Skip to main content

Purity

         Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (II Corinthians 7:1)

 

We’re still on my hobbyhorse of defensiveness, and today, my name comes into play. Did you know that Karen means pure? Don’t worry, I’m not going off the deep end. But I am going to play. To be Karen, I must be pure, meaning I must be Karen. But if I am defensive, I must hide and protect at least part of myself. If you saw me doing something,  you might think worse of me. Or, since I know someday you’ll catch me doing something, and you will think worse of me, so it’s better to just open the carnival freak show right now and save everyone time and misery. The problem is, if I must hide Karen, then I cannot be Karen, or at least I can’t be pure Karen

Jam is another way I can look at the idea of being pure. Some folks make pure strawberry jam. The only fruit in their jam is strawberries. There’s something in me that just has to make impure, adulterated strawberry jam. It might have orange, applesauce, rhubarb, pineapple or other berries in it. If I wanted pure strawberry jam, I can get that at the grocery store.

The problem is, we’re all impure, adulterated jams. There may be a lot of Christianity in there, we’re definitely a Christian jam, but we find that some idea sounds good, or something in Christianity doesn’t sit well with us, so we remove a little of the jam, which leads to something sneaking into the empty space whether we do it on purpose or not. In fact, one of the rules for canning jam is to make sure air gets removed because it’s the air that will cause the jam to mold.

There’s another problem with making impure jam. Once you start experimenting, you tend to keep experimenting. There’s a website that lists twenty-five flavors that go well with strawberries.[1] That might be fine if we’re talking about flavors that spend less than ten seconds on our tongues, but when discussing truth or ideas that may influence our lives for years, we need to be more careful.

And now, to get to what’s probably the most purely theological point with purity. According to Dallas Willard, the goal of spiritual renovation and, therefore, purity is for us to reach a point where we can do what we want without feeling defensive because we have come to want to do truly good things.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more