“To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.”
(Titus 1:15)
What we see is shaped by what’s inside us. We view everything through the lens of our hearts.
When we are angry, we are quick to find fault in others. When we are happy, we tend to extend grace. When we are sad, we struggle to find hope. When we are at peace, we recoil from chaos.
Spiritual purity requires an ongoing effort to pursue what is right, to admit and correct our faults, and to seek the higher purpose. It’s not something to achieve, like winning a race, but rather it is living in a state of right standing with God and our fellows — righteousness.
When we are living in righteousness, we can begin to see perfection in God’s design. We can start to grasp that there is a greater and perfect plan at work, even when it seems to our human understanding that things may be going wrong.
On the other hand, living in sin corrupts our world view. We lower our standards, assume the worst of others, and make excuses for our own shortcomings and misgivings. Allowing things like adultery, sloth, pride, greed and hate to invade our hearts defiles us internally, and we become the very things we so harshly criticize in others.
The Bible teaches in so many ways that the solution to what ails us begins with us. We must purify our hearts first. Only then can we begin to purify our outward lives and reap the rich abundance of peace, love, joy and hope — the promise of Christ.
Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels
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