![]() ![]() Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts” (2 Timothy 2:21–22, NLT).Īnything that distracts us or has a contaminating influence on our lives will divide our loyalties and soil our hearts, rendering us ineffective kingdom servants. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. The apostle Paul explained that God looks for servants who commit their entire being to Him: “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. The greatest commandment, Jesus said, is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). The Lord desires His followers to be laser-focused in heart, mind, and purpose (Matthew 6:33). It suggests a single-mindedness of purpose that is free of distractions.ĭouble-minded people lack purity of heart. The term pure here indicates the absence of impurity, contamination, or filth. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The apostle John acknowledged that the true children of God who look forward to Christ’s return “purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). Earlier, James noted that double-minded people are “unstable in all they do” (James 1:8). A similar charge was issued against the people of Isaiah’s time: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13). Their vacillating was dividing their loyalties. James branded the believers “double-minded” because they continued to live with one foot in the world while claiming to love and worship God. His language closely resembles that of the psalmist: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god” (Psalm 24:3–4). “Purify your hearts, you double-minded” was James’ clear and distinct call to inner purification-to recognize and confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. Believers who stray from the Lord must submit themselves to God and draw near to Him again through repentance. God desires His followers’ wholehearted loyalty and devotion (Exodus 34:14 Mark 12:29–31). Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8, ESV). ![]() James passionately told his readers to repent from their wicked ways and return to the Lord: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. The one who harbors these things in their heart cannot enter into God's presence, and so they are the opposite of the one with clean hands.An alarming epidemic of spiritual adultery and “friendship with the world” ran rampant in the early church (James 4:4). Verse 19 says, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." These are what defiles a person, and gives them dirty or unclean hands. Rather, it was what came out of their mouths, from their hearts, that made them unclean. Jesus took this occasion to explain to the Pharisees that it wasn't what people took into their mouth, assuming with dirty hands, that made a person unclean. Jesus spoke about "unclean hands" in Matt 15:1-20 where he addressed the accusations made against his disciples that they didn't wash their hands before they ate. This is someone who is in a right relationship with God and can fellowship with him, and this means one whose sins are not counted against them a forgiven Christian. ![]() Al Mark The one who has "clean hands and a pure heart" is spoken of in Psalm 24 as one who is able to ascend the mountain of the Lord and enter into his holy place.
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