Unto the pure all things are pure
The supreme importance of moral character
1.
There is an essential difference in the moral characters of men.
2. The outward world is to men according to this difference.
I. The morally pure in relation to all things.
1. In relation to appearance. A good man is neither given to suspicion nor censoriousness; he sees some good in all men.
2. In relation to influence. A good man, like the bee, can extract honey from the bitterest plant; or, like the AEolian harp, can turn the shrieking wind into music.
3. In relation to appropriation. A corrupt soul appropriates, even from the most strengthening and refreshing means of spiritual improvement, that which weakens and destroys.
II. The morally defiled in relation to all things.
1. The sphere of the defilement.
2. The cause of the defilement.
3. The hideousness of the defilement. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Purity
For the evils of this world there are two classes of remedies--one is the world’s, the other is God’s. The world proposes to remedy evil by adjusting the circumstances of this life to man’s desires. The world says, give us a perfect set of circumstances, and then we shall have a set of perfect men. This principle lies at the root of the system called socialism. Socialism proceeds on the principle that all moral and even physical evil arises from unjust laws. If the cause be remedied, the effect will be good. But Christianity throws aside all that as merely chimerical. It proves that the fault is not in outward circumstances, but in ourselves. Like the wise physician, who, instead of busying himself with transcendental theories to improve the climate, and the outward circumstances of man, endeavours to relieve and get rid of the tendencies of disease which are from within, Christianity, leaving all outward circumstances to ameliorate themselves, fastens its attention on the spirit which has to deal with them.
I. The principle that St. Paul has here laid down is, that each man is the creator of his own world; he walks in a universe of his own creation. As the free air is to one out of health the cause of cold and diseased lungs, so to the healthy man it is a source of greater vigour. The rotten fruit is sweet to the worm, but nauseous to the palate of man. It is the same air and the same fruit acting differently upon different beings. To different men a different world--to one all pollution--to another all purity. To the noble all things are noble, to the mean all things are contemptible. In its strictest sense, the creation of a new man is the creation of a new universe. Conceive an eye so constructed as that the planets and all within them should be minutely seen, and all that is near should be dim and invisible like things seen through a telescope, or as we see through a magnifying glass the plumage of the butterfly, and the bloom upon the peach; then it is manifestly clear that we have called into existence actually a new creation, and not new objects. The mind’s eye creates a world for itself. Again, the visible world presents a different aspect to each individual man. One man sees in that noble river an emblem of eternity; he closes his lips and feels that God is there. Another sees nothing in it but a very convenient road for transporting his spices, silks, and merchandise. To one this world appears useful, to another beautiful. Whence comes the difference? From the soul within us. It can make of this world a vast chaos--“a mighty maze without a plan”; or a mere machine--a collection of lifeless forces; or it can make it the living vesture of God, the tissue through which He can become visible to us. In the spirit in which we look on it the world is an arena for mere self-advancement, or a place for noble deeds, in which self is forgotten, and God is all. Observe, this effect is traceable even in that produced by our different and changeful moods. We make and unmake a world more than once in the space of a single day. In trifling moods all seems trivial. In serious moods all seems solemn.
II. There are two ways in which this principle is true.
1. To the pure, all things and all persons are pure, because their purity makes all seem pure. There are some who go through life complaining of this world; they say they have found nothing but treachery and deceit; the poor are ungrateful, and the rich are selfish, yet we do not find such the best men. Experience tells us that each man most keenly and unerringly detects in others the vice with which he is most familiar himself. Persons seem to each man what he is himself. One who suspects hypocrisy in the world is rarely transparent; the man constantly on the watch for cheating is generally dishonest; he who suspects impurity is prurient. This is the principle to which Christ alludes when He says, “Give alms of such things as ye have; and behold all things are clean unto you.” Once more, to the pure all things are pure, as well as all persons. That which is natural lies not in things, but in the minds of men. There is a difference between prudery and modesty. Prudery detects wrong where no wrong is; the wrong lies in the thoughts, and not in the objects. There is something of over-sensitiveness and over-delicacy which shows not innocence, but an inflammable imagination. And men of the world cannot understand that those subjects and thoughts which to them are full of torture, can be harmless, suggesting nothing evil to the pure in heart. Here, however, beware! No sentence of Scripture is more frequently in the lips of persons who permit themselves much license, than the text, “To the pure, all things are pure.” Yes, all things natural, but not artificial--scenes which pamper the tastes, which excite the senses. Innocence feels healthily. To it all nature is pure. But, just as the dove trembles at the approach of the hawk, and the young calf shudders at the lion never seen before, so innocence shrinks instinctively from what is wrong by the same Divine instinct. If that which is wrong seems pure, then the heart is not pure but vitiated. To the right minded all that is right in the course of this world seems pure.
