Rediscover the Bible for Life
“Staying Pure in an Impure World”
By Dennis Lee
As Americans we care a lot about purity in some areas, but care less about it in other areas. Today we want pure air to breathe, pure water to drink, and pure organic foods to eat. But we’re not all that concerned about having a pure heart and mind, or what you might call a moral life.
When it comes to our bodies, we want purity, but when it comes to our hearts and minds we’ll let just about anything and everything in. We live in such an open-minded society that almost every kind of immoral and perverted trash filling our airwaves ends up filling our minds and changing the way God intended us to live.
You use to have to go to the seedy part of town and adult bookstores and clubs to look at this kind of stuff, but now it’s piped into every home daily through the Internet. It’s seen on Billboards as we drive down the highways of our nation. Advertisers are more brazen as they sell products guaranteeing sexual pleasures. And television and movies promote sex of every kind, style, and fashion.
You might say America has become a sex-saturated society.
As a result of this sexual saturation and the bombardment of our minds and hearts, we’re seeing not just an epidemic but also a pandemic when it comes to abortions, illegitimate births, and sexually transmitted diseases.
In 2008, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates there are 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases each year. Think about that, 19 million new cases, not total cases, but new. It’s been said there are more people with sexually transmitted diseases than people with addictions.
The reason is because people have ignored and cast away God’s word. They are living their lives completely opposite of how God designed life to be lived. And whenever we toss out God there’s a price to be paid.
The Bible says, “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind,” (Hosea 8:7) and “Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.” (Job 4:8).
Regarding moral purity the Bible says, “God wants you to be pure and to keep clear of all sexual sin…For God has not called us to be dirty-minded and full of lust but to be holy and clean.” (1 Thessalonian 4:3,7)
Is that possible? Is it possible to live in our sex-saturated society and maintain a pure heart and mind? Is it possible to live in this culture of sex that ridicules those who want to live pure lives in accordance to God’s word?
To answer that question let me use an illustration of an ocean fish. It lives its entire life in salt water. It grows up in a culture where every moment of its life is surrounded by water so salty we can’t drink it. But when an ocean fish is caught and prepared for a meal, salt needs to be added.
Is such a pure life possible? Yes, because the same God that can take a fish and keep it in an environment of salt and not be affected by the salt can keep us pure in an impure world. Like that ocean going fish, God can insulate us and keep our heart and minds pure in an impure world.
Dennis Lee is the senior pastor of Living Waters Fellowship in Mesquite, Nevada.
