Pure Motives

 

(Read James 1:2-4) When we can consider it all joy, exulting in our tribulations,  when we are encountering various trials, because we know that this testing of our faith will produce endurance which will have a perfect result, making us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, then we have the right motives to be a Christian.  This is due to our faith that allows us to stand in grace and gives us hope that'll never disappoint us, because of the love of God which is poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Rom.5:2-5)

 

If Christianity cannot change our desires, which equal our inner motives, then it's not different from any other world religion, and should not be called a New Covenant.  The Law must be written on our hearts. (Jer.31:31-33)  Something fundamentally different must take place concerning what we desire, in order for the Spirit to lead us in His truth.

 

(James 4:1-6) What is the source of all sin?  Is it not the pleasures that wage war in our members.   "Wrong motives", says James, the "desire to please themselves, friendship with the world".  Look at verse 5: "Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose:  "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?"  This shows that the Lord has a desire for us that is fundamentally different from the normal human desire for pleasure and self-gratification.  The two are at WAR!

 

"For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing." (James 3:16)  This is similar to:  "The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil." (I Tim.6:10b) 

 

God then must really work in us to change what we really want.  Yet it has to be what we really want, not just God programming into us what He wants by uploading some "New Heavenly Desire" program into us.  Our desires have to be changed - but not our free will.  Thus the choice is always up to us.  The Lord just provides the necessary information, incentives and actual help for us to make the changes that we need to make, if we want.  

 

It is like coaching, where the coach enables the player to reach their full potential.  The coach does not play the game or win the victory for him, but shows him how.  In the same way, the Lord wants us to personally actually win battles with temptations and trials, and rejoice with us in our victories. 

 

Now consider, is it reasonable to expect people, still in their flesh, to happily accept suffering?  Not unless you can convince them that suffering is the means to ceasing from sin. (I Peter 4:1-2)  Even then, how do you motivate someone to really want to cease from 100% of all his sin, when there is so much grace available?  Tricky!  It seems, from a quick look at Romans 5, that we are saved by so much grace -  "an abundance of grace" - and as such a "free gift", after we've already sinned and become enemies of God, that sin isn't such a big deal anymore.  Grace will fix it:  "And the law came in that the transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." (Rom. 5:20)  No wonder Paul poses the hypothetical question:

"Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?"  (Rom.6:1) 

 

You see, in some ways, due to God's wonderful grace, there is a strong temptation to see sin as no big deal.  One can mistakenly fall into a sort of truce with sin and content oneself with sin management instead of sin elimination.  Maintaining an artificial armistice... just keeping from sinning so badly that we don't really mess up our present life... can replace total consecration to Christ.  After all, isn't that, in a sense, what we say if we start talking about our inability to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect while still in the flesh?  When your back is to the wall on some issue, have you ever thought or said, "But I'm only human!"  and, "Nobody's perfect"?  In other words, we might be saying that it is unreasonable to expect total victory, at least all the time.

 

What does the Scripture say?  "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh". (Gal.5:160 

    "...then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation..." (I Pe.2:9)

     "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY."

(I Pet.1:14-16)

 

Hmm, it seems that God does expect more than an uneasy truce with sin, or sin management.  It looks to me like He expects total victory in His children of the New Covenant.  Or am I missing something?

 

Pure.  A beautiful adjective.  It has an incredibly long list of definitions in the dictionary.

- Not mixed with anything else; unadulterated; genuine: pure gold.  If a material contains only one element or only one compound, the chemist calls the material pure.

- perfectly clean; spotless: pure hands

- without defects; perfect; correct: to speak pure French. 

- with no evil; without sin; chase: a pure mind.

(The World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary)

 

Who in their right mind would not want pure gold rather than gold mixed with impurities?

 

What does God want ... impure Christians?  When will our desire for purity match that of our Father?  Father does know best! 

     "I will turn my Hand against you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and take away your alloy." (Isa.1:25 NKJV) 

 

Here is how one author, Jim Cymbala wrote about the smelting process:

    "When ore is brought to the surface, the work is far from over.  The crushing, amalgamating (combine mercury with another metal), and smelting is still yet to be done.  Silver does not melt until it reaches 960.5 degrees Celsius; only then does it start to yield up its impurities...[God] knows the absolute necessity of removing the dross from our silver, of heating us up to an uncomfortable point where He can, as the New Living Translation puts it, 'skim off your slag" (Is.1:25).

     "In is the great heat of the fire, the slag rises to the top.  The slag is accumulation of the impurities.  And the refiner skims off the silver as the farmer's wife skims cream off the top of the milk...[God] is absolutely ruthless in going after the things the spoil the flow of his grace and blessing into our lives.  His process is to subtract in order to add. He will never make a treaty with our secret pockets of sin."  (Get in The Ark, Steve Farrar, pg.222-3) 

    Jim Cymbala goes on:

    "Does your theology include Jesus sitting on a refiner's stool, watching over a cauldron of liquid metal under which the fire is getting hotter and hotter?  Can you see him reaching down with a flat ladle from time to time to skim off the impurities that have bubbled to the surface?  Is our faith deep enough to yield to the refiner's fire?

