Cleaning Time || Sins of the World #2

An Impure State of Mind

Welcome back to “Sins of the World.” I’m taking a deeper dive into the words of Galatians 5:19-21 to talk about what we need to avoid and how they can lead us to the Fruits of the Spirit. In Part 1, we talked about sexual immorality. The word that Paul uses in Galatians 5:19 describes sexual activity that happens outside of the covenant of marriage. This included things like pre-marital sex to adultery to incest. When I looked at these things from a modern context, I created this definition:

Committing sexual acts or being nude with someone(s) outside of the boundaries of a healthy, God-led romantic relationship with the intent to accomplish sexual satisfaction, obtain money, satisfy lustful desires, or obtain gratification in a noncommittal manner in a way that can involve a variety of forms of abuse, force and/or inhuman treatment of those involved.

I looked at Matthew 5:32 to see how the Gospels talk about it. We saw that the Jesus mentioned sexual immorality is the only grounds for divorce. The ancient audience took the marriage covenant very seriously, as a lifelong bond that should never be broken. Now, I believe it was due to the societal priority of procreation. However, we don’t have the push of procreation as they did. However, it did lead me to recognize the struggles to commitment and relationships that we have. When it comes to sex, we need to make sure the person that we are doing these acts with are people that we can trust and that we will be with long-term due to its emotional aspect. It’s a reminder that we need to have a healthy relationship with the person, regardless of our sexual orientation.

In Part 2, we move to talk about impurity. Purity culture is very mainstream in religious circles, and is a constant theme that we see across the Bible. The understanding is try to be clean and without blemish was the path to find reconciliation with God. However, we know Jesus took our blemishes to the cross and tore the curtain that separated us from God. Where does that leave purity in the conversation then? We need to first understand what Paul meant by impurity?

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How was biblical impurity taught to you? What impact did it make in your journey growing up?

Understanding Purity and Purity Culture

The Greek word that Paul uses here is akatharsia (ah-kath-ar-SEE-ah). It describes any state – thought, desire, word, or action – that makes a person morally unclean before God. The Old Testament manages the external uncleanness, but the New Testament focuses on inner defilement that shows through our outward acts. Jesus describes in Matthew 23:27 how the problem stems from the inner parts of our being. Life can go on as normal until we find it confronted by the truth of God’s Word. Paul views as a symptom and accelerate into human rebellion, leading towards potential future lawlessness if left unchecked.

The first-century Jews understood the impurity laws, but the Greco-Roman culture celebrated sexual excess. The church’s push towards radical purity helped it stand out against the pagan temple.

Impurity can ruin relationships, give us rose-colored glasses on the bigger views of the world, and invites divine discipline. We need to watch for these impurities in what we consume through media, our relationships, and false teachings from the church. We need to talk about both our hope in Christ to be cleansed and what can happen when we refuse to repent. (We will touch on 1 John 1:9 later on). We’ll also touch on four ways that we can find protection against impurity:

• Guarding our hearts – focus on God’s word can keep our walls us when impure desires push their way in.
• Flee temptations – creating boundaries that protect us against the harm of impurity.
• Pursue accountability – finding safe people in our lives that we can confess things to and remove the weight of secrecy in our hearts.
• Celebrate grace – focusing on the Spirit can help guide us to victory.

These are all focuses that I believe we will touch on as we work through our focus scripture, our journey through cleansing and discipline, and understanding what impurity can look like in our culture today. Before we get into this, I also want to touch on the very real and present dangers and trauma of purity