2. Again, to the pure, all things not only seem pure, but are really so because they are made such.
(1) As regards persons. It is a marvellous thing to see how a pure and innocent heart purifies all that it approaches. The most ferocious natures are soothed and tamed by innocence. And so with human beings, there is a delicacy so pure, that vicious men in its presence become almost pure; all of purity which is in them is brought out; like attaches itself to like. The pure heart becomes a centre of attraction, round which similar atoms gather, and from which dissimilar ones are repelled. A corrupt heart elicits in an hour all that is bad in us; a spiritual one brings out and draws to itself all that is best and purest. Such was Christ.
(2) Lastly, all situations are pure to the pure. According to the world, some professions are reckoned honourable, and some dishonourable. Men judge according to a standard merely conventional, and not by that of moral rectitude. Yet it was in truth, the men who were in these situations which made them such. In the days of the Redeemer, the publican’s occupation was a degraded one, merely because low base men filled that place. But since He was born into the world a poor, labouring man, poverty is noble and dignified, and toil is honourable. To the man who feels that “the king’s daughter is all glorious within,” no outward situation can seem inglorious or impure. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Purity
I. Who are meant by pure persons. The persons here called pure are such as by faith are set into Christ, by whose blood they are justified, and by whose Spirit, through the means of the Word, that immortal seed of regeneration, they are sanctified and reserved unto life everlasting. And hence to both these is the purifying and cleansing of sinners ascribed in the Scriptures.
1. Because by faith every member of the Church layeth hold upon Christ’s most absolute purity.
2. The spirit of regeneration hath washed every part, although in part only, nor so clean as it shall be, yet so as that perfect purity is sealed and assured to the soul by it.
3. The Lord doth account every such believer pure even for the present, and imputeth never a spot unto them, but reputeth in His Christ all fair.
4. Hath promised them that for time to come they shall become so absolutely clean as though they had never been defiled.
II. How all things are pure or impure.
1. Seeing all things were pure in their creation, we may herein, as in a glass, behold the purity of God in all His creatures, admiring that goodness of His which bewrayed itself even in the meanest of them; yea, provoking ourselves to love, reverence and fear before Him, the image of whose goodness shineth out not only in angels and men, but even in the silly worm and fly, yea in the lifeless creatures themselves. And further, hence we may gather our own duty towards the creatures, namely
(1) Reverently meditate and speak of them.
(2) Purely to use them.
(3) Mercifully to deal with them. All which we shall the easier do if we can spy out some part of God’s image in them.
2. Consider our misery, and the woeful fruit of our sin, which hath debarred us from all comfort in heaven and earth, from God or any of His creatures. The sweetest sins would carry a bitter taste, if we would but remember what sweet comfort of the creatures we have forfeited for them.
3. The restitution of us to our former right is only from our Lord Jesus Christ, and our first right is recovered to us in this manner. First, as we were at odds with the Creator, and consequently with the creature, even so first we are reconciled unto God through Christ, and then to the creatures; for when Christ (who is our peace) hath wrought our peace with God, He bringeth back our peace, both the inward peace of our own consciences, which before could do nothing but accuse and terrify, as also peace with others, friends and enemies, yea even with the beast of the field, and stone in the wall, and everything striketh a covenant of peace with him who hath entered into league with the Creator of it. II any man, then, would have any right in any creature he useth, he must not hold it by the broken title in the first Adam, but by a recovered and new purchase in the second Adam, who is the Lord of glory, blessed forever.
