Purity
Matthew 5,8
„"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ”
If we wish to see God, then we must keep our hearts pure. Even Solomon spoke of this:
Proverbs 4,23
„Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. ”
Jesus explained to us what else could come from our hearts:
Matthew 15,19
„For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
Our purity is a rather important factor in regards to our religious lives, and we’ll see how important it is in the next verses.
Luke 8,5-15
"A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.' Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Jesus revealed us four zones, where God’s seed, namely His Word can fall into, one of them being the seed which fell along the path, which is the only zone out of the rest where the seed did not sprout – these cannot be considered as believers. While on the remaining three, they are all believers as the seed sprouted and started growing. Out of the three, two zones (two thirds, Zechariah 13:8-9) did not turn out desirably, bearing no fruit. One has though, the seed which fell into good soil achieved its purpose; bore fruits for the glory of God. Believers are aiming for this soil, that they were sown there as well, but is that so? This has to be apparent in our lives, as Jesus said:
„As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”
The ones who fell into good soil will keep the Word in an honest and pure heart! If this quality does not define us, then we did not fall into good soil, as we may only bear good fruit through keeping God’s Word – as Jesus said it Himself:
John 15,1-4
„"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
What did we read, because of what are we clean already?
„Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.”
Through God’s Word we can become pure, and through staying within Him we can bear fruit. If we are good soil where the Word fell into, then the following prophecy will be fulfilled upon us:
Isaiah 55,10-11
„"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The seed which fell into good soil, as in the Word which entered into a good heart will not return to Him empty, because it will bear many good fruits! I’d like to remind you to our starting verse, the ones who shall see God are the pure in heart, which is why it’s necessary to purify ourselves from dead works (Hebrews 9,14), to become perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5,48).
1John 3,1-5
„See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ”
The biggest delusion of modern Christianity – people believe that Jesus purifies us through not counting our sins as sins anymore, while this verse is clearly tells us that we have to purify ourselves, as He is pure, and everyone who lives in lawlessness will have [their] lawlessness counted as sin (yes, John wrote this in New Testament times). Then in the last sentence of this passage, we read that Jesus appeared to take away our sins, but how so? If he really takes away our sins as most people think, then there would be no need for purity, to live by the Word, to bear fruits, for holiness, for love, since it would be enough “to accept” the grace of God, and Jesus wouldn’t count our sins as ours. Let’s carry on reading the rest of this passage from where we left off:
1John 3,6-10
„No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
Looks like the blasphemous theory has been proven wrong, where Jesus is taking away our sins which we commit, but Jesus won’t count them as ours. After all, what we read was:
„No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
Furthermore:
„No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”
On top of this, John clarified it even further:
„Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”
We are not to desecrate Jesus’ salvation by piling sins upon sins, but to step into our calling by valuing Jesus’ sacrifice, as He came to destroy the works of the devil, to break the devil’s power upon us, and on top of this He has sent us the Holy Spirit as well. Jesus has defeated all temptations, and He could lead us to triumph over them as well, if we live by our power received from Jesus, not to serve sin any longer but to serve God instead!
Romans 6,1-16
„What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
That reminds me, most believers are fond of quoting the following amongst Paul’s words:
„… you are not under law but under grace.”
Many take it out of context, and ignore what’s being said before and afterwards. In addition, they also interpret grace as some sort of a fairy dust; sprinkle it on their sins and they’ll disappear! Whereas grace is that God did not leave us under the devil’s power, but through defeating him He gave us power to triumph over his temptations. But this is not wanted by the believers of this era, it’s too tiring for them, hence why they create an idol which they name jesus. Modern day idolatry, just like the golden calf (Exodus 32,1-6), saying as they point towards them: „These brought us out”, then „these will take us in”, then their worship only goes as far as sitting down to eat and drink then rising up to play, and their fate will be just as similar.
James 1,27
„Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
Antal Farkas
(March 21, 2020)
