Spiritual Purity

By John Pyrgos

Spiritual Purity is the Presence of God in your life. It is sometimes referred to as the “exchanged life”. You exchange your sinfulness for His divine character. The mind with which you think is His to think holy thoughts through you. The tongue you use to speak is His to speak holy words through you. The steps you take are the steps directed by His will. The work you do is done for His glory. Spiritual Purity is the condition of having every part of your life set apart for God to use. You live every minute of every day in Him so that Christ becomes Lord of all the details of your life—your feelings, your thoughts, your motives, your family, your work and all the incidental happenings of each day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Pyrgos
• Release date: Oct 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463454466

John Pyrgos

John Pyrgos is a graduate of Holy Trinity Seminary.

Book preview

Spiritual Purity

The Practical Means to Sanctity and Holiness According to the Christian Tradition

by John Pyrgos

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Copyright © 2018 John Pyrgos

SPIRITUAL PURITY

The Practical Means to Sanctity and Holiness

According to the Christian Tradition

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

(Psalms 51:10)

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

All who have this hope in Him

purify themselves, just as He is pure.

(1 John 3:3)

Keep yourself pure.

(1 Timothy 5:22)

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

(1 Thessalonians 4:7)

Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

so that you may become blameless and pure.

(Philippians 2:14-15)

Table of Contents

What is Spiritual Purity? 1

Why Spiritual Purity is Necessary 7

We Live in a Dirty World 9

The Certainty of Attaining Spiritual Purity 12

A Prayer for Spiritual Purity 14

Spiritual Purity as the Means to Happiness, Peace and Strength 15

Does Spiritual Purity Mean Sinless Perfection? 16

Tenacity and Spiritual Warfare 17

The Two Invitations 19

The Great Opposition to Spiritual Purity 20

Where Does Spiritual Warfare Occur? 24

Why You Must Take the Initiative to Attain Spiritual Purity 26

A Prayer for Spiritual Purity 28

The Spiritual Mind and the Carnal Mind 29

A Morning Prayer for Spiritual Purity 33

Is Spiritual Purity the Result of Divine Grace or Human Effort? 34

Overcoming Impure Thoughts 36

The Suppression of Impure Thoughts 37

The Displacement of Impure Thoughts 39

The Substitution of Impure Thoughts 41

The Privation of Impure Thoughts 43

The Velocity of Spiritual Purity 45

A Prayer for Spiritual Purity 46

Spiritual Purity and the Church 47

A Prayer to Abide in the Will of God 49

Spiritual Purity and Art 50

The Commitment to a Life of Spiritual Purity 52

Spiritual Purity is Not an Immutable State 53

When God is Near or Far 55

Aesthetics versus Ethics 58

The Cloud Above and the Cloud Below 63

The Cloud Above 65

The Cloud Below 66

Humility and Forgetfulness 69

Asceticism versus Hedonism 71

Spiritual Purity and Spiritual Maturity 72

Prayer and Spiritual Purity 73

Take Time to Be Holy by William D. Longstaff 75

Jesus as the Good Samaritan 77

Resting in Jesus 81

The Gift of Faith and Impossible Things 82

The Binary Nature of Spiritual Life 84

Agnosticism and Atheism 86

Spiritual Impurity and the Apotheosis of Self 89

You are Responsible for What You Know 95

Bibliography 96

Excerpts from Psalm 119 98

What is Spiritual Purity?

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:8)

But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. (1 John 3:4-6)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A holy life is a life given to God and accepted by Him. He is the holy man who lives no more to himself, who lives no longer for his own will or in the way or spirit of the world, but who lives to God and in His will, who loves and obeys Him, considers and serves Him in everything, and who makes all the common, as well as the sacred things of his life honor his Lord by doing them in such a matter that pleases Him. — Bramwell Booth

Spiritual Purity is an inner state of holiness in which the grace and goodness of God are established in the human soul. In theology it is variously called sanctity, holiness or godliness. It is a state cleansed from the defilements of pride, anger, envy, lust, greed and every other sin. The presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit displaces the ungodliness that once was there and the earthly nature is superseded by the heavenly nature. Samuel Logan Brengle describes it this way:

A drop of water on the end of your finger from the ocean is like the ocean, not in its size, of course, for the big ships cannot float upon it nor the big fish swim in it, but it is like the ocean in its essence, in its character, in its nature. Just so, a holy person is like God. Not that he is infinite as God is, he does not know everything, he has not all the power and wisdom God has, but he is like God in his nature. He is good and pure and loving and just in the same way God is.

In the state of Spiritual Purity a supernatural transformation takes place giving the man a new Mind, a new Will and a new Life. St. Paul says that a man becomes a new creation in Christ and becomes filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The old man of sin is put to death and the