The apostle Paul instructed a young pastor named Timothy “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12 ESV
This is the same instruction the apostle Peter gave. Addressing pastors he wrote “As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.” 1 Peter 5:1-3 NLT
The word example here (τύπος) means “pattern,” or “model,” which is what a pastor ought to be to the flock. While none of us will be a perfect example, the people who attend our church (generally speaking) ought to be able to look at our lives and see what a godly life looks like. And according to Paul, we’re to set the example in at least five areas: speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. And in this post we’re focusing in on setting an example in purity (ἁγνεία).
Purity here is a synonym for holiness. Paul wants church leaders to live holy lives, marked by righteousness (which is right living as defined by God).
- In 1 Timothy 2:15 Paul speaks of faith, love, and holiness.
- In 1 Timothy 4:12 Paul speaks of faith, love, and purity.
- In 1 Timothy 6:11 Paul speaks of faith, love, and righteousness.
So in 1 Timothy, holiness, purity and righteousness are all used interchangeably. So when Paul talks about living in purity, he’s talking about living a holy life, a life marked by moral righteousness.
For vacations, my parents like to visit national parks. Just recently they went to Glacier National Park in Montana, a park filled with 700 miles of hiking trails. With all that hiking, you get thirsty. And you don’t want to be lugging around a gallon of water as you hike, so instead they bring a water filtration device. When they get thirsty they run water from a stream through their water filtration device and it removes all the impurities from the water, such as harmful bacteria, protozoa, cysts, sediment, and microplastics. What they’re left with is clean, unadulterated water. In other words, it’s pure.
And this is what God wants from church leaders, for anything sinful – for anything that would corrupt our purity – to be filtered out of our lives. Now we know from Romans 7 that on this side of eternity we’ll never be perfect, so this is about direction, not perfection, but we should strive to filter out all moral impurities.
1. We should filter out impure influences
We learn from James 1:27 that among other things, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Simply put, Satan is the god of this age, and shares his ungodly morals, values and worldviews through music, television and movies. At church you learn God’s morals, God’s values and God’s worldview. And through secular media you learn Satan’s. So we have to guard against becoming morally polluted by these worldly influences. This doesn’t necessarily mean you cut out all secular music, tv and movies, rather that we be selective in what we allow ourselves to be exposed to.
2. We should filter out impure motives
In Matthew 6:1 Jesus says “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” The religious leaders were doing the right actions. They were giving alms, praying and fasting. But they did these things with the wrong motives – to impress others, not to honor God. So the motives that drove the actions were impure. And this can easily happen to us as well. Like the religious leaders of Israel, we can put on a show of spirituality for those we serve (during worship, when we pray publicly, etc), aiming to come across more godly than we really are.
Another example comes from 1 Peter 5:2 where Peter says that church leaders should minister “eagerly” (meaning out of genuine love for and devotion to God) rather than “ministering for shameful gain.” As a large and continually growing church, we need to be especially careful with this one. As the church has grown, so have our salaries and benefits. This isn’t wrong in and of itself but it does have it’s dangers. When a connection is made between growing the church and growing personal riches, if we’re not careful, the drive to make more disciples can turn into a drive to make more money. So just as we have to guard against projecting a greater spirituality than we truly possess, we must also guard against being driven to succeed by the promise of financial reward. While it’s not wrong to want to increase our income, it just shouldn’t be the driving force in our lives. We must be driven by a deep desire within to live a life that’s pleasing to God (1 Thessalonians 4:1).
3. We should filter out impure thoughts
Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28 ESV, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 15:19 ESV, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Though sinful actions can only be given expression through our body, from these verses we learn that sin begins in the mind. In our last point we learned that God wants purity in our heart. Here we learn that God wants purity in our mind as well.
4. We should filter out impure actions
In the Pauline epistles impurity is always linked to specific sinful behavior. For example…
- 2 Corinthians 12:21 ESV, “…I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.
- Galatians 5:19-21 ESV, Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
- Ephesians 4:19 ESV, They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
- Ephesians 5:3 ESV, But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
- Ephesians 5:5 ESV, For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
- Colossians 3:5 ESV, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
So sexual immorality, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, greed, and covetousness are the specific sinful actions that make us impure and are therefore to be avoided.
Now the question begs: How specifically do we filter the above-mentioned impurities out of our lives? That’s what we’ll focus on next.
In the Old Testament, in Numbers 19, when an Israelite would become ceremonially unclean (by touching a dead body or what have you) the law of Moses required them to be washed with the water of purification (also called the water for impurity).
In the New Testament, Paul picks up on this concept of washing with water to cleanse from impurity, writing “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-28 ESV How, according to Paul, will the church one day be presented to Christ as a radiant bride, without spot, wrinkle or blemish? This will only be possible if she is washed with the water of God’s Word. Paul here is speaking about the cleansing effect the Word of God has on our lives. The more we study God’s Word, and align our lives with it, the more pure we become. It’s like this…
Each morning I make a smoothie for breakfast. It has kefir, flaxseed, chia seeds, MCT oil and blueberries in it, and with all those seeds getting stuck inside my blender I have to clean it really good when I’m done. I put dish soap inside the cup, add a little water, screw on the top and start shaking it vigorously. I then unscrew the lid so I can rinse everything off. I spray water inside the cup, then dump it out. The first time I do this there’s always soap suds all over the cup. So I do it a second time and even after a second rinse there’s still soap suds all over the cup. So I do it a third time and while it’s definitely starting to get clean, there’s still soap suds in the cup. But after a fourth or fifth rinsing, all the soap suds are finally gone.
In the same way, as we read and study and meditate on God’s Word, it has a cleansing affect on our lives, help us become morally pure.
Now just to be clear, every single disciple of Jesus on the planet is called to live with moral purity. Every believer is called to live a holy life, one marked by righteousness. But God calls church leaders to lead the way in this. God calls church leaders to set the example. Since church leaders, more than anyone, ought to be studying God’s Word, church leaders lives ought to be more thoroughly cleansed of impurity by the washing of the Word.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Of all we just covered, what stood out to you the most and why?