After the apostle Paul gave the Corinthians a list of external experiences that I could easily attach to because they are things I have gone through in much smaller ways with my ministry,[1] he now presents a list of personal qualities that are not so easy to relate to.
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;[2]
I am letting myself begin with the focus Paul is making, to see that these qualities in Paul were evidence of the genuineness of his calling as an apostle, and of the gospel he preached everywhere he went. These personal qualities were to call the Corinthians back to their first love, renouncing the false gospel of the false teachers, and once again fully opening their hearts to Paul and his good news. It is obvious that we should do the same in any ways that we have drifted into listening to the wrong men and their wrong messages.
At the same time, while Paul has jumped from grade 1 to grade 10, so to speak (without even a period, I should say!), this is as much a list of qualities to strive for as the externals he just presented. Paul was setting an example for the Corinthians, and his example still stands for us today.
I only got so far as the hopelessly-impossible-in-myself quality of “purity”. It means, “moral purity n. — the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong; especially lacking a firsthand knowledge of evil.”[3] I know Paul wasn’t claiming perfection, but he could honestly say that he had not tainted his ministry with impure living of any kind. Instead, he had exemplified purity everywhere he went and in everything he taught.
What helped me this morning was reminding myself of two central issues of our salvation. First is that our salvation is three-dimensional in the sense of justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification imputes the righteous purity of Christ to our account by grace through faith. Sanctification works genuine purity of heart into our lives as we are transformed into the same image as Jesus Christ “from one degree of glory to another”.[4] And glorification promises that we will one day be as pure as Jesus because “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”[5] This means that every born-again Christian is a work in progress. We can praise God for the purity imputed to us, the purity growing in us, knowing that this purity will be perfected in us. This is why our salvation is “good news of great joy”!
The other part of our salvation that really blessed me this morning is what I call the “Beatitudinal Journey”. When Jesus introduced his Sermon on the Mount with eight Beatitudes, “blessed are the pure in heart” came sixth in his list.[6] If we follow how he gets there, it is a very encouraging and hope-filled process of transformation that all God’s children can experience no matter when we begin or how we describe our starting place.
Here is an illustration of how I see the Beatitudes as a
journey of transformation.
When I hear Paul speak of “purity”, I feel “poor in spirit” about how often this quality eludes me. It makes me “mourn” all the guilt, shame and fear that follows impurity wherever it leaves its unrighteous mark. It brings me to the “meekness” that knows I cannot fix impurity by my own strength, and so I surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ to transform me through the good news of salvation. And, with this certainty that Jesus alone can make a man’s heart pure, I allow myself to “hunger and thirst” for the “righteousness” of “purity” no matter how much or little I believe it is in me.
It is at this point that Jesus promised that God would bless us with the satisfaction of righteousness we long for in our justification by grace through faith, along with our continuing sanctification by grace through faith, and motivated by the future hope of our glorification by grace through faith.
And, knowing how we are a work in progress, we praise God that by the time we see how much mercy he has shown us to bring us into the righteousness of his Son, we ourselves feel a genuine desire to be merciful to everyone we meet, and it is in this mercifulness that we find our hearts becoming pure because we now want only the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven and nothing of the horrible life of sin we have left behind.
I know that “pure in heart” is the primary focus today, but I do also need the reminder that it is this work of God in us that makes us “peacemakers” who are unstoppable because we want nothing more than to see other people come to have peace with God just as we do. And this purity of heart also rejoices in our persecutions because we know that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”.[7] But once we have become the blessed peacemakers of God, although the pain of persecution may cause us to recoil (like getting ready to go to the dentist), our hearts have become pure in the righteousness of Christ so we will endure all things for the sake of finding lost sheep just like our Savior did for us.
Anyway, what started out as my morning sharing turned into too much to say, and so I leave this “Pastoral Pondering” with you in the hope that you will let the good news of great joy that we have a Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, bring you to rest in the grace of God that purifies all who come to him through faith in his Son, and to rejoice that God is working all things in your life together for this good, of making you more like Jesus, and that includes a heart that becomes more pure by the day.
The apostle John testified, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[8] It is that cleansing from unrighteousness that purifies our hearts, and it comes by confession of sin, not trying to do better.
The apostle Paul’s testimony gives us one more “witness” of
faith[9]
that we can “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love,
and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”[10] All
who believe in Jesus Christ can keep growing up in this, and, if you need help,
please ask!
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1]
“by great endurance,
in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings,
imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger” (II Corinthians 6:4-5).
[2]
II Corinthians 6:6
[3]
From Bible Sense Lexicon in
Logos Research Systems Inc.
[4]
II Corinthians 3:18
[5]
I John 3:2
[6]
The Sermon on the Mount is in
Matthew 5-7, and Matthew 5:1-12 lists the eight Beatitudes.
[7]
II Timothy 3:12
[8]
I John 1:9
[9]
Paul is included as part of
that “great cloud of witnesses” described in Hebrews 11 and referred to in
Hebrews 12:1ff as encouragement to run the race in pure-hearted devotion to Christ.
[10]
II Timothy 2:22
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