The world doesn’t value purity! But we must. Why?

As I was pondering the word purity, I kept thinking about food (it is the one place we value purity in our culture.) Do you remember the commercial jingle, “C&H pure cane sugar…”? Would you be willing to eat a spoonful of pure cane sugar? Maybe have it in your coffee? I would guess most people would. What if I mix in some sand? (It is all natural sand! It looks an awful lot like the sugar.) The sugar won’t be pure anymore, but…who cares right? It is only a little sand. It shouldn’t make a big difference, right? Would you be willing to eat the spoonful of sugar now? Mix it in your coffee? Probably not. Why? It is now contaminated.

Why purity? If we are mixing in the values of this world with God’s values, it becomes useless like the sugar. God’s values, His goodness that we are to be living in, will become tainted if it is not pure. If we look like the world–what do we have to offer the world?

Purity is a word that causes many people to get queasy and uncomfy. None of us live up to it. It was a word that had much value to people in times past, but now, in our current culture it has lost its value to most. Those who hold on to it and pursue it are often mocked–sometimes even in the Christian culture.

What is purity? It has a lot of meanings…

The Oxford Dictionary says that purity means: 

“freedom from adulteration or contamination.

“freedom from immorality, especially of a sexual nature.”¹

So though it does cover sexual purity, it is actually broader in scope than that. Being “free from contamination” means that we are not mixing impure things into our lives. Just like the sand and the sugar, a little sand makes a big difference and most people would not be willing to use the contaminated sugar. In the spiritual sense, our lives are supposed to be pure and holy to God–living like He does. And this is probably why the word brings us so much discomfort. We can all easily see each other’s and our own short-comings. We do not feel pure.

Proverbs 20:9 (NIV) says ‘Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?”‘

I know my own mind. Though I have been walking with God for over 30 years, and getting better and better at growing to be like Him, I keep seeing how my thinking falls short of Him and His goodness despite this. The more impurities I remove from my life, the more I find!  I am getting rid of the 10 planks in my eye only to now find there have also been 100 sticks there this whole time as well. When those are gone, I will find the million little pieces of sawdust in the way.

Romans 3:23 (NIV) famously says, “ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Are you feeling good about yourself yet? In case you’re not, let me tell you some good news–a great mystery. Do you want to hear it?

Jesus lived a pure life. In doing so, and by His sacrifice of His own life for us, He bought us purity and covered us by His own pure life so that when God sees us, He truly sees us as pure! How awesome is that?  We do not have to feel any shame in falling short of living a perfect life. Jesus knows it and gave us His own so we can come and talk to God without feeling unworthy.

Hebrews 10:22 (NIV) says, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

When we came into the family of God, we were washed clean! And the good news doesn’t end there! We are still being washed clean. It is a continual process. It is like a spring that comes up from inside us, always bubbling up to keep it clean.

“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘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’.” –John 7:37-38 (NIV)

There is an artesian well on an abandoned ranch my family would visit in Wyoming that springs up in the middle of a very arid region. The water bubbles up from the ground, and because it is always moving, it is pure where it bubbles up, and as it drains away into a creek, it bring life where it goes. That is the beauty of what God has done and continues to do for us inside of us.

The Holy Spirit is like freshwater within us, constantly bubbling up and washing away our sins. Once we have accepted Him, washing away our impurities and continually making us clean. Jesus offered us this purity through His perfect life and then the sacrifice of His life on the cross.  

So do we stand here in purity today? Yes.

But if Jesus is continually making us pure in the eyes of God our Father, why should we care about living in purity? I see three motivating reasons to keep our lives pure in our actions, even if our sins are continually removed by God’s grace. 

The first reason to live a life of purity is for God’s sake. We should want to be like our heavenly father, who claimed us as His own children. In living like Him, we become closer to Him. Psalm 23:3 (NIV) says, “he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” We live pure lives in order to bring honor to His name and to promote His kingdom. 

The second reason to live a life of purity is for our own sake. When we fail to live in purity, and as we step into sin, we distance ourselves from God. Along with this, sin causes us a lot of heartache. The natural consequence of sin is pain, but on the flip side of that, living in purity brings us peace.

Lastly, living a life of purity benefits people around us. As we live a life of purity of faith and in truth, people can see how God really is–what he is really like. We represent Him. Have you ever been hurt by a Christian who was not acting godly at the time they hurt you? Our unrighteous living repels people from knowing God as they are affected by the harmful side-effects of our sin. Our righteous living (acting like our Heavenly Father) draws people to Him and brings healing and wholeness to others. Philippians 2:15 (AMP) says it well…” so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish in the midst of a [morally] crooked and [spiritually] perverted generation, among whom you are seen as bright lights [beacons shining out clearly] in the world [of darkness]…”

Are you motivated yet to live in purity, for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the world? Are you ready to honor God with your life and body? 

So, now, how can we guard the purity in our lives? There is a strategy.

Proverbs 2:11 (NIV) says, “Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” In other words, self-control is your guard of the purity in your life.

Proverbs 25:28 (NIV) says it a little differently. “Like a city whose walls are broken through

is a person who lacks self-control.” Therefore, when our self-control is down, the integrity of the purity of our lives is compromised, and anything that wants to influence us is open to do so.

Managing Your Peace asks this at it looks at the topic of self-control,

“So, how are your walls of self-control? I believe this is one of the most important spiritual disciplines for our time. When the internet gives you access to so many things–good and bad–right at your fingertips and directly into your mind, how are you guarding yourself? With temptations that may be around you–drugs, highly sexual visuals, social media to tear down others, or stories and posts that cause comparison and fear–how are you doing?  If you have no regulation of what you are exposed to, then every thought, every image, every person who wants to influence your life (for good or bad), has open access to run around and try to control the city of your life.”²

Self-control is truly the key to guarding our lives in purity, wholeness and peace. Do you want to be living in wholeness, peace and purity?

As we grow and nurture the fruit of self-control in our lives, our lives will reflect the goodness of our Father more and more. I will not go into this more here, but I have written a Bible study, called Managing Your Peace that looks at the different areas of influence that come in and out of the “city of our life” and how self-control has a great impact on the peace we experience in our lives. And this is related to living a life of purity.

So again, Why purity? Let’s review: 1.For God: to worship Him with our lives, 2.for ourselves: to experience peace inside our city gates, 3. for others: we shine the light from our city so others may come to know our great God.

Lastly, and perhaps the most compelling reason: Jesus is a spotless groom coming back for a pure and spotless bride. Isn’t He worthy of our purity? The apostle Paul speaks about this in 2 Corinthians 11:2 (NIV), “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”

Don’t we want to be made ready for Him? Isn’t He worthy of our best? He has been so good to us.

Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV)

“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

_{Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™}

_{Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org}

1. Purity. Retrieved 10/22/2024, from Oxford English Dictionary: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/purity_n?tab=meaning_and_use ↩︎
2. Silveyra, M. (2024) Managing Your Peace ↩︎