6/17/2023 0 Comments Purity meaningAny healing was attributed to divine power, and therefore subject to ritual cleansing. Moses gave elaborate laws and instructions concerning it, including placing the responsibility of diagnosis on the priesthood ( Lev 13 14). Since there was no known cure for it, victims were expelled from society and required to cry “unclean” if anyone approached. Leprosy was the most dreaded of all sources of uncleanness. Instructions were given for feminine purity: after menstruation ( Lev 15:19-33 2 Sam 11:4) and after childbirth ( Lev 12:1-8 Luke 2:22).Ĭ. Persons and clothing were to be cleansed by water, silver, gold, tin, and all other metals by fire.ī. Soldiers, after battle, were to purify themselves, their captives, garments, and articles, as an insurance against contamination with slain bodies ( Num 19:11-16 31:19-24). Some things were to be burnt, others purified, by fire, and some washed in water. Moses provided laws and penalties governing cleanliness ( Lev 7:20f.). By it, contamination and spread of disease was checked.Ī. In the absence of modern medical knowledge of drugs, germs, and anatomy, cleanliness played a dominant role in good health. It was essential in the camp life of the Israelites during the wilderness wanderings. One of the marks of Mosaic law was meticulous concern for physical cleanliness. Paul was glad that the Christ was of his race ( Rom 9:5).ģ. Nevertheless, the Jewish race maintained remarkable purity, and Jesus and Paul were proud to claim they were Jews ( John 4:22 Rom 9:3 2 Cor 11:22 Phil 3:5). Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabite were in the ancestral lineage of David, and therefore of Jesus. Complete racial purity was impossible due to earlier intermarriages. God revealed to Moses that Israel was His “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” ( Exod 19:6) and, at the return of the exiles Ezra ruthlessly severed family ties in an effort to restore racial purity ( Ezra 9:2 10:10, 44). To avoid religious contamination through intermarriages with foreigners, racial purity was sought. All races are of divine origin ( Gen 10), but God ordained the Jewish race for the salvation of man. Various areas of purity are treated in the Bible.Ģ. Purity is the heart of Christian culture and therefore an objective to be continually sought-physically, morally, and religiously. Purity of heart is prerequisite for membership in God’s kingdom ( Matt 5:8 Rev 19:8). Purity of mind and speech are hallmarks of good taste, high ethical principles and Christian grace ( 1 Sam 16:18 Matt 5:34-37 Col 4:6 1 Tim 4:12 Titus 2:8). Purity of body is essential for good health, and a requisite for acceptance in respectable social circles ( see Matt 15:2). The washing of hands was symbolic of innocence ( Deut 21:6 Ps 24:4 Matt 27:24).Ĭ. Baptism, like that of John’s, was a symbol of purification ( Matt 3:11). Ablutions were instituted quite early ( Exod 19:10). Like fire, it was used also in ceremonial cleansing ( Num 19:17-21 31:23). Water is the universally prevalent means for material and personal cleansing, and consequently the chief symbol for moral cleansing. And, naturally, “The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times” ( Ps 12:6).ī. Humanity is to be purified by the fire of Christ’s ministry and final judgment ( Luke 3:16f. John, in strong metaphor, wrote, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire” ( Rev 3:18). “I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested” ( Zech 13:9 cf. The refining process is frequently used as a symbol of personal cleansing. Fire is the normal means for purifying gold, silver, and other metals, which are able to withstand heat while the dross is burnt out. The primary means of purification, both sanitary and symbolic, are fire and water.Ī. Purity is a desirable quality or condition of a good person or thing, without alloy, mixture, or pollution. Purification, purging, cleansing, and similar terms, whose objective is purity, occur hundreds of times in the Bible. Only in these four references does “purity” occur in the Bible however, synonymous terms occur scores of times.
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