Psalm 51:1-4, 10-12 (NIV) 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Matthew 15:18-19, 5:8 (NIV) 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. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
The heart is the control center of our life. It regulates our thinking, feeling, and acting. Spiritual purity and moral purity are so intertwined that if we try to pull them apart we do serious damage to our life. King David gives us hope. David had lost something of that big-hearted goodness that had brought him such great benefit, but he knew and believed his purity could be restored and he cried out to God to have compassionate mercy on him. God answered David’s prayers. David would pay for what he did, but he would not be cast off from and abandoned by God. He would still be an object of God’s care and love.
The good news is that purity, morally and spiritually, is first, foremost, and forever a gift of God, and what our failure has taken from us God will give back. Rules alone about sex, honesty, truthfulness, fair treatment of people, even the well-known “golden rule” will not make us pure. At best they can only cover us with the perfume of goodness. These rules cannot reach the Heart of the matter.
Purity is a gift from God and it is found by those willing to expose their life to the gift. We do that in the same way David did, by confessing our sin as best we understand. The Greek word for pure is “catharsis.” Most of us are familiar with the word, a kind of shake down of the soul that removes the junk and leaves us renewed and refreshed. If the gift of purity is to come to us, there is no escaping the truth that some of the things we hold dear will have to go. They have to be removed and we need to let go.
Purity cuts out the dross that looks like gold, and the time comes when we recognize that our loss is gain. Where others see only random events happening, the pure see the plan of God unfolding. Where others see pain, the pure see a Presence. Where others see fate, the pure see God’s future. Where others see a pitiful excuse for a human being, the pure see a child of God. You know the kind of person I am talking about. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 7, 1992
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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