We live in hedonistic world. The mantra of many is "if it feel good, do it." We are seeing an unprecedented acceptance of drugs, alcoholism, and sexual immorality. Perversion has spread throughout the nations like a plague. As a result to be a virgin and moral is seen as old fashioned. The Virgin Mary is venerated, but being a virgin is vilified. Sex has become a rite of passage rather than a sacred and beautiful act of love for marriage.
Purity is not high on the list of virtues people desire today. But purity is more than keeping oneself clean of sexual immorality. Purity is holistic and all encompassing sphere for our spiritual lives. The ultimate example of purity was the Prince of Peace Himself, Jesus Christ. He kept his body, mind, and spirit pure by reciting the Word of God, talking to His Father in Heaven, and preaching the Truth. It helped that Jesus is God, but He lives within us who trust in and believe in Him! The purity in our Lord is accessible to us because He lives in us. Daily we must be purified or sanctified. This process of purity is not penance, but putting to death our sinful old nature daily! We do not do this to be saved, but to become more like Christ.
To be purified requires Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit. For within our flesh is an insolence and desire for immorality. It can be difficult to stay pure in this world, now with technology we are subjected to advertisements that entice our baser nature. But being pure as I said before is not just sexually; purity means self control. Drinking wine or beer in moderation is not a sin (unless you've made a vow to never drink or have been called to never drink) but drinking to drunk destroys the purity inside a person. Another example can be gluttony, eating a hearty and tasty meal is good in God's sight, but to overeat and gorge oneself is sin and ruins the purity of our bodies and makes heavy the soul.
Impurity is anything that seeks to tare us down wither it be physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental. As devout Christians we must ever be vigilant against the temptations that seek to take away our purity in Christ. For once you lose your sanctified state, it takes time to regain it because of the guilt and same. In some ways purity can be lost forever. Those who have sold their bodies to every sexual lust and lascivious practice will find that restoring purity is impossible. While Jesus is able to heal those who behave like the heathens, the choices of selling away their purity for perversion sometimes cannot be undone. They can find consolation and forgiveness in Christ, but you cannot unscramble eggs. I say this not to invoke despair, but to warn you that is you obey your wicked nature in defiance of the Divine you will reap consequences.
We cannot purify ourselves. No good work, penance, or act of obedience can merit us purify before the Lord. Only the Almighty is pure and it is The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that can shape with his sanctifying hand and wash us clean of all wickedness. It will take time, for as Thomas A Kempis says, "when you conquer one sin, another rises in you to be conquered, and so it shall continue until we are with Christ." There will always be something to work on in our character and thankfully Jesus Christ is with us and will help us purge the impurities inside every believer.
Jesus is Perfect, but he is not a perfectionist. The Lord wants us to be pure because it brings us closer to Him. Jesus does this for us, He can change us from within. But we must use our will to obey His Will. We are saved the moment we believe and trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Sanctification or Purification is a process of becoming more and more like Jesus; we do not do this to become accepted or more loved by Jesus, no we do it because we love Him and want to be more like Him and closer to his character so that he may reflect through us and be seen by those around us. Just a younger brother wants to be like his cool older brother, we want to be like Jesus and so we seek to be purified daily by the Holy Spirit.
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