WHAT IS PURITY 2 (Pt 3)

Now, down to the New Testament dispensation, Jesus taught a powerful teaching on Purity. I would do a brief commentary on this teaching. Both the Gospel of Matthew and Mark recorded this teaching. Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23. In this passage, the Pharisees meet Jesus and asked him why don’t your disciples undergo the ceremonial washing of hands before eating? And Jesus in answering them, began by showing them how they had sidestepped the commands of God for their own traditions. 

Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. (Matthew 15:3-6 NLT)

He went further to state that their act was only superficial, they only honoured God with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Him. And He gave an important principle:

Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” (Matthew 15: 10-11 NLT)

Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.” “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.” (Matthew 15:15-20 NLT)

Jesus taught a very important lesson here, He said that it is not what goes in that defiles us but what comes from our hearts. He further showed us how it is in our hearts that evil, murder, stealing, lost and every type of sin is borne. So even before the act is manifested, it has already been conceived in the heart. 

Another passage that corroborates this Scripture is the writing of James. “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15 NKJV)

From Jesus’s teaching, we can say that Purity is about the state of our heart. What is inside our heart? What are we allowing to occupy our hearts? What are we allowing to stay in our hearts? Purity is beyond our outward appearance or outward cleansing. If we cleanse the whole outside and the inside remains unclean, we have achieved nothing. It is from the heart that every other thing flows. Purity is beyond morality. It is not an instruction to the female gender alone. It applies to everyone both male and female, young or old, married or unmarried. We must all reckon that we are called to live a life of purity perpetually. God is calling us to a higher standard to guard what goes into our hearts and what comes out of it. Jesus taught in Scriptures that if a man so much as looks at a woman lustfully, He had committed adultery. (Matthew 5:28). He taught about loving your enemies, not just loving your friends. See, it is first of all about the heart. 

The Good news is that we have hope because God had done something about it. When we received the life of Christ, we not only received a new life, we received a new heart also. Glory to God!! This prophecy was given to Prophet Ezekiel, and we see it fulfilled in Scriptures. 

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27 NKJV; Hebrews 8:10-11)

God has done the bulk of the work for us already. He gave us a new heart and a new Spirit which will cause us to walk in his ways. Now, it is not difficult or tedious for us to obey God’s command because we have the Spirit of God on our inside who is our helper and strengthener. The Spirit helps us to walk in the way of God. 

So, what is our response? David asked this question in the Psalms and gave an important answer: 

“How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word.” (Psalms 119:9 NLT)

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT)

Dear believer, we can do the will of God. We have the capacity to hear God’s voice and obey it because we have God’s Spirit in us. One question resounding in our mind will be what God’s will is, the Bible is laden with instructions on how we as believers should live on this earth. Especially in the epistles, the Apostles will always begin their letters by reminding us of who we are in Christ now and then they go ahead to tell us how to act and live in this world as a result of who we are. In the next post, we will go ahead to examine one major issue when it comes to living a life of purity.