Purity

Last week we talked about morality and instructions on the operation of the human machine. We discussed how with even the simplest of machines there is a truism in operating them…do it wrongly and you may ruin the machine, hurt yourself or hurt someone else.

There are lots of aspects to morality that Christians have stressed over the years. In the old days these aspects were displayed as “virtues” and they were called the Cardinal virtues, the word “cardinal” having nothing to do with Catholic church leaders or baseball players…but with the Latin word cardo meaning “hinge of the door”. They are justice, fortitude, prudence and temperance, and the Psalms are full of calls for us to put these virtues on display.

One very important aspect to being “virtuous” is the combination of prudence and temperance in the English word “purity”. The following are some of the myths the Christian establishment tends to believe about purity:

"I am a Christian because of the things I do not do." (1 Samuel 16:7, Isaiah 64:6)

"Purity and morality is only about what I do sexually." (1 Timothy 4:12, Hebrews 12:16, Acts 5:1-11)

"If I choose to do the purity thing, everything will be 'all good' all at once." (Galatians 6:7)

"God will give me whatever I want, if I just stay pure." (1 John 3:13, John 15:18)

Today we look at Psalm 101 and its call to purity. In Psalm 101 we see purity forms powerful results (1). Purity must flow out of a positive, passionate relationship with God (8), and purity flourishes when practiced rigorously (2). In fact, Psalm 101 calls us to put purity and morality in action and reminds us that practicing private purity precedes public performance.

Today we look at: Purity of the mind – Psalms 101:3

Purity of the heart – Psalms 101:4

Purity of words – Psalms 101:5

Mark