Purity

“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the people of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

¹⁶ Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

¹⁷ But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

³ For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

⁴ each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

⁵ not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

⁶ and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

⁷ For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

⁸ Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.

“I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.

² I will ponder the way that is blameless— when will You come to me? I will walk in my house with integrity of heart.

³ I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

⁴ A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know nothing of evil.

³ But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.

⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.

⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.

²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.

⁹ Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

¹² “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

¹³ “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.

²² Abstain from every form of evil.

²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²⁰ A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use.

²¹ So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.

I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,

¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹³ Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet,

¹⁴ because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.

Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

¹⁶ Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

¹⁴ “No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So a clean turban was placed on his head, and they clothed him, as the angel of the LORD stood by.

He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts by faith.

But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

⁴ These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

⁵ And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.

¹² And he said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.

¹³ It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”

¹⁴ So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

¹⁵ When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the command of the king by the words of the LORD.

¹⁶ So the priests went inside the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.

When Moses came down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes.

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

⁸ And I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.

⁹ Then I ordered that the rooms be purified, and I had the articles of the house of God restored to them, along with the grain offerings and frankincense.

²⁸ Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.

²⁹ Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

³⁰ Thus I purified the priests and Levites from everything foreign, and I assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites.

But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

⁴ “There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”

⁵ David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the equipment of the young men is holy, as it is even on common missions, and all the more at this time.”

I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.