Purity of Heart: a Letter to Men
Dear Friend,
I’m not certain of the best way to formulate this letter since I don’t wish to “preach” per se. I don’t wish to explore a particular topic in an essay format; and I don’t desire to compose a cheap “7-step solution” to the troubles and temptations that men have contended with for millennia. If simply bringing to your remembrance some helpful scriptures that are “life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh,” “comfort in affliction,” and “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” is a possibility, I wish to endeavor to do so with the help of God, trusting that His sanctifying Word will not return void, and praying that we may somehow be encouraged and strengthened by the grace of God together.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
- John 17:7Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
It’s easy to think of the will of God for our lives as an occupation of sorts, instead of primarily as sanctification. If God has an occupation in mind for us individually, we will not perform it correctly or represent Him accurately through it without sanctification. To be conformed into the image of Christ, to live and walk and act in His name as a representative of Him - to abide in Christ, thus bearing the fruits of obedience is our “high call in Christ Jesus.” Our “high call” is Christlikeness; and we are able to respond to and continually move towards our calling through a continual trust in and reliance upon the Holy Spirit. His Word and grace will work mightily in us - not by our own power or might - but by the Spirit of God; and at the coming of Christ, “our blessed hope,” we will be changed in a moment, the twinkling of an eye - and then we shall see Him and truly be made like Him.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:8-14
We live in a strange age
We live in a strange age of temptation wherein the ancient serpent is employing new weapons to steal, kill, and destroy the souls of men. Possibly the most lethal and most common of these is internet pornography. There are hundreds of books that claim to help men overcome an addiction to pornography. There are dozens of organizations dedicated to dispersing truth about the harmful effects of pornography. There are “accountability groups” all over the internet that claim to provide a path to freedom. A man can learn every statistic about the harmful effects of pornography; he can see the damage that he is doing to himself and his family; he can memorize every scripture that relates to sexual immorality and the importance of purity and holiness; he can confess his every shortcoming to an “accountability partner” and implement software that blocks pornographic websites; he can understand the causes of addiction and why it is that he is bound by a sin of lust - a man can do all of these things and more and still not be free from this sin’s power.
In the right context, some of the things above may help a man who truly wants help. Unfortunately, some men simply want the shame of sin to be alleviated and they want people to not be upset with them (which is why most keep their sins a secret), but they do not want Jesus and His righteousness; and they do not want freedom. Some men find relief in confessing their sins to each other as though “confess your sins one to another that you may be healed” is a guilt-relieving game to be played weekly with their “accountability partners” instead of a healthy potential manifestation of genuine repentance. Is genuine repentance synonymous with a dog returning to his vomit? Certainly not. Many other strange practices and teachings have grown up in church cultures over the last 20 years in response to “the devil’s superglue” (pornography), but there’s no need to make fun of them or dissect them here. One thing matters: your heart.
To what or whom are you submitting your will? To what or whom are you giving your heart? What is it that your deepest heart wants? Jesus bore all of your sin on the cross. Do you want the cleansing that He freely provides? Do you want the eternal life that He freely gives? Do you want the pardon that he freely offers? Do you want the empowerment of His Spirit that He will freely give you without measure if you ask? Do you want the strength, life, joy, and satisfaction that only His Word can provide? Do you want victory over lust badly enough to make a covenant before God like Job, a covenant with your eyes that you will not lust after a young woman? Do you want it badly enough that you are willing to get rid of anything in your life that is causing you to sin against God, in light of Jesus’ hyperbolic command in Matthew Chapter 5: “if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for. you that one of your members should perish, and. not that your whole body should be cast into hell”? Do we remember that according to Paul, the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God? Does a reader comfort himself with the fact that he calls himself a Christian, or has said the “sinner’s prayer”? Does a reader comfort himself with the fact that he “has been a minister for a long time” and “knows the Word better than anyone” he’s ever met? Is his heart’s faith and loyal trust truly placed in the living Person of Jesus Christ?
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Jesus has all that we need to walk in freedom, and He offers it to us for free! We must only come to Him in genuine repentance and faith. There is no cure for sin’s disease except the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Dear friend, lift your eyes and see Jesus on the cross, His love for you is immeasurable. Greater is He in you than He that is in the world! The Lord wants nothing to separate us from fellowship with Him, and the pure in heart desire the same.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean;
His blood availed for me!