    Will we always be comfortable in this process?  Of course not!  Is it pleasant?  Not at all.  But it is our Savior's method of getting rid of the junk in our lives.

  Doe you know how the ancient refiner knew when he was finished, and the heat could finally be turned down?  It was when he looked into the cauldron and saw his own reflection in the shining silver.  As long as the image was muddy and rippled with flecks of slag, he knew he had to keep working.  When his face finally showed clearly, the silver had been purified."

(Get In the Ark, pg.225)

 

Here we can see that God will use trials and tribulations to test our faith and improve our character until it is perfect.  But this will not work without whole submission.  We must humble ourselves before the Lord, so that His work may work:

      "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He care for you." (I Pet.5:6-7)

     "Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right." (I Pet.4:19)

 

We must long for the purity of God in order for our basic desires to be changed. Only this longing - hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Mat.5:6) -  can end up satisfying the soul.  Only by understanding the immense attractiveness and value of total purity in Christ can we be inwardly motivated to pursue it with all of our strength. 

 

Why settle for any impurity?  Why settle for any sin to remain in your life?  Why not want to be just like Jesus?  Why be half-hearted about being the best?  What could be better than being 100% sin-free today?  That is what God wants and even went ahead and did for you by imputation through propitiation by the blood of Jesus, through His death on the cross and raising Him up for our justification.  (Just-as-if-you never sinned.)

 

Once you set your mind to be a 100% disciple of Jesus, then you will value those things and people that help you towards that goal.  You become a real "connoisseur of purity".

 

Pure, pure, pure, everything must be pure!  "And everyone who this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (I Jn.3:3)

- Pure thoughts. (II Pet.3:1)

- Pure things.  (Phil.4:8)

- Pure wisdom. (Jam.3:17)

- Pure heart. (Mat.5:8; I Tim.1:5)

- Pure religion. (James 1:27)

- Pure clothing. (Rev.15:6)

- Pure doctrine. (I Tim.4:6)

 

We should long to be "in all of our glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless" as Christ's pure bride.

 

You are already pure  - in Christ, by imputation, so now you must become pure in "all of your behavior."  This adorns our gospel and makes it very attractive to outsiders, to those still living ordinary, everyday lives of sin. 

 

It is your destiny to live in a perfectly pure place (heaven) with a perfectly pure and holy God forever!  There we will have perfect bodies and pure bliss forever.  To be 100% pure is to be 100% blessed - which is the perfect state that God is restoring to man through Jesus Christ.  Be not content with any impurity in your life, so that the refiner can see His own image in the silver.  Be only content with those things that have God's complete approval.  Never compromise.  Don't give the enemy an inch!!!  Don't tolerate any sin.  One bad apple spoils the batch. 

 

Embrace the Light!  Embrace Christ Jesus!  No reservations! Trust God and get rid of the junk.

 

At the end of Jesus' earthly life, in the upper room where He ate the Last Supper with his apostles, He surprised them by taking a servant's towel and washing their feet.  At first, Peter refused such a menial slave's role from Christ.  But when Jesus said:  "If I do not wash you, you have no part of Me." Quickly then, Peter changed tune:  "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head."  Jesus said to him,  "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean but not all of you." ( Jn.13:4-11)

 

Christ is our Servant!  He cleans us up when we sin.  If we have spiritually bathed - by having been immersed into His grace in the the laver of regeneration - then subsequently we just need the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)  If He could totally clean you up when you were totally filthy, steeped in sin and lost in the kingdom of darkness, a puppet of Satan, then how about now that you have had your bath?  (Rom.5:6-9) Do you know need only your feet cleaned, or do you need the whole bath? (Jn.3:5) Have you truly come to the blood at the water? "These three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." (I Jn.5:8)

 

At Jesus' immersion in the Jordan by John the Immerser, the Spirit descended like a dove, a voice came out of heaven, bearing witness at the water.  Jesus' blood now speaks better than the blood of Abel. (Hb.12:24)

Will you come and be born again of the water and the blood?  At the water, God will apply the blood and send the Spirit to bear witness that you are 100% totally sin-free, declared innocent of all wrongdoing and free from sin, having died to sin and raised up to walk in newness of life.

 

Let Jesus clean you.  If you are bathed, if you are already a Christian, then let Him clean you feet, or you will having nothing to do with Him!  In walking through this sinful, rebellious world, we might have picked up some difilements, some yucky stuff in attititude or worldy behavior.  So now come to the Upper Room with Him.  Come and confess any shortcomings, with faith in His willingness and ability to clean you up and present your as pure and innocent in God's presence as a newborn baby. (Which is born through water and blood, incidentally)

 

He can make you pure.  He has made every sincere Christian pure.  Let us then purify our motives, and conform them to His will and agenda for absolute purity in our lives.  Then we will welcome what most people shun and hate -tough times of testing and trial - because we love the results - purity.