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Welcome to the beginning of our look at 2 Corinthians chapter 7, this is day
one. And today we're going to look at verse 1 because it is, 2 Corinthians 7
verse 1 is one of the most powerful verses on Christian integrity and purity in
all of the Bible. Listen to what it has to say, "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.

" Last week we talked about the fact that you and I must separate ourselves from
evil. Don't be yoked together with unbelievers, the scripture teaches us.
Because when you're yoked together with an unbeliever in a relationship, in a
partnership, it creates disconnection, discontentment, disharmony,
dissatisfaction, disagreement.

It does not create joy in your life or in their life. In fact it takes you and
them both in the wrong direction. Last week we talked about this need that we
have to separate ourselves.

This week as we begin, Paul ends this thought about purity and he talks about
our need to connect ourselves. We're going to take a few minutes just to walk
together through this important verse of the Bible about living the kind of life
that God made you to live. Living with purity in your daily thoughts, actions,
words, attitudes.

Just walk through this with me phrase by phrase. Look at what it has to say. It
begins by saying since we have these promises, that's why we perfect holiness.

Since we have these promises, first phrase, it all starts with God's promise.
The motivation for purity is in the promises of God. Now we looked at some of
those promises at the end of chapter 6.

God says I will live with you. I will walk among you. I will be a father to you.

These are all promises of God's presence in your life. And when you look at the
promise of God's presence, that's the motivation for purity. A lot of people try
to motivate themselves to live with greater integrity and greater purity based
on their own pride.

How they might look to others and only lasts as long as you're in front of other
people. Other people try to motivate themselves to a new kind of purity in their
lives based on how God might punish them if they're impure. That doesn't last
either because it begins to make you afraid of God and want to actually separate
yourself from God who is going to punish you.

As if you could, but that's what you tend to do. It's when you recognize God's
promises that you have the real invitation in your life to live the pure life of
integrity that he would want. It begins with the promises.

Since we have these promises, he says, let us purify ourselves. You separate
yourself and then you purify yourself. Now notice he says let us purify
ourselves.

He doesn't say let us ask God to purify us, although God is the one who does it.
He says let us purify ourselves. What is he saying here?

He's saying that although God is the one who purifies us, only he can do that
through his spirit. Only he can do that through his leading in our lives. There
are decisions that you and I have to make.

There's ways that we have to follow him. There's things that have to be taken
out of our lives and there are things that have to be not allowed into our
lives. There's things that we have to then allow to be in our daily lives.

If I'm going to be living a pure life, I've got to make those decisions. The
idea, the sense that the Holy Spirit will do it without me making any decisions,
it'll just automatically happen to me without any tough decisions. You're just
lying to yourself.

What are those things? When he says let us purify ourselves, since we have these
promises, let us purify ourselves. What are the things he's talking about?

Well, he says it in the next phrase, from everything that contaminates body and
spirit. Contaminates, that's a key word here. God is not some heavenly killjoy.

As if somehow these impure actions that we have in our lives, impure thoughts
that we have in our lives, these temptations that we follow to impurity. If we
were to do that, that's what brings joy into our lives, but somehow God is
asking us not to do the things that would make us the most happy in this world
because he wants us to be boring Christian kind of people and not enjoy the
things the rest of the world enjoys. Satan can tempt you to think that, but the
truth of the matter is those things that people think they're enjoying are
actually contaminating their lives.

Sexual sin contaminates your life. Selfish sin contaminates your life. Jealous
sin contaminates your life.

It contaminates you. If you let the wrong things into your life, it contaminates
your ability to love. That doesn't mean that they don't seem good at the moment.

There are a lot of things you can eat that will physically contaminate your
body. You can eat a donut. You can eat a dozen donuts.

You can eat a dozen dozen donuts, and they might taste good to you. That doesn't
mean they are good for you. Just because there's pleasure in sin for a moment,
as the scripture says, does not mean it is not contaminating your ability to
have faith, your ability to love, your ability to hope, your ability to make a
difference in your life.

The simple truth is what we put into our lives is what comes out of our lives.
If I put into my life selfishness and sin, that's what's going to come out of my
life. That's what I'm going to experience in my life.

