Day 3 – Pure Minds
It is helpful that Scripture
addresses purity from many facets. It brings to mind the verse tucked in Luke
10 -
And he answered, “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus himself recognizes here that we are
multi-faceted people and each of these areas need to be addressed. We can see
His law, certainly in where we fail in each of these areas of our life – when
our hearts are hard, or our strength fails, or our minds are filled with doubt
and words of hurtfulness – but we can also see His Grace so clearly,
He restores our souls (Psalm 23:3)
He
heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3)
He is
strong when we are weak (2 Corinthians 12:10)
He
gives us a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7)
So with that firmly
established, let’s delve in to a couple of great verses that establish what
pure minds look like.
First, James 3:17…
But the wisdom from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good
fruits, impartial and sincere.
Wisdom in this verse is our intelligence, our skills,
certainly things that are seated in what we think of as our mind. So what
things can you pick out of this verse that teaches us what those things look
like –
Pure… well, there’s our word! Holy, of God, especially in
worship, according to the Greek. God’s Word, always guaranteed pure and holy.
Peaceable, peace loving, peace seeking…how can we be peace
seeking with what we learn, and discuss, and post?
Gentle…how can we be gentle with our minds? How is wisdom
gentle? When is it not gentle and how is that problematic?
Open to reason….does that sound like our lives on Facebook?
In our sharing of wisdom and discussion? Are we open to wisdom? How do we help
those around us to be open to the wisdom we are trying to share from the Word?
Full of mercy and good fruits…does our wisdom we think,
speak, or receive, does it contain mercy? God’s wisdom, through His Word and
others, always contains mercy.
Impartial… How can we keep our wisdom impartial? Impartiality
and avoiding favoritism in our families, at work, and in our lives is His
Spirit in us.
Sincere…this has to do with
authenticity, does our walk match our talk? Do we let God’s light flow or
squelch it to blend in with the culture? Are we sincere with those around us,
avoiding gossip and double talk?
Yikes! That’s a lot to take
in, and a lot to watch out for in our lives. Sisters, do not feel the weight of
being “not enough.” Not good enough, not smart enough, not authentic enough.
That is not the message of this text. Nor is it ever the message of Scripture.
This passage simply tells us what God’s wisdom looks like. He is perfectly
perfect and that is what works in us. The sanctified life is a challenge for
sure, a journey of imperfection, but it is also the experience of grace and
mercy.
The purified life is
purified once and for all by Jesus Christ, and then daily by His Spirit working
in us and through His people. We have the gift of His Word. When in doubt, He
does not keep His wisdom from us, but reveals it plainly. He is our wisdom. He
is our purity.
Dear Lord, we pray that you
would keep our hearts, souls, minds, and strength firmly fixed on You. Give us
pure minds, give us pure hearts through Your good and gracious gifts. In Jesus
name, Amen.
Bonus work: Look up 2 Corinthians
11:1-15, especially verses 2-4. How do pure doctrine and pure minds intersect?
