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Today's Quote
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Today's Verse
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Daily Wisdom
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Purity is something we Americans can appreciate. We like pure water and food, and are uncomfortable if the dishes we are served in restaurants have food particles left by past customers. We associate purity with health and the absence of disease. To the Jew of Jesus' time purity meant something quite different. Purity had to do with moral and religious things.
In Genesis 35:2, Moses wrote that those who had been worshipping foreign gods needed to purify themselves. In Exodus 29:36 we can read where blood was used to purify. Obviously, blood is one of those things we generally consider dirty or unsanitary. If we were served a dish, even from our own kitchen, with blood on it we would be appalled.
God, however, is concerned with purity of the heart. He watches our behavior. If we turn to other gods he will see us as defiled, dirty, or impure. His holiness cannot be contained in such a vessel. In 2 Corinthians 4, we are compared to pottery out of which the life of Jesus radiates. If we are impure, how can the most holy God or the most holy Jesus dwell in us?
We need washing and purifying. As in the Old Testament this comes about through blood -- not actually the blood itself, but the sacrifice it represents. Purification is something we could never receive through our own efforts, it is the gift of God.
I cannot make my heart pure but I can open it to my God and allow him to purify it. The pure in heart are the ones who turn themselves over to God and allow him to rule in their lives. The result is that the blood of the lamb can cleanse those who admit their own inability to live spotless lives. Cleansed by God they are clean indeed. Such pure hearts, Jesus tells us, will see God. He will not send us back to the kitchen or turn up his nose at the sight of us, but will actually dwell in us and we will see him.