III. How all things are pure to the pure. That we may rightly and properly conceive the apostle’s meaning, we must know
1. That the universal particle “all things” admitteth restraint, and may not be extended beyond the apostle’s intendment, who speaketh only of such things as are not forbidden by the law of God, or nature; or rather only of things of an indifferent nature, which in themselves are neither commanded nor forbidden, and neither good nor evil in their substance and nature, but are to be used or not used according to the circumstances and occasions of them; such things as these are meat, drink, apparel, recreation, sleep, marriage, single life, riches, poverty, bondage, freedom, etc. And it may not seem strange thus to restrain this general proposition, seeing we have it thus limited in sundry other places (1 Corinthians 6:4). “All things are lawful, but not profitable” (1 Corinthians 10:23). “All things are lawful for me, but not expedient” (Romans 14:20). “All things indeed ere pure, but destroy not for meats,” etc.
2. By pure is meant nothing else but that all such things are free now to be used in good conscience, without scruple, by means of our Christian liberty.
3. In that he addeth “to the pure,” he showeth how we come to have title in this liberty, even by becoming believers and getting our hearts purified by faith. In one word, all indifferent things are pure, and free to be used of the pure and believing person, with this one condition; so they be purely and rightly used. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Purity of mind indispensable
I. The import of the terms. By “the pure” is not meant sinless. Evangelical purity is connected with faith (1 Peter 1:22; Acts 15:9). The mind and conscience are governing powers; if they be polluted, all the man is so.
II. Illustrate the sentiment.
1. On a believing mind the doctrines of Christ will have a sanctifying effect, and the contrary on an unbelieving mind.
2. On a believing mind precepts and even threatenings produce a salutary effect.
3. Mercies and judgments humble, melt, and soften some, but harden others.
4. The evils which occur amongst men, differently influence different characters.
5. The treatment received from men brings out the state of the heart. (A. Fuller.)
Purity
A pure lake is beautiful as it reflects the loveliness of the heavens, but a pure heart is more beautiful as it reflects the loveliness of God. (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
Even their mind and conscience is defiled
The faithlessness of conscience
That the conscience is so perverted in our present condition, that no confidence can be placed in its decision, is evident.
I. From the fact that these decisions can be correct in no other cases but those in which Divine truth is fully understood.
II. That the decisions of conscience are not always in accordance with the truth is evident from the fact that sinners are pot always convinced of sin.
III. This position is also sustained by the fact that the agency of the Holy Spirit is requisite to convince the world of sin.
IV. The faithlessness of conscience is apparent in the fact that hypocrites have not always an appalling sense of their hypocrisy.
V. This view of the subject is strengthened by the fact that even Christians do not always detect their own sins.
VI. This doctrine is evident from the fact that there is no command in the Scriptures to follow the dictates of conscience.
VII. And while there is no direction to follow the dictates of conscience, it is true that the Scriptures designate different consciences, and perhaps different states of the same conscience, by different and directly opposite terms.
VIII. This view of the subject is confirmed by the fact that the way to ruin seems to be the way of peace and eternal life. This is a very common and perhaps a general trait of the human family. The light that is in them by nature is darkness. They discern not the way in which they should go.
Lessons:--From this subject I infer
I. That God has placed no rule of duty within ourselves. Our reason was never designed to be our guide in spiritual things. Its only office is to understand the things which God has revealed in His Word, and in all cases reverently to bow to His authority. So long as its eyes are not opened by the power of the Holy Spirit, the understanding is in deplorable darkness. And even if it were capable of discerning all the principles of duty, its office is to gather them from the Word of God.
II. The subject teaches us that to live conscientiously is not in all cases to live godly. Conscience in its decisions has respect to some principles of life. These principles may be the fruit of our own reason. In this case, the decision will approach no nearer to truth than the principles are according to which the decision is made. Or it may decide according to the maxims of duty which it has learned from others. In this instance, as in the former, its decisions can claim no higher authority or greater correctness than the maxims according to which they are made. Or, if even the Scriptures be the rule according to which the decisions are made, then it will follow that the decisions themselves must be affected by the blindness of the understanding and by the weakness of conscience itself. And hence, to live conscientiously may vary widely from living accordingly to the commands of God.
III. The subject teaches what estimate to set on professions of acting conscientiously.
IV. The subject suggests the importance of praying for the purification of our conscience.
V. The subject suggests that our condition is very deplorable. We are exceedingly inclined to rely on our understandings to discover the way of life, and on the testimony of our consciences that we are walking in it. But not only are our natural understandings too blind to discover it, but our consciences are exceedingly apt falsely to decide that we are walking in it, even while we are wandering in darkness. Thus we are liable to think we are something when we are nothing. The way which we take may seem right unto us, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (J. Foot, D. D.)
