Purity; The Presence of God’s Spirit in Our Lives

Purity, by many of us, is perceived to be a physical aspect in our lives and nothing to do with the internal. As Christians we tend to lie to ourselves that “as long as I’m a virgin I’m safe.” However, it is about time we did away with this misleading perception but instead get to reflect on God’s meaning and intention about us maintaining purity until marriage. 

Having read When God Writes Your Love Story by Eric and Leslie Ludy, I got a better understanding of God’s intentions concerning purity. ‘Purity is not merely the absence of sexual indulgence, but the presence of God’s Spirit in every dimension of our

life.’ Purity is God’s presence in our lives. Him giving us directions on our lives. Us focusing on Him; His love, kindness and showing gratitude for what He has done for us- loving us even though we were not loyal to Him at some point. It’s about us doing what pleases God and earning His favor. Refocusing our energy on things that will actually build our relationship with God and not destroy it. 

However, we really don’t focus on doing any of these things, do we? Instead, we have tolerated compromise with our walk with Our Savior. We even try to justify our actions not knowing that every time we fail to do what we have been directed by God, we make Him sad – even though He loves us, our actions still displease Him because we lie to ourselves that we know more than God does. We take His grace for granted-that’s why we claim that we will repent after we sin. ‘Things are different in this generation. Oh, we live in a modern world some things don’t apply to us.’ But guess what, the Bible clearly states that whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin-James 4:17. Purity is not a choice. Purity is a COMMAND. 

According 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, God says that the unrighteous shall not inherit His Kingdom. As Christians, our desire is to be with God after this earthly life-to inherit His Kingdom. But every time we go against His instructions and commands, we become unrighteous and thus our chances of inheriting God’s Kingdom become faint. 

Purity is not just about the physical- how we dress and how we appear in front of people; it’s also entails the spiritual aspect of our being. Our thoughts. Words we speak. Things we watch. Because the internal builds the external. Just as it is said, out of the abundance of the heart speaks the mouth. What is within us can be easily identified by those around based on how we conduct ourselves. You don’t have to wear a tag that says ‘I’m immoral’; no! Soon or later what we consume consumes us in return. We want to give in to what the mind says – based on what we feed it. 

When God directs and commands to be pure, He is not only interested in us being chaste till marriage; He is also concerned about our thoughts and our heart. He expects us to be pure inside out. From within, where no one can see other than Him, to the without- what other people can actually see. Eric & Leslie Ludy indicate that purity of the mind and body is a natural outflow of a pure, cleansed, Christ-consumed heart. 

As Christians, we should be consumed by God’s spirit and He will grant us the strength to overcome lust and falling into sin. Paul to the Galatians 5:16, he said, ‘if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.’ It is not possible to defeat sin by our own will. We need to let god help us. When God leads, it’s impossible to fail. We will observe purity because it is God’s presence in every dimension of our lives.