In Defense of Impurity

The word "Puritan" is a kind of shibboleth word when it comes to Reformed theology. If you are a Reformed Christian, you are likely to be attracted to them. If you are not a Reformed Christian, then the picture you are likely to have of Puritans is likely to bring images of dunking stools and witch hunts.


This is an unfair picture of the Puritans. They were not the prudish, judgmental fanatics they have been portrayed to be in popular culture. They were not killjoys. To the contrary, they were passionate people who ate, drank, smoked, and made love with passion and gusto. Because they loved God, they loved life, and they showed it.

The Puritans were not perfect, and did not claim to be. But they understood that they were saved by grace and grace alone. But they did get angry at times, and yes, they were judgmental sometimes. They were called Puritans not be cause they themselves were pure, but because they sought God with an even greater passion their love of life. Their greatest passion was to walk always in step with God.

But "puritanical" is a different word altogether. A puritanical person insists that they are morally and doctrinally pure already, and seeks to making everyone else conform to their own standards. Puritanicals are the rightful heirs of the Pharisees. They are reminiscent of the Pharisee who Jesus described in one of his parables as praying in the temple, pointing to a sinner in the back and saying aloud. "I'm glad I’m not like some people I know!"

The Puritans sought to be pure in grace and love of God. Puritanicals have their eyes on this world, and on themselves. They narcissistically apprise the world around them, and find that it falls short of their own standards. In their self-centered opinions, God's standards and their standards are one and the same.

When Puritanicals take over a church, they are always doomed to failure. The more they insist on doctrinal and moral purity, the less they exhibit the characteristcs of love and grace that God most clearly calls us to in the Scriptures. purity that the Bible calls us to is not a purity of doctrine or even behavior, but a purity of love and trust.

When God calls us to be pure, what kind of purity is he talking about? It can't be purity of doctrinal belief, since our understanding of doctrine is and always will be incomplete. We may pretend do understand the mysteries of the universe, but we can no more comprehend them than a flea can comprehend the nature a dog. We can only understand the little part of the universe we personally experience. It cannot be purity of behavior, either. If our knowledge of God's word and will are limited, our own will to resist is even more limited. Besides, there is that tricky problem of situational relativism. What is right in one situation is wrong in another. Even Solomon in all his wisdom was often deceived.

The purity I believe we should seek is a purity of the heart, which leads to a purifying life. It is a purity in living and understanding the central, saving message of Christianity, which is plainly expressed in the Bible.

Ephesians 2: 8-9. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, it is a gift of God, not of yourselves, so that no one can boast."

I John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."

John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever would believe in Him would have everlasting life."

We will never be pure in any other way, but in our pure desire to attain the grace of God through faith.

This pure Gospel is expressed in two loves,--love of God and love of others.

1 John 3:2-3

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure .

I John 4: 7-8 Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God,. He who does not love does notlove God, for God is love.

Now, here’s the odd thing about it. We cannot be puritanical and pure at the same time. The more we insist on the church being completely pure, the less we love our brothers. The more we insist of being absolutely right about God in all things, the less we love him. We remake God in our own image. We think Him as judgmental as we are. But the more we forsake judging others and accept them gracefully, as God accepts us, the more we reflect God's love in the world.

I am not "totally" Reformed. I am not totally anything except Christian. I freely admit that there are things I am not sure about doctrinally and morally. I also admit that many of the things I do know, I fail to live up to. But the desire to get everything right is a foolish waste of time, compared to the goal of loving God and others purely and sincerely.

We should strive to live moral lives in accordance with God's will. We should also struggle to understand the meaning of the Scriptures. But there are limits to what is possible in our quest to be good. No matter how good we think we are impurity is there. It is part of God's plan all along that it be this way.

This impurity is not necessarily a bad thing. Iron is strong, but when it contains the impurity of carbon, it becomes steel, which is even stronger. Brass made impure with tin becomes bronze. The quality that makes live music so superior to mechanical music is the impurity, not the purity of the voices. No choir completely sings in harmony, we just overlook the difference. At some point our quest to purify makes our commitment to the Gospel impure.

God made a world where few things are completely pure. He did it on purposes, to show His grace and creativity. If we insist that the church we serve has to be on one completely without variation in thought or practice, then we will serve a church that has ceased to preach the gospel of grace.

Groucho Marx once quipped that he would never be a member or any group that would have him as a member. I feel the same way. If the church insists that all members look alike, act alike, and behave alike, then they should never have me as a member, and I do not want to be a part of it. But if the church can open its arms widely enough to accept believing Christians who think and act in a way that is different from the norm, then there may be a place for me in it.

Let's not sacrifice the peace and prosperity of the church for the sake of a purity we cannot ever fully attain. Instead, let's embrace our differences in the bond of love.