What if I have not been living a pure life?
Matthew 6:24“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”
1 Corinthians 6:15Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!
Galatians 1:10Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.
Many things can corrupt the purity of our devotion to Christ. Sexual sin is one, but greed, pride, and many other distractions and sins also can take Christ’s place in our hearts. Impurity, regardless of the form it takes, is never something to be taken lightly. It is in direct contradiction with the gospel and requires repentance.
2 Corinthians 7:10The kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
Hebrews 10:26If we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.
Some Christians fear that once they have messed up, they have completely lost the clean slate Christ gave them. They fear they have squandered their second chance. This is one of Satan’s many lies, and it creates a worldly kind of sorrow. Such people feel bad about sin, but they have accepted sin as part of who they are. Sometimes, they decide that since they are already sinful, they may as well enjoy that sin. If we deliberately continue in sin, either out of despair or rebellion, that is a rejection of the hope of the gospel.
Acts 3:19Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
Philippians 3:12-14I [Paul] don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. . . . but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
1 John 2:1My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.
Becoming like Christ is a process. The apostle Paul himself wasn’t perfect. But instead of fixing his eyes on his failures of the past, Paul fixed his eyes on his hope ahead. Repentance isn’t simply turning away from something wrong. It’s turning toward something good.
Luke 15:3-7So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? . . . there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”
Luke 15:18-20“‘I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’ So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.”
No matter how far you wander, your heavenly Father loves you. He has many children, but none of them can take your place in his heart. He is always waiting for you, calling you back to him with open arms.
Mark 2:15Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Scripture says that many of Jesus’ followers lived impure lives before they met Jesus. These followers weren’t praised for their righteousness or their credentials—but they were praised for their humility and their desire for God. Your sin does not disqualify you from following Jesus any more than sickness disqualifies you from seeing a doctor. Recognizing and repenting of your sin is the first step toward letting Jesus heal you.
Romans 6:1-6Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? . . . We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
Hebrews 12:1Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.
Imagine a prisoner chained to the wall. A man comes in, opens his cell door, and unlocks his manacles. The prisoner is freed! But instead of leaving and entering his new life, the prisoner picks up his chains and tries to drag them with him. It can be hard to release our old sin patterns and guilty pleasures, but ultimately, they are a burden to us. As long as we try to carry those sins with us into our walk of faith, we will never experience the full freedom Christ longs to give us.
Psalm 51:2-4Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.
Matthew 5:23-24“If you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.”
1 Peter 3:7In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.
Ultimately, all sin is against God. However, God wants us to seek reconciliation with those we have hurt. Impure actions often affect others, and when we take responsibility for those actions, we are showing that our repentance involves more that feelings of guilt. It proves that our repentance includes a genuine desire to change.
Romans 8:31-34If God is for us, who can ever be against us? . . . Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Romans 8:38I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
Even after we have repented, sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. But refusing to forgive ourselves isn’t humble—it’s prideful. If the God of the universe has forgiven you, who are you to question his judgment? If Christ has paid the price for your sins, who are you to claim your sins are too great? Shame can become a form of pride. Humble yourself before God and accept how he sees you—forgiven.
Hebrews 10:22Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
1 John 1:8-9If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Christ saves us from any and all sin. When we confess our sins to him and repent, our guilt is gone. That’s a promise God gives us. And if the God of the universe declares us forgiven, then who are we to withhold forgiveness from ourselves? Embrace God’s gift, and move forward with fresh purpose on the path he has laid out. If the God of the universe can forgive you, who are you to withhold forgiveness from yourself? Is it pride? If God is for us, then who can be against us? Don’t reject forgiveness for shame.
