Internal And External Purity
It is often very obvious if someone is externally pure and genuine. The problem is, external purity can be faked and “made up”. Internal purity, on the other hand, is not always obvious by regular observation. Purity is important element of trust because it represents truth, honor and honesty among other character qualities. Purity is more of an ongoing process than a current state of my heart. I want to be pure and clean, but the world I live in and part of can enter into my soul. It takes “iron clad” protection from the Lord Himself to help maintain purity, both internally and externally.
The Lord explained to the people in the old testament what to do with people who were obviously externally impure. It’s quite the contrast to how we can respond to God since Jesus came. Check this out….
2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease (aka leprosy) or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. 3 Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.” 4 The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses. (Numbers 5:2-4 NLT)
It seems to me that under the Old Law, becoming impure meant you were pushed away from the Lord and others. Under the New Law of love and grace, I am welcomed to Him for cleansing and purification. Through Jesus, I have forgiveness, grace and mercy to help me maintain internal as well as external purity.
I am not always pure, but there is a way I can be pure. External purity is more than bathing daily and keeping my outside presentable. External purity is living out my faith daily in how I treat others. Internal purity is my private world fully exposed to God and made right by Him. I can run to the Lord when I’m impure, instead of being ostracized and pushed away from Him. I was reminded of the words of Jesus when speaking to the Pharisees (people who appeared externally and internally pure) about this subject. Check this out….
17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” (Matthew 15:17-20 NLT)
I need to spend way more attention to what goes into my heart than what goes into my stomach. I still need to treat my body kindly and carefully aware when it comes to eating. It’s more significant what enters into my soul and comes out of my mouth. I need to guard the consumption of my eyes and ears more intentionally than my food diet. This can help my internal purity which will eventually make it way out externally.
Pressing On!
Dwayne