“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8
It can take a day in the fire at a temp of almost 2000 degrees Fahrenheit to purify gold to about 99.99% purity1. It can be a laborious process to take a rock filled with potential to be refined down to pure gold worth a high value. Yet despite this tedious process, the genuineness of our faith is considered greater than the worth of gold.
“…you may have had to suffer grief….These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 6-7
The idea of purity swirled in my mind this week. I’ve been thinking about what it is….what it meant back in the Old Testament and what it meant after Jesus came. What it means to people and what it means to God.
Back in Leviticus, chapter after chapter outlines laws of purity. Everything from pure food to purification after childbirth and many things in between. Very specific rules outlining how to purify things properly is outlined. These purification laws likely created a lot of angst for those following them. The intricacy of the purity law was spelled out down to the letter and people were actually categorized as clean and unclean or pure and impure. Fear around those that were not clean likely abounded.
Here on Earth, something pure usually relates to being free of “something,” whether it be an imperfection or ingredient2.
But God….
When He sent Jesus, the concept of purity began to reveal new things. Right down to Jesus’ entry into the world. God sent Jesus to a young, teenage mother not yet married, to be born in a barn. And while that was “dirty” in a worldly sense, to God it was pure, but why?
We learn more when we discover that Jesus touched a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4). When He healed a woman who had bled for 12 years (Matthew 9:20-22). What about when He chose 12 disciples who were sinners and lived with them. Camped out on overnights with them. Dined with them and did life with them. Not only did Jesus show us new things that had not been done before, He was harshly criticized for it:
“But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law….complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’” Luke 5:30
What Jesus began to teach and practice was a completely new view of purity. Purity that involved something that couldn’t be seen with the eyes. And God was already talking to us about this before Jesus came…
“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
He even displayed it in the story of Hosea whom he asked to marry Gomer, an adulteress, a marriage that mirrored what was happening in the nation of Israel (Hosea 1).
This concept of purity was challenged even further when Jesus, the King of all Kings was beaten and crucified, a prisoner’s death, left hanging on a cross between two criminals. Despite the mocking and persecution He received in allowing that to happen if “he was who he said he was” didn’t stop him from allowing it to teach people something new.
As I read all of these accounts and experienced many of these types of situations in my own life, I am left to believe that God makes holy out of unholy things. That the trials, struggles, and impurities in our life are refining us like the fire refines gold. But the true refining happening is within us. A love and light transforming us in a way that allows us to bring God into the vilest of situations. As He purifies us He can send us into prisons or war yet we remain pure. He can send us into homes where abuse takes place yet maintains our purity. We can come under attack of another or walk into the darkest of the dark places and if we allow His light to shine through us there we can help Him by making it new.
I don’t know if you have ever had your “purity” challenged or if you think you have any left after all the things you have done or tried in your life. Honestly I’m not sure who can say they are “pure” any more. I’ve been in a lot of situations that one could call “dirty and impure,” yet somehow the power of God is in the ability to become and remain pure in that fire just like gold. The kind of purity that requires hours of burning in the fire to yield a beautiful, pure creation with a heart that can go anywhere the Lord calls and remain in Him.
As we face the week ahead, let our eyes be opened to seeing new things as we allow God to purify us amidst our messes.
Father, purify us. As we sit in the fires of this world, give us the strength and endurance to face the heat of that fire so that we may be purified into one of your most beautiful works. Thank you for sending Jesus to teach us new things so that we can be free of the old, stepping into the new, and making things new each day to glorify you and usher in your Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
In the fire with you, Julie
P.S. Today’s image is of my boys and I with the largest diamond ever mined in the U.S. at the time we visited. Although we didn’t find any gold that day nor diamonds, it is a reminder to keep digging, keep refining, and before you know it we can all become an amazing harvest for the Lord with pure heart.
Father, Today I Surrender:
My Purity
Show me the next step I should take.