What does the Bible say about purity?

Morality, properly speaking, is relative; that is, it flows from relationships in which we stand to others, and in which we owe such and such things to them in virtue of the claim upon us which their position gives them. I do not mean by this that intrinsic purity of heart is not to be sought, and the subjugation of passions in their workings within us. No Christian could question it for a moment. It is peace in itself. We ought to be pure: it is a good in itself, and it is the practical condition of communion with God: "Be ye holy, for I am holy;" 1 Peter 1:16 and, as it is stated in a passage we have already cited, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matt. 5:8 This claim of purity distinguishes Christianity as revealing God. No other religious system knew it; for none associated man with a God known to be light, and who called us to walk in the light as He is in the light. Love also in exercise where it is not relatively due is the proper characteristic of the Christian. And these two distinguishing characteristics flow from this blessed and glorious truth — that the Christian partakes of the divine nature, and hence is called to imitate it in practice. "That eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us" 1 John 1:2 (as John teaches us, in Christ, so that He should be an absolute practical example to us) is also "true in Him and in us" whose life He is, "because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." 1 John 2:8.

The moral condition of the heart or soul, is here the important question. God only being pure absolutely, there must be purity of heart to appreciate Him. There is no thought here, we need scarcely say, of bodily sight, for even Jesus is now hidden from our view. It is only with the eyes of the heart or the moral vision of the soul — which is simply faith — that we can see God or appreciate His excellency and glory; and this blessedness is made to depend on the condition of the heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The purer the heart is, the more clearly it will see God, and the more clearly it sees God, the purer it must become. Thus the one acts and re-acts upon the other.

It may be well to notice here, that we cannot make or keep the heart pure by trying to do so. Were we to look within and make the condition of the heart our study and our object, we should sink down, as many have done, into a state of mere mystical, self-occupation. To be merciful, the heart must have an object that is the perfect expression of the divine mercy; to be pure, it must have an object that is absolute in purity. As the heart is not inherently pure, it can only be accounted so by reflecting a pure object; and that object being Christ, we find in Him the true explanation of a pure heart and seeing God. The heart is purified by faith in Christ, who is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His Person. (See Acts 15:9; 1 Peter 1:22; Heb. 1:3.) What relief, what rest, the heart finds in finding Him! No theories, no analogies, no efforts, no experience can solve the question or give rest to the mind, but Himself — Himself known as the once lowly but now exalted Man in glory.

(Vv. 14-16). Having exposed the hypocrisy of the outward religion of the flesh, the Lord, in the hearing of "all the people," shows that the source of defilement is not from without, but from within. The washing of hands and cups and pots, simply deals with defilement from without, but the source of moral defilement springs from the inward evil of the heart. This cuts at the root of all worldly religion of the flesh which simply deals with externals and leaves the heart untouched. God works from within and deals with the conscience and heart. The real source of defilement is not a man's environment but himself. It is true that man being such as he is — a fallen creature — if he goes into scenes of evil and temptation, his surroundings will stir up his lusts within. But even so the source of the evil is from within. An Angel can pass through Sodom and not be defiled, but not so Lot. There was no evil heart in the Angel to answer to sin; there was in Lot.

In the law there were many ceremonial defilements, each of which had its appointed purification. To these the scribes and Pharisees added others, such as washing the hands before eating, washing cups and plates — being very zealous in these things, while within they were full of extortion and excess. Mark 7:2-8. In Christianity the purification required extends to the heart, Acts 15:9; James 4:8; the soul, 1 Peter 1:22; and the conscience through the blood of Christ. Heb. 9:14.

