It often seems to me that purity is a subject that is unfathomable to most Christians.
Yet we know it should be central in our lives.
Happily the Bible is very clear as to how we can experience purity of life that is acceptable to God.
The answer essentially, is that it is a gift. AS we have received salvation, so we receive purity.
Purity is not something we do, it is something we are.
Titus says that Jesus gave Himself for us, to redeem us and purify us to Himself.
Peter wrote that we have purified our hearts by our obedience to the truth.
It is purity of heart that is acceptable to God.
One of the results of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2 was a pure heart for the believers.
It is not often noticed that Peter confirmed that in Acts chapter 15.
Speaking of his visit to the house of Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, he says; 'so God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith'.
A pure life springing from a pure heart was an important foundation in the experience of the early Christians.
It can be our foundation also, if received by faith.
Yet we know it should be central in our lives.
Happily the Bible is very clear as to how we can experience purity of life that is acceptable to God.
The answer essentially, is that it is a gift. AS we have received salvation, so we receive purity.
Purity is not something we do, it is something we are.
Titus says that Jesus gave Himself for us, to redeem us and purify us to Himself.
Peter wrote that we have purified our hearts by our obedience to the truth.
It is purity of heart that is acceptable to God.
One of the results of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2 was a pure heart for the believers.
It is not often noticed that Peter confirmed that in Acts chapter 15.
Speaking of his visit to the house of Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, he says; 'so God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith'.
A pure life springing from a pure heart was an important foundation in the experience of the early Christians.
It can be our foundation also, if received by faith.
-------written by Ross Thompson.