I'll never forget talking with a friend about this, trying to encourage them to
come back to church, a believer who just decided I have more fun out in the
world. We talked and talked about the old things that pull at you, that promise
something of you, that make you feel somehow that you're more powerful than the
people around you, but the end result is your life is contaminated. Sin promises
joy, but it contaminates your life.

Paul's very specific about this. How does this happen? He says it contaminates
body and spirit.

I used the illustration of donuts earlier, but he's not talking about junk food
versus organic food here, although organic food might be a good idea, a great
idea for you. He's talking about the spiritual side of your life, and he's
saying that both body and spirit are an important part of who you are. Both can
be contaminated, and both, by the way, will be resurrected in the end.

Your physical body is going to be resurrected. Your spirit is going to be
resurrected to be with the Lord. This idea that somehow your spirit is spiritual
and your body is like, "It's just material.

It doesn't mean much. It's going to be left behind anyway, so who really cares?
" That is a totally non-Christian idea, non-biblical idea.

Both body and spirit are meant to live forever, so both body and spirit should
not be contaminated. Stay away from those things that contaminate your
attitudes, your beliefs, your soul. What contaminates?

We can give a list of a thousand, maybe a million things. It has to do with the
choices you make. It has to do with the thoughts that you entertain.

It has to do with the entertainments that you allow in your life. It has to do
with the people that you spend time with. For every one of us, those things that
contaminate our lives are very specific to us.

The scripture has much to say about the kinds of sin that contaminate us, but
when you look at your own life, it has to be specific to, "What is it in my life
that's keeping me from having faith, that's drawing me away from Christ? What is
it in my life that's keeping me from being the believer that I want to be? " If
you just look at somebody else's list, you're going to be in trouble because
maybe you do great on their list, or maybe you do terrible on their list.

That's not the issue. The issue is, what's God saying to you about this? What is
it that's contaminating your body, your spirit?

How do you get that out of your life, not let that into your life? One of the
main things to do to not let that into your life, to get that out of your life,
is to change your relationships. When we get around the wrong kind of people, we
begin to allow the wrong kinds of things into our lives.

We'd all like to think that we're above that, but none of us are. None of us
are. If you find that there's a lot of things contaminating your thoughts, your
actions, your attitudes, one of the first things to look at is, "How do I get
around the kind of people that aren't living that way?

How do I get around the kind of people that are wanting to, that are desiring
to, and choosing to put the right things into their life? " Let's purify
ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit. Then this last
phrase, one of the most powerful phrases about purity in all the Bible,
"Perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

" I like that word perfecting. You're not perfect yet. One day you will be
perfect when you see Jesus in heaven, but now, in the now what's happening, we
are perfecting.

We're perfecting holiness. You're being perfected by God. He's at work in your
heart, in your life.

You're not perfect yet. One day you'll be perfect. Right now, God is perfecting
you.

How does that happen? Holiness, by the way, means to be set apart, to be
separate, to be the kind of person that God wants you to be. How do I perfect
that kind of an attitude in my life, in this world, where there's so much that's
imperfect and I see so much in myself that's imperfect?

Well, the power doesn't come from me. Power doesn't come from you. It doesn't
come from the world around you.

It comes from our reverence for God. You perfect holiness out of reverence for
God. Reverence for God is respecting God for who he is.

So here's how this all fits together as we walk through these verses. What Paul
is saying to us, what the scripture is saying to us, is this. The more I see
what God has promised, the more I trust what God has said, and the more I
respect who God truly is, the more I will experience purity in my daily life.

The more I see what God has promised, the more I trust what God has said, the
more I respect who God truly is, the more you will experience, the more I will
experience purity in my daily life. Let's pray together. Father, we pray for
those things.

Help us to see today what you've promised, to see it, not just to see what's
around us, the events, the circumstances. Help us to see your promise in our
lives, the promise of your presence that you're dwelling with us, you're walking
with us through everything we go through. Lord, help us to trust what you've
said today.

It's so easy for us to trust our own feelings and opinions or trust what
somebody else is thinking about us. Help us to trust what you said. Lord, help
us to respect you for who you are, the God of the universe, the God of perfect
integrity and holiness.

Help us to have an awe-filled respect for your power, your goodness. And Lord,
as that happens, it's my prayer that we will experience purity in our lives
today, the gift that comes from you in our daily lives. We pray this in Jesus'
name, Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to talk about surviving difficult and hurtful
relationships.