To the Pure

Sydney Sweeney is a twenty-something actress who recently made the news with her "scandalous" commercial. The apparel company, American Eagle, had her do a commercial playing on the similarity of the word "genes" to "jeans" with the tagline, "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." Funny. Of course, not anymore. Now it's "Nazi propaganda." She was promoting eugenics. Nonsense, of course, but today our society sees "evil" around every corner where "evil" is defined by "whatever I think it is."

Paul wrote, "To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled" (Titus 1:15). What does that mean? It does not mean that all impure things become pure to the pure, or that all believers are pure in everything they do. What does it mean? Paul is writing to Titus about establishing the church in Crete. They needed elders (Titus 1:5-9) who would "hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught" (Titus 1:9). This is in direct contradiction to the "insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers" (Titus 1:10) who needed to be rebuked (Titus 1:13). They were devoting themselves to "the commands of people who turn away from the truth" (Titus 1:14). So, "To the pure, all things are pure" is intended to convey direction. If we are pure, we will pursue the pure. If we are faithful, we will "hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught." We won't be defiled, won't pursue the evil, won't follow human rules instead of God's rules, won't be misled by false teaching.

In our world today, they decry "judgmental" people while being judgmental and "intolerant" people while being intolerant. They cry out for "diversity, equity, and inclusion" while eliminating all of them ... odd, man-made rules that simply end up contradicting themselves. And we Christians aren't immune. Never have been. Back in my day it was "dancing" and "alcohol" and "smoking" kinds of things that have no biblical support, but we were sure we were morally superior because we avoided things we made up as evil. Our society does it all the time, and is getting more irrational in its moral insanity. What we need is not less "genes" commercials. It's a firm grasp on God's word ... what Jesus calls "truth" (John 17:17). Ultimately it's a firm grasp on Christ Himself.