Discipline of Purity (There has to be some Holy heat, some holy sweat!) What do you think of when you hear the word “pure”? | immediately think about sexual purity. No doubt, it is vital that we talk about and practice sexual purity in our current cultural climate. Or perhaps, instead of thinking about sexual purity, you think about moral purity: that when the Bible speaks about purity, what it is really speaking about is keeping ourselves from sin—so being pure means being without sin. This is often the case in the Bible. In fact, there are many instances in which the New Testament points to purity as an issue of being free from the sin (Philippians 1:10, 4:8; 1 Peter 3:2). However, thinking of purity solely in these ways misses the Bible's underlying teaching about what purity is. As we look at how purity is described in the Bible, we see that it is speaking of something that is far deeper and more universal Purity is not merely an issue of lust that struggling men and women need to be concerned about, It is an issue that it is at the very heart of the Christian life. Definitions of Discipline Spiritual disciplines are practices that by design can lead to life transformation. Their purpose is to aid our spiritual growth as disciples of Christ and deepen our relationship with God. They are like training exercises for the spiritual life. to punish or penalize for the sake of enforcing obedience and perfecting moral character. 2 : to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self- control. 3a : to bring (a group) under control discipline troops. b : to impose order upon serious writers discipline and refine their writing styles (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2018). Read Hebrews 12 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ® because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son." (™) Discipline is an act of love. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves. — He is love and yet he disciplines usbecause he loves. Proverbs tells us that to not discipline is to hate. The motive is love. Definitions of Purity Real purity comes as a result of believing that the Lord Jesus died in your place to ransom you from impurity. Pure living increases as you work together with the Holy Spirit to live as a redeemed child of God. Purity describes who you are and what you do: noun. the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc.: the purity of drinking water. freedom from any admixture or modifying addition. ceremonial or ritual cleanness. freedom from guilt or evil; innocence. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2018). Was Corinth a den of iniquity and idolatry? The ancient Greek city of Corinth acquired something of a proverbial reputation for ‘sexual promiscuity, and modem biblical scholarship has frequently reiterated a view of the city as a particular hotbed of immorality and vice. Yet even if the proverbial ancient remarks are accurate, they refer to the period before 146 B.C.E., and there is little to suggest that first-century Roman Corinth was significantly different in this regard from any other city in the empire at the time. Like other such cities, Corinth was a place of religious variety, with the worship of traditional gods and goddesses from Greek and Roman religions, local deities and heroes, and divinities from further east, such as the Egyptian deities Isis and Serapis. Roman cults were especially important to the city's elite, and the imperial cult—in which the Emperor, his ancestors, and his family were venerated—formed an important part of religious and political life. From Jewish and Christian perspectives this was all idol worship (1Cor 12:2). Ancient literary evidence, including Acts and Paul's letters, suggests that there were also Jews in Corinth, though archaeological evidence for this dates from several centuries later. Indeed, direct archaeological evidence confirming the presence of Christians in the city only emerges from around the fourth century C.E. and later. Itis highly uncertain whether the famous Erastus inscription refers fo the same Erastus Paul mentions in Rom 46:23. Recent research suggests a date for the inscription in the second century C.E, Archaeology informs us about the city of Corinth in the first century, but for direct evidence of the earliest Christians there we are dependent on the New Testament David G. Horrell, “Corinth”, n.p. [cited 14 Jun 2022]. Online: https://www bibleodyssey.org:443/en/places/main-articles/eorinth Why Corinth was an important city in Paul's day. Generally known as a city devoted to pleasure-seeking, it was a center for Greek culture and a busy commercial city with a cosmopolitan atmosphere that brought together people and customs from different parts of the world.The Purpose of 1st Corinthians Paul had a lot of issues with the church at Corinth. Paul had heard reports “that there is quarreling among” them (1st Cor 1:11) and some said “/ follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “| follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ’ (1st Cor 1:12). This really disturbed Paul because Christ's body is not divided (ist Cor 1:13) as would be any other body since “a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:25). It's in the best interests of the body to be of one mind and one spirit but Paul writes “there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way’ (1st Cor 3:3) so Paul asks a thetorical question, “one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human” (1st Cor 3:4) hoping they'll realize that itis “only God who gives the growth" (‘st Cor 3:7). What Paul was trying to communicate was that we must never look at a man like Paul, Apollos, or Cephas (Peter). We must all follow Christ and take our eyes off of men and the admonition to also stop dividing over non-essentials The Need for Purity In 4st Corinthians 5:1-2 Paul gets right to the point with the Corinthian church; “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather fo moum? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” What should they have done about this man living in sexual immorality and still being in the church? Paul tells them they “are fo deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lore (1st Cor 5:5) probably meaning God withdrawing His divine protection from the enemy and Satan could buffet him around some with the express goal of bringing him to repentance and turning away from that sin. Not only that, they were not to even “associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world’ (1st Cor 5:-9-10). That's not a gray area at all that Christians can debate. Statistics According to Leadership magazine surveys: 1000 Pastors 1. 12% of them committed adultery while in Ministry that’s 1:8 2. 23% had done something they consider sexually inappropriate. 1000 Christianity subscribers ( not Pastors) 1. 23% had extramarital engagement 2. 45% had done something they deemed sexually inappropriate.Lessons from a Fallen King David's Life at the Top God surprised everyone when He picked David to be the next King of Israel. It made no sense to anyone except the Lord. You know David now as the brave teen who kills Goliath. He is remembered as the mighty man of God who destroyed the enemies of God. He was called the man after God's own heart. Yet, in the beginning, even his own family had a very different view of him. David was the overlooked son of the family. He is the runt of the litter who does not get much respect. He would have been the last one chosen for anything important by man's standards. Yet, God specifically chose David to be His man and His King. God knew David's heart. He may stray at times, but when it came down to it, David would always do what God said to do. This faith and obedience to God is immensely more important than any earthly qualification. It is God working through a willing heart who moves mountains, not the person themselves. God does not call the qualified He qualifies the called. David’s Desensitization (2 samuel 5:13) meaning @ behaviour modification technique, used especially in treating phobias, in which panic or other undesirable emotional response to a given stimulus is reduced or extinguished, especially by repeated exposure to that stimulus. David’s Relaxations God disappears to lust-glazed eyes When You Least Expect It The scriptures compare Satan to a lion and a snake. Both are stalkers and predators. Both operate in concealment and specialize in ambush. Satan is like this. He shoots his fiery darts from the shadows, and his temptations come in moments when our guards are down. In his book, Disciplines of a Godly Man, Kent Hughes has the following to say about the temptation of David. David did not suspect anything unusual was going to happen on that fatal spring day. He did not get up and say, “My, what @ beautiful day. | think 1 will commit adultery today!” May this lesson not be wasted on us, men. Just when we think we are the safest, when we feel no need to keep our guard up, to work on our inner integrity, to discipline ourselves for godliness — temptation will come! Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the observation that when lust takes control, “At this moment God. . loses all reality. . . . Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.” What a world of wisdom there is in this statement! When we are in the grip of lust, the reality of God fades. The longer King David leered, the less real God became to him. Not only was his awareness of God diminished, but David lostawareness of who he himself was — his holy call, his frailty, and the certain consequences of sin. This is what lust does! It has done it millions of times. God disappears to lust-glazed eyes.” David’s Fixation (2 Samuel 11:1-3 )