Posted December 9, 2006; back-dated.
Today´s reading:
OT: Jeremiah 49:23-39, Jeremiah 50
NT: Titus 1
Ps: Psalm 97-98
Pr: Proverbs 26:13-16
Today´s notable verses:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
Titus 1:15 (NIV)
"To the pure, all things are pure..." - one one hand, this principle could be misconstrued as naivety; however, I think it more analogous to the programmer's mantra: "garbage in, garbage out". Just as to an immature boy or "dirty" old man everything has a perverted innuendo, to a Christian everything should be pure and righteous - that is, purity and righteousness should be the "filter" through which we form our point of view. The thoughts of the immature boy or "dirty" old man dwell on prurient interests, just as such people view, read, and talk about those same interests. To the contrary, for the Christian, Paul admonishes an opposite direction:
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.
Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
When our external stimuli and our internal thought life coincide with this admonishment from Paul, we will begin to understand what he means when he tells Titus, "To the pure, all things are pure..." Once we understand this principle, we will also understand its inverse and why it is also true. Understanding these principles helps us better understand our world and the people in it.
That said, understanding these principles is not a license to naivety. We are called to be both innocent and wise, which sometimes requires us to follow the worldly thought process in order to understand the worldly conclusion to that thought process. If we are called to demolish worldly arguments (II Cor. 10:5), then we must know how to deconstruct those arguments and counter them with godly wisdom.
Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 97:10 (NIV)
In addition to the consistency of this verse with the earlier reading from Titus, I can't help but think that Paul had this verse in mind when he wrote what I listed as a notable verse yesterday, in II Timothy 4:18 - "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom."
The One Year Bible Blog´s comments for today.