"Keep Thyself Pure"
Paul wrote the words to the younger man, Timothy (I Tim. 5:22). Consideration of these words naturally divides itself into the four following parts:
1. No man is absolutely pure, for "All have sinned" (Rom. 3:23) and "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves" (I Jno. 1:8). So, before we can keep ourselves pure, we must be purified. This is accomplished by the grace of God and through the blood of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8; Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5). Indeed we are purified when we obey the doctrine of Christ (Rom. 6:7,18; I Peter 1:22). By our obedience in faith, God pardons our past sins because of the mediation of Christ (Heb. 9:15).
If I give my shirt to someone and tell him to keep it clean, he may reply that "First it must be washed." One cannot keep something clean or pure until it is first cleansed or purified. So we cannot keep ourselves pure until we have first obeyed Christ for the purifying of our souls.
2. To be continually pure before God's throne requires two very significant things: (A) We must avoid sin. This means we must learn more truth so we will not be overtaken in ignorant sin (Acts 3:17). We must train ourselves in carefulness so that we are not overtaken in sins of carelessness and weakness (Mt. 26:41). We must certainly keep ourselves from willful sin (Heb. 10:26). (B) We must repent and pray. Since none are perfect, all must acknowledge guilt and plead for the mercy of God (Acts 8:22; I Jno. 1:9). Thus, by the same blood that purifies us when we are born again, we are purified again and again.
3. If we are to apply Paul's words to Timothy to our own case, we must remember that he said, "Thyself" — he did not make Timothy steward of another man's purity. We can surely be grateful, too. It is a full-time job for each of us to keep himself pure without being burdened with the guilt of another. But it is also challenging, for no other person is responsible for our own purity. Timothy was to be an example to others (I Tim. 4:12,16). By personal purity he was to lead others instead of becoming a watchman over them.
4. The demands of Paul's words are great. Paul didn't say, "Keep busy," or "keep awake." He didn't say, "Keep thyself happy" or "keep thyself strong." He commanded the highest ideal, purity. And purity on our part demands at least the following:
(A) We must be pure in heart (Mt. 5:8). That is, we must have pure motives (intents)(Heb. 4:12). This eliminates hypocrisy.
(B) We must have pure thoughts (Phil. 4:8). Solomon said, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7).
(C) We must have pure words (Titus 2:8). David said, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength and my redeemer" (Ps. 19:14). Words that are cheap, profane, vulgar have no place upon the lips of God's children. Unclean words, deceptive words and all other forms of impurity should be kept from our lips.
(D) We must have pure deeds. That is, we must avoid doing evil and at the same time we must do good. (I Pet. 3:10-12). We cannot possibly please God if our deeds are evil. But an empty life is also quite useless, so we must not only empty out the bad, but we must fill up our lives with good.
Paul's admonition to Timothy can be summed up quite well with the words of John, "If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin" (I Jno. 1:6,7). Indeed, to keep ourselves pure we must walk in the light, which will certainly help us avoid sin and will assure us of forgiveness when we are overtaken in fault.
For God's glory today, and our own eternal salvation, let us all determine to keep ourselves pure.
— P.O. Box 498, Yaba, Nigeria