I hate to be dirty. There’s nothing like a long, hot shower at the end of a long sweaty day. Others are more comfortable with their dirty state, but not me. I love to feel clean. I love to take a long hot bath for stress relief even when I am already clean.

God invites us to the wonder of purity even in our fallen state. Honestly, do I really want to be pure? Obviously, the church is having a problem with longing for the purity of God’s standards above the impure culture’s standards. I see this strongly in the number of Christians who openly live together before getting married. Sometimes their Christian parents encourage them to live together so they can be sure before they make a marital commitment. What? Purity is very low on our lists of what we are willing to do as Christians. We look at God’s basic guides for purity as irrelevant in today’s culture. Yet purity remains important to God even after we became impure sinners in the Garden of Eden.

God knows me. He knows that I don’t want to be a sinner. He knows that I don’t want to be impure. I just can’t shake it. The more intimate I become with God, the more of a sinner I realize that I am. I may stop the obvious sins like living with my boyfriend before marriage (It’s easy for me to stand in judgment on that one because that is something that I have not done.), but don’t take me to task on my personal purity of thought. Honestly, I hate my enemies. It takes a lot of conviction from the Holy Spirit to align me with God’s focus. I can be very hateful in my mind about people who I think do not drive considerately. Obviously, I can become very judgmental (as in the opinions offered above). That’s sin. That’s impure.

So, when I read from 1 John 3:6:

“No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him,”

it makes me think! Wow, I’ve claimed to have known Jesus since I was seven years old and I have really grown a lot regarding my personal sinning. Honestly, I don’t even know the sins I have sinned today to make an accurate accounting of my sins. As I read the Bible, I understand that God’s purity causes Him to see a depth to my sin I cannot even conceive (Jeremiah 17:9).

Rather than a proclamation that I do not know Jesus, I believe John is revealing the depth of reality that has happened to me because I have put my faith in Jesus Christ. He is explaining what is true because I do not attempt to take care of my sin problem in any other way. Because God accepts my faith in Jesus Christ, I will not live eternally in sin; when I see Him and know Him, I will be sinless as Jesus is sinless.

Until then, I want to keep in touch with God’s Word and the Spirit’s power. I love the idea of the purity that God wants for me. It’s a purity that He knows will heal me from everything that plagues me now. My hatred for my enemies is only destroying me. He doesn’t want that. He knows how to give me back the purity in which He created me to live. It is impossible for me to stop sinning enough. It is not impossible for me through the power of the Holy Spirit to sin less while realizing my sinful state more. The best chance I have at purity while living here on earth is to focus my heart on Jesus each day. I do that through prayer and reading His Word. I reorient myself to God’s plan, purpose and instructions for me on a daily or hourly basis.

What excites me most is that being in Christ means that eventually I will not keep on sinning. I will be relieved of my sin and see Him and know Him. During my pilgrimage on earth, I will remain aware of my heart’s longing for purity from sin. I love the purity that a hot shower gives me as a precursor to the love of purity that my soul longs to receive from Christ alone.s