Love Motivated Purification

I’ve been meaning to blog for some time but I had no idea how to contextualize or articulate all that I have needed to and wanted to share. 

Here’s a verse I ran across that I really like. 
“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”- 2 Corinthians 7:1 (NIV84)

The war between flesh and spirit is one that is in constant need of prayer and life in pursuit of being fully consumed by the Holy Spirit. I have seen my flesh get way ahead of me. I have seen myself hurt people, say things, and feel things that bring me down and make me feel that the Spirit had even left me at points, or was not working in me.  I think we’ve all felt that way, but I know better.  I am a temple, and inside of me, is where Jesus has made His home in my heart. Remembering that is absolutely the beginning and the end of where we gain our life as people who hold faith in Jesus.  When Jesus is on the throne of our hearts, the center of our worship, we bring the Kingdom of God with us into everything we do.  When our selfishness, greed, pride, lust, anger is on the throne of our hearts, we bring that into everything we do, too.  

I believe that we can be accustomed to loving and even doing things out of fear, guilt, insecurity, anxiety, etc. and we accept it as the way of life.  But, when I see Jesus for who He is, that is far from true.  We have the choice to love in those things, or love in the Spirit.  The act of purifying ourselves, or as defined, “Extract something from, remove contaminants from, make ceremonially clean, and rid of an unwanted element”.  I think this is great. We cannot simply do less or be less in our flesh.  We have to be made clean, be healed, be filled, be altered, and be changed.  I think of this verse,

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

“All I can do is be me, whoever that is.”- Bob Dylan

The only good in me is Jesus, but the only me I ought to be is my identity in Him.  It is when we see Jesus as the one who brings change every time He shows up that we are changed.  We are always hungry for an experience, but we’re never ready for the outcome, or even opening up the doors and gates of our hearts to receive what He has to offer.  

You know, I really loathe “theology” sometimes.  I think it’s the worn, conditioned view I have of theology.  I think often of the people I really admire, and how authentic and supernatural their theology was; that is what I desire for my own life.  Not saying seminary, theology are all bad things.  Not at all. I just feel that Jesus is seeking worshippers, not people who are simply knowledgeable about the academia of God. When I look at David, his theology was developed through an intrinsic relationship with the Lord.  He didn’t have the opportunity to be Calvinist, Arminian, or whatever pleases the modern ear and brain.  No, David contemplated the goodness of God in his own life, and saw God’s calling on his, and put his entire hope and security in that intimacy that was his inheritance.  

“You have made known to me the path of life;

    you will fill me with joy in your presence,

    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

-Psalm 16:11

“My soul finds rest in God alone;

    my salvation comes from him.

 He alone is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

-Psalm 62:1-2

It’s time we be a people that is led by Him into whatever our callings are based upon. Led by His love solely, and never through the means and lens of human understanding.  Our victory was won on the Cross, and we need to be refilled, refreshed, and loved every day in response to that.  We must live in the victory that Jesus has already won for us, and live in adoration of Him.  Not so that we can simply stop doing the things that are bad, but so that we can be like Him. After all, isn’t that what we are called to? Denying ourselves, repenting and following Jesus to become like Him and become one with Him more and more?  I feel my lack of love for Jesus.  He is so worthy to love.  He has never let me down, He has always been there, and He has a hope and future for me.  He loves me so much that He was murdered just for me. Every day, I want to fall in love with Jesus.  His love isn’t like ours. If you’re anything like me, you forget all that He has done and does for you.  The crucifixion, and resurrection are not simply things that we just admire, or fancy; they are our life.  

So, let us purify ourselves through the Spirit, so that we can become one with Jesus. So that we can be clean from ourselves. So that we can live for Him. So that we can grasp and take hold of the intimacy that He died to give us.