Pollution of mind and conscience
By the mind is meant the whole understanding part of the soul, which, being the eye of the soul, carrieth with it reason, judgment, and election. The pollution of which, is, to be taken up with darkness and blindness (1 Corinthians 2:14); to be filled with vanity (Ephesians 4:17); with fleshliness (Colossians 2:18); in so much as all the natural wisdom of man is fleshly and devilish. By conscience is meant that faculty of the soul which, by applying particular things judged of and done, doth determine them either with or against them; which, depending upon the former, must necessarily be led into the errors of it, no otherwise than one blind man is led by another into a ditch. The pollution of it is when it is either idle or ill occupied; the former, when it is sleepy, senseless, or seared, doing nothing at all, neither accusing, nor excusing; the latter, when it doth both these, but neither of them as it ought, but accuseth where it should excuse, and excuse where it ought to accuse.
I. We have here a good argument of the divinity of scripture, in that it can, and doth (as God Himself) enter upon, and judge the thoughts of men; and of men themselves (not as men) from things without, but from things within, even according to their cleanness or uncleanness before God. From this argument the apostle proverb the same thing (Hebrews 4:12).
II. We learn further, what is the estate of a man unregenerate, whom the apostle setteth out thus.
1. He is one that is unclean.
2. An unbeliever.
3. One to whom nothing is pure.
4. His mind.
5. His conscience is polluted.
In all which respects he is a most odious person, in whom is nothing but filthiness of flesh and spirit, the which the pure eyes of the Lord cannot abide.
III. Before this natural uncleanness be purged everything is unclean unto a man; the unbeliever tainteth everything that he toucheth; nothing within him, nothing without him, which is not polluted, although not in his own nature, yet unto him and in his use. Let a natural man turn him to any action, word, or thought, all of them, not excepting the best, are against God, because they proceed from unclean minds and consciences.
1. His actions spiritual, even his best services, as praying, hearing, reading, receiving the sacraments, alms, all these being the sacrifices of the wicked, are abomination unto the Lord, who first looketh to the person, and then to the gift, who if he turn his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is abominable; if he choose his own ways, let him kill a bullock for sacrifice, it is all one as if he slew a man; if he be a polluted person that toucheth any of these holy things, shall they not be unclean? Yes, surely, the most Divine ordinances are turned to him to sin; for the Lord first requireth pure parts, and then pure actions (Ezekiel 36:26).
2. His civil actions, his honest dealing in the world, his buying, selling, giving, lending, his labour, care, yea, all the duties of his calling, are in and to him no better than sins.
3. His natural actions, as eating, drinking, sleeping, recreation, physic, all are unclean unto him.
4. All God’s creatures and human ordinances, as meat, drink, clothes, goods, lands, buildings, marriage, single estate; in a word, “the whole way of the wicked is abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 15:9). All these are witnesses of his sin and filthiness, all of them are enlargers of his woe and damnation, because he wanteth faith to lay hold on the Lord Jesus, whereby the just do live, have their heart purified, and so are made lords over the creatures. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Defilement of mind and conscience
The “mind” is more than the mere intellective faculty, and includes the activity of the will; and “conscience” is the moral self-consciousness which brings self, and the fact, and the entire behaviour of the soul and spirit, into judgment. This conscience may be “good” in the sense of being approving, or in the sense of being active; it may be “evil” in that it is torpid, seared or dead, and also in respect of its being accusing or condemnatory. Defilement of “mind” must mean that thoughts, ideas, desires, purposes, activities, are all corrupted and debased. Defilement of “conscience” would mean that the sentinel sent to watch was bribed to hold his peace, or that the guide to loftier standard was eagerly applying some base-born, man-made perilous rule as all-sufficient. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)
A pure conscience cast aside
In the majority of cases conscience is an elastic and very flexible article, which will bear a deal of stretching, and adapt itself to a great variety of circumstances. Some people by prudent management, and leaving it off piece by piece, like a flannel waistcoat in warm weather, even contrive in time to dispense with it altogether; but there be others who can assume the garment and throw it off at pleasure; and this, being the greatest and most convenient improvement, is the one most in vogue. (Old Curiosity Shop.)