Impurity among the purity

There is a Bible verse that states that to the one that is pure, all things are pure, yet to the one who is impure, all things are perverse (Titus 1:15). Some cannot understand this verse. To many, it justifies their impure acts, because they consider themselves pure in Christ. This is not what the verse means. Just as the marriage bed being undefiled doesn’t mean anything goes in marital intimacy. It just means that the married person is not fornicating when sleeping with their spouse. It isn’t a license to invite sexual perversions into your bed.

Back to the purity verse, though. The truth of the matter is that this verse is referring to a simple truth: if you are pure, you will not invent impurity.

Many of us know people that always bring uncomfortable perversions into everyday things. Someone makes a statement and BAM! Just like that, suddenly they wiggle their eyebrows suggestively and make a lewd comment and everyone either chuckles nervously or blushes.

We are living in a day when Christians often cross the boundary of purity and impurity without a second thought. It brings to mind the simple expression of Isaiah. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (ref. Isaiah 6:5)

Will we come to a place where we will realize this truth of ourselves and those we walk among. Will we continue to find the lewdness in life more pleasing than the purity of Christ? Where does a Christian believer draw the line? Where does the Christian believer truly find themselves on the side they should be on, living the life they are called to live and how do they reach that place?

Christians are called to be angry, yet not sin (ref. Ephesians 4:26), to not allow themselves to take their wrath into their sleep and awaken with it on their lips.

Christians are called to refrain from gossip, slander, lewd talking and foul language (ref. Leviticus 19:16, Ephesians 4:29). How often do we excuse our gossip and language?

Christians are called to flee sexual immorality, and that means in all its forms, including voyeurism, adultery, lust, pornography, S&M, fornication, masturbation, bestiality, sodomy, homosexuality, pedophilia, etc. (ref. 1 Corinthians 6:18)

It amazes me when I consider that Jesus is returning for His bride (the church) and He’s coming very soon. Indeed, He stands on the very threshold, just waiting for God’s command to call us home. Yet, consider that He is returning for a pure bride and look at the lives of the church today. Just how pure are we?

Pure means that we are not mixed or adulterated with any other material, any other sinful compromise of this world. It means that we are willing and able to stand firm in the face of political correctness and idolatry, to stand tall when the rest of the world is kneeling, to say to those mockers and distracters, “I am building this wall, doing as God has said, and I cannot come down.”

Rather than excuse our lives and the compromises therein, we should be striving for a level of godliness that has never before been seen apart from Christ Himself. We should be passionate about the things of God and living the life that God has designed for us to live, a life that isn’t compromised by this world, but rather is set apart, shining brightly in the darkness that is ever growing around us.

Instead of inviting the darkness in under a guise of love, we should be loving enough to sharpen the countenances of our friends. Eternity is at stake. This isn’t about a moment in time, this is about forever, and we should be taking it that seriously.

Consider the words from Esther: You were born for a time such as this. And so we were! Consider what an honor it is to be here and now, in this place and time, born and designed to live in this very time, on the threshold of Christ’s return and we have been created for a purpose.

It is not the time to lay down the swords and rest. It is the time to keep the full armor of God on and fight. The war is not just for our own soul, but for the lost that surround us, lulled into a place of complacency based on the compromises of the bride of Christ. The Bridegroom is ready. Is the bride?

Purity: The New Bad Word Of The Church

Years ago, I never would have even given purity a second thought. Now, it permeates my heart and mind and life and everything I do and do not do is measured against it. Purity.

I grew up like every girl did: dreaming of romance and love and fun adventures with friends. I lived out my life daring myself to reach past the barriers and experience all that life had to offer. Sadly, I was reaching out to sin, not to Christ, so I was only getting the pain and the wounds and the darkness of life, none of the joy or peace or prosperity or comfort that Christ brings.

The scars still exist, but the wounds have healed.

I don’t think anything has damaged me more than my loss of purity and innocence. Thankfully, I was protected by my loving Father and never had boyfriends. He covered me in so many ways. Just like the majority of us, the damage inflicted on my purity was primarily by my own actions.

Much later in life, I began to desire to be clean. I was serving God, and had been for many years, and the weight of bondage kept me from gaining any traction. I struggled to overcome anything, due to the things that held me tightly in their grasps. I knew that I could have freedom, for Christ promised us that and purchased it for us on the Cross, but I seemed to be stuck in a vicious cycle and there was no hope I’d ever get out.

When I fully turned my focus on Christ, things changed, and I was free for two or so years. I slowly began to look for studies and conferences on purity, in the hopes that I could find others like me, others that struggled in the darkness and now longed for the light. Alas, the studies were few and far between and the one purity conference I had discovered in my area were for youth groups only.

Set adrift, God revealed the call of purity onto my life in a light way. “Study it for yourself,” He said. And so I began.

It feels like centuries since that happened, and so much has happened since, but it has only been 5 or 7 years. And, in that time, it has come for mere purity to radical purity and a call so foreign in this day and age that it frightens people when I speak of it.

No one wants to believe that they can do more in regards to purity’s call. It requires too much, doesn’t it? I mean, what would you have to let go of? What would you have to release from your life? Who would you have to walk away from? What would you have to stop doing? Too much. Just too much.

When you consider the fact that purity covers all of your life: Heart, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Body and Eyes…it’s a pretty big call. Too big for most. It’s easier to let the little compromises of life have their way. It’s easier to watch what you want and listen to what you want and say what you want, than to try to be radical in the realm of purity.

Sadly, purity is not preached anymore. I have yet to hear it touched on. I had thought, a few months ago, that God was bringing our church to a new level of purity, to a new place. I could almost feel it vibrating in my soul. However, this is not the case. I stand here and I think, “Well, Lord, I know now that I must carry on alone, until the time when You send others to walk alongside me.”

Radical purity is a lonely road.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, due to the loneliness of this road, I am procrastinating as best as I know how. But, I cannot do that any longer. There is a call to purity, a call to radical purity, that the church refuses to hear. Purity has become the bad word of the church today, along with modesty. The fact that churches now embrace sexual sin as normal shows us how far we’ve drifted from the call of God.

Did we truly forget that Christ has called us to be holy as He is holy? Have we truly lost sight of what holiness is? We wrap up our sin in a veil of grace and continue on our merry way, ignoring the warning signs and the traps laid by the enemy to snare our souls.

Consider the fact that most single’s ministries are actually dating clubs. Consider the fact that there are actually Christian dating sites and Christian speed dating and that they are popular. Consider the fact that women have been date raped on a first date with a man they met on said sites…meaning that they had to be alone with a strange man in order for that to happen. Consider the fact that our teen girls cringe at the word ‘modesty’ and consider it to mean ugly, out-dated and out of fashion. Consider the last time you heard a sermon on purity from the pulpit in your church. Consider the fact that, due to lack of understanding, our young girls are lured out of the church by flattery, not knowing the difference between genuine compliments and false flattery. Consider the fact that many women were low-cut blouses daily, including Sunday, showing more than they ever should. Consider the amounts of affairs that happen within the ministry and within the church due to people ignoring the warning signs and spending time alone in mixed company, selling their hearts through emotional entanglements, and losing more than they thought possible by falling into fornication and affairs.

I wonder, does the church want to change, or do they desire to just keep going on and on down this road? Where is our desire for purity? Where is our longing for it in our own lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ? Why is the subject taboo, hidden under the guise of grace and mercy and love? Deal with the sins of the people. Stop tap dancing around the truth.