On one thing especially was the apostle urgent, the personal purity of those who bore the name of Jesus; and the more so as the Greeks utterly failed in it. Their habits and their literature, their statesmen and their philosophers, all helped on the evil; their very religion conduced to aggravate the defilement by consecrating that to which depraved nature is itself prone. Few can have any adequate notion of the moral horrors of the heathen world, or of the insensibility of men generally to pollutions so shameless Christ changed all for those who believe in Him, leaving an example that they should follow His steps. "For this is God's will, your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in passion of lust even as also the Gentiles that know not God, that no man over-reach and wrong his brother in the matter; because the Lord is an avenger of all these things, even as we told you before and fully testified." Holiness, of course, goes far beyond freedom from sensuality. Still to stand clear of that which was everywhere sanctioned in ordinary life was no small thing. Nor is the apostle satisfied with the negative duty of abstinence, but calls on "each of them to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour," instead of letting it drift loosely into sin and shame, "not in passion of lust, even as the Gentiles also that know not God." Acts 15 is proof positive on scripture testimony of that day, painfully confirmed by the disclosures of Pompeii and Herculaneum, to the moral degradation that pervaded even the most civilized portion of the heathen world. When God is dishonoured, man is reprobate; and God, in forgiving and rescuing from the wrath to come through Christ's death and resurrection, gives also a new life in Christ on which the Holy Spirit acts by the word so as to produce fruits of righteousness by Him to God's glory.

(Vv. 3-5). The first quality that should mark those who profess the Name of Jesus, and tread the path of faith, is personal purity. In the heathen system from which those converts had been called, the lusts of the flesh were, not only shamelessly pursued in their every-day life, but were deified in their depraved religion. They were surrounded by an idolatrous system which glorified lust, and in which the grossest immoralities formed part of their temple ritual. In these last days we are surrounded by the corrupt profession of Christendom which is fast returning to the grossness of heathenism with the additional evil that it is cloaked with the form of piety (2 Timothy 2:1-5). If then these warning exhortations were needed in that day, none the less are they of the deepest importance in these last difficult days. The danger then, as now, is that, we almost unconsciously become indifferent to, or think lightly of, the evil.

Now comes the definite call of the Spirit of God to your conscience and to mine. It says "And every man that has this hope in Him [that does not mean in your heart and in my heart; it means that everyone that has this hope in the One who is soon to be manifested] purifies himself even as He is pure." There is a progressive, steady work of PURIFICATION going on with everybody who entertains such hope in Christ. Can you measure the holiness of Christ? Can you tell me the standard of purity that marks our Lord? Why, absolute purity in every detail. He is essentially the holy, spotless, undefiled One. Yes, that is the standard. If that is the standard, you may depend upon it there will be room for purification every hour of our lives in this world. There will never be a moment when we shall say, "Now then I am absolutely up to the standard; I am as pure as He is pure," until clothed in a body of glory we shine forth in His likeness and see Him as He is.

But what is this walk in the light? It is not the same thing as walking according to the light. It does not mean to live a perfect and sinless life. Walking in the light is not the question of how we wait but where we walk, and the place where the believer walks is the light. It means to walk daily in His presence, with our will and conscience in the light and presence of God, judging everything that does not answer to that light. Whatever is not right is brought at once in His presence, exposed to the light, confessed, judged and put away. Such is the walk in the light which fellowship with God demands. The result of such a walk in the light is mutual fellowship among believers, because each has the same nature of God and the same Spirit, the same Christ as the object before the heart and the same Father. It cannot be otherwise. Then there is another thing stated, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Walking in the light shows us what we are and we cannot say that we have no sin. But we have no consciousness of sin resting upon us before a holy God, though we know that sin is in us, but we have the assurance of being cleansed from it by His precious blood. Such is the blessed position of a true Christian. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son, walking in the light as He is in the light, fellowship one with another and the cleansing power of the blood.

This does not mean He expects every believer to be sinless now, but He wants every believer in the place of purity. It does not say that He wants purity within us, but He does want purity, that is, the judgment of that which is of man in the flesh, there is to be no admixture of evil and good principles together. We are to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim.2:22). A pure heart is not a sinless heart, rather it is a heart that is occupied with the holiness of the Christ of God. Is Christ the object of our own hearts? That is a real test for every gathering of the people of God, what is the reason we gather? Do we gather in practice to the Person of the Lord Jesus or is there something else as well? Do I gather because I like the particular company, is this the thought? The vital thing in any gathering is that Christ is the centre. Having a pure heart is having Christ as the only object of our hearts without any admixture. It is not 'Christ and something else', but 'Christ only, the centre'. That is true in the house of God. After all, the One who dwells there is the God of heaven and earth Himself, He is the One to whom our souls are brought.