Ask and you will receive. He won't let you struggle alone. You can be pure if you truly want to please the Lord. I'm praying for you all. 

~Whatsoever Things Are True
Philippians 4:8

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