Purifying Ourselves with Hope

Purifying Ourselves with Hope.

“We know that when Jesus appears, we shall resemble Him, for we shall see Him as He truly is. Everyone who treasures this hope, this eager expectation of the Lord’s coming, continues purifying themselves, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3).

Purify Yourselves! As we trust in Jesus and expectantly believe His promise to return, this eager hope of ours will motivate us to do our part in continually cleansing ourselves from anything that keeps us impure. We will do all we can to remain as pure of heart and mind as He is as we fix our hope in Christ. We will intentionally commit to the daily process of decontaminating ourselves from the moral and spiritual pollutants of this world by embracing the hope of seeing Jesus one day face-to-face. Our patient hope of being with God in the future will inspire us to seek His purity right now. This earnest hope for sharing in God’s glory will shape how we live presently. We will, with God’s help, purify ourselves by hoping in Christ’s return to claim us for His own. As our hope rests on Jesus, our desire is to remain undefiled and worthy of the Holy One.

St. John used this Greek word for “purify” only one other time, when he reported something interesting in John 11:55: “It was almost time for the Jewish Passover, and many people went from the countryside up to Jerusalem many days early in order to purify themselves through ritual washing before the Passover.” John is referring here to the water of the “Mikvah Bath.” By the time of John the Baptist, baptism was nothing new to the faithful Jews. Ritual immersion was an important means of purification according to Biblical law, especially before Temple worship, a wedding, a conversion, during a mother’s pregnancy, and whenever entering a sacred space. The Jewish believer undergoing the ritual bath had to be completely naked, must fully soak every inch of the body by immersing him/herself under water, and the pool of water was required to be “living” water from a stream, river, or rainwater. Moses’ teaching in the Torah left an indelible impression on Yahweh’s chosen people that they needed to be officially set apart in dedication to their holy God by submitting to an outer cleansing that represented an intentional inner purification. The external cleansing was a sign of the internal cleansing needed before meeting their God and worshipping in His presence in the Temple. St. James reminded the new Christ-followers of this holy tradition as he wrote in his letter, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8). 

Jewish Roots of Purification. The Water of Cleansing in which the Jews were commanded to purify themselves has deep roots in the Mosaic tradition:

1. Preparing to Meet the Lord. On Mt. Sinai, we see Yahweh commanding Moses to consecrate the people and prepare them for His presence by washing their garments: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord Yahweh will come down on Mt. Sinai in the sight of all the people.” (Exodus 19:10-11).
2. The Water of Purification in the Red Heifer Ritual. After a rather gruesome and unexplained ceremony of butchering a red heifer in the ritual cleansing of a leper, then completely burning that heifer up, the priest was required to wash his clothes and take a thorough bath. The next day the priest was to take the ashes from the heifer’s remains and make a thin paste by mixing the ashes with clean “living” water from a nearby stream. This paste was called the “water of purification” by the Lord. (Nu. 19:9). If someone was deemed unclean, then a branch of hyssop is dipped into the watered-down paste and is applied to the person’s tent, his vessels, and his body. The mixture of ash and water will purify the unclean person in the sight of God.
3. Water cleansing came to symbolize moral purification and repentance all through Hebrew Scriptures:

• “Purge me with the shrub of purification; Un-sin me, that I may be purified.  Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow… Create in me a pure, clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:7, 10);
• “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow… Though your sins are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:16-18);
• “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities.” (Ezekiel 36:25).
• “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts, how much longer shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?” (Jeremiah 4:14);
• “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” (Zechariah 13:1).

Purifying Ourselves in Daily Foot-Washing. When Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in John 13, Jesus made a striking remark, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me and what I’m doing.” (13:8). Jesus is making a spiritual statement here, pointing to Holy Baptism, and that unless He has totally cleansed us, we are neither a follower of Him nor a part of what He is doing. Through accepting the Anointed One into one’s life, and believing in His death and resurrection, Jesus has fully cleansed His followers. They have taken the mikvah, the Jewish ritual bath for purification. As the Message translation puts it, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene.” (MSG).  So those of us who have been purified through our Baptism in Jesus and our anointing in the Spirit continue to need for Him to keep washing our feet. We need to keep ourselves set apart for Him, to remain sacred and holy and pure as we live into Him and His purity. We need to keep ourselves clean, dedicated to God, set apart for Him through His foot washings of repentance, confession and living into the fullness of His Holy Spirit. For “God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.” (1 Thess. 4:7). When believers daily repent of our sins, humbly confess allegiance to the Anointed One, pray, soak ourselves in His Word, and surrender to the Holy Spirit, God is in effect washing our feet and keeping us sacred, holy and pure. Unless He continues to wash us as we purify ourselves, we will not grow in holiness.

Inner Purity. “The crooked and devious in heart are detestable to the Lord, an abomination; but He is delighted with those whose ways are innocent and blameless.” (Proverbs 11:20). In the Hebrew Bible, there is no mistaking the fact that the Lord finds pure and blameless hearts to be delightful, and impure, crooked hearts detestable. Here are a few ways to describe what the Lord seems to be saying about people who remain pure before Him:

• They who are perverse in heart are extremely disgusting in the eyes of the Lord, but He is very pleased with anyone who walks with integrity.
• Deceitful hearts are utterly vile to the Lord Yahweh, but those who are undefiled are a source of pleasure for Him.
• God will stand against those with a twisted mind, but He will take pleasure in those with a sound, healthy mind.
• The Lord detests the people who have purposely developed a perverted heart, but he takes joy in those with unblemished hearts.
• Yahweh will remain in opposition to anyone with a warped or distorted heart, but He will extend goodwill towards the person who is sincerely upright in his ways.
• The Lord will be an enemy of anyone with a deceitful mind, but He will show favor to the person who follows the right way.
• Depraved hearts are abhorrent to Yahweh, but dear to Him are those whose hearts are wholesome.
• God can’t stand those who are perverted, but He relishes those who are upright.
• Devious people are disgusting to the Lord, but He favorably accepts those who are innocent and genuine.
• The Lord hates the stubborn heart bent toward evil, but He treasures those whose ways are pure. 

Purity of Heart: A Combination of Human Effort and Divine Grace. The Lord’s purification of us is not a passive effort of ours in which we sit back in a warm bubble-bath and let Him cleanse us from head to toe. On the one hand, we are to very intentionally purify ourselves. On the other hand, we surrender to the cleaning efforts of the Lord. Purification requires the Pure One and each believer to walk hand in hand in the cleansing process:

1. “Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? (Proverbs 20:9).
2. “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.” (2 Corinthians 7:1);
3. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24).
4. “Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourselves pure.” (1 Timothy 5:22).
5. “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8).
6. “We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  (I John 3:2-3).
7. “The goal of this teaching is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (I Timothy 1:5).
8. “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers and sisters, love one another deeply from the heart.”(I Peter 1:22).
9. “True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.” (James 1:27).
10. “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes, and some for ignoble. If a person purifies himself from that which is not noble, cleansing himself, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:20-22).

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8). In other words, we will cheer with delight when our innermost being is cleaned of mixed motives and impure thoughts. Congratulations! Our clean inner reservoir of natural instincts will now more clearly reflect a pure image of God, and our eyesight will continue to improve as we gaze upon Him. Sometimes we have hidden agendas, even kept secret from ourselves. Often, we are mysteries, even unto ourselves. We can surprise ourselves with our double-mindedness and questionable convictions. How can we ever see deeply enough into our psyche to determine if our motives are really pure? Can we consciously choose to have innocent knee-jerk reactions to situations in life? Will we ever have spotless, involuntary impulses? These are deep internal matters, and here we find ourselves right where God wants to work. He wants us to be gradually purified at our subterranean level. He longs to see our motivations become unmixed with inner sinfulness. He yearns that our heartfelt reactions become clean and upright. God wants to transform our deepest, most innermost beings to become unsullied, a pure mountain stream flowing way below the surface with all the impurities washed away. God wants our unbidden thoughts to be righteous, our random feelings to be filled with goodness.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Ps. 51:10-11). This purification process is a continuous cleansing, it is ongoing. According to Jesus, when we daily submit to that cleansing process, we are to be envied! We are supremely fortunate! For hearts filled with light and purity allow us to see God more and more clearly. The purer our hearts, the more light that is allowed to reach under the surface, the wider open our eyes to recognize the Lord. When complete purity has been achieved, it’s time to celebrate! We will then be seeing Jesus face-to-face! In the meantime, our vision of God will only sharpen as we ask the Holy Spirit to wash us clean at that deep, deep level. Ask for a daily bath down below in the heart. We are unable to cleanse our own hearts at that level. Only the Spirit.

“… You are already cleansed because you have taken My words (“logos”) into your heart; you are spiritually pure because you have believed in My eternal words (“logos”) after hearing Me reveal My divine thoughts… If you abide in Me, live in union with Me as we dwell within each other, and if My spoken word (rhema) remains at home in your heart, your prayers will reflect My will and shall be done for you.” (John 15:2,3,7).

The Word Purifies. Jesus is saying that His words have had a cleansing effect on His disciples, pruning what is unfruitful from their hearts, cleaning up their hearts and minds to make them more fruitful. The logos words of Christ purify as they become worked into our lives and take up residence within us as the Spirit’s rhema words. His divine teachings are like a spiritual power-wash on believers. The spiritual reality is that there is no difference between the presence of the Logos Word and the logos words in the life of believers. Receiving the one is the same as receiving the other, with no distinction between the two. The Word purifies, right along with His words. Christ is the Divine Expression of God, so when we have Christ, we have His words. When we are in Christ, we are necessarily in His words as well. When His teachings find a home in our mind and heart, Jesus is at home in us as well. Christ’s words have a cleansing effect because the living Word is the fountain of pure water, bathing us at the deepest level.