Purity
Escaping Slavery of the Heart and Enjoying Freedom
Psa 51:10-12 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. {11} Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. {12} Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
- When King David committed adultery and finally owned up to it, he was overwhelmed with the depth of his sin. So he turned to God and pleaded for God’s help in restoring the purity of his heart and joy in his salvation.
Psa 119:9-11 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. {10} I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. {11} I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
- Memorizing, meditating on, and obeying the Scriptures was David’s solution to keep himself pure.
Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.
- When struggling with evil thoughts, you cannot simply think about nothing. You must replace them with pure, noble thoughts.
1 Tim 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
- Remember the example you set and the effects you have on others. Your victories become other people’s inspiration to overcome. You stumblings become their excuses for doing the same.
Prov 6:25-29 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, {26} for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. {27} Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? {28} Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? {29} So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
- The sin of lust includes being “captivated” by the thought of, sight of, or desire for beauty, eyes, legs, hair, etc. (in addition to the traditionally tempting body parts). When considering whether you are simply “appreciating beauty” or lusting, try to stop looking. If you have a hard time, you are captivated and are lusting. Lust turns us from spiritual giants to insensitive lumps of dough (loaf of bread). As surely as hot coals burn the one who touches them, lust damages us when we give in to it.
Eph 4:17-19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. {18} They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. {19} Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
- Lust causes us to lose sensitivity, to have a hardened heart, and to be darkened in our understanding. These things destroy our relationships with our spouse and others even if they know nothing about our specific sin.
Mat 5:27-30 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ {28} But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. {29} If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. {30} And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
- If we read more about Jesus’ ministry, he never gouged out an eye of any of his disciples. This is because the sin is not in the eye, but in the heart. His point is simply that it is better for us to take radical action against ANYTHING which does cause us to sin.
Test Yourself
1. How many of these verses have I memorized exactly, word for word?
2. How many days this week were these verses on my mind many times during the day?
3. How much did I believe, trust, take to heart, and obey these Scriptures?
4. How much did I enjoy drawing close to God and meditating on the Word of God in comparison with other common pleasures?
5. How many times did these verses inspire me to do something good that I otherwise would have struggled to do? In what ways?
6. How many times did these verses give me the strength to overcome temptation? In what ways?
7. How many times have I shared these victories with my spouse or another brother or sister?
8. How good did I feel about my growth and how much do I look forward to continuing this growth every week of my life?
Extra Verses
1 Th 4:3-5 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; {4} that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, {5} not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;
Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.
Col 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. {16} For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. {17} The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Disciples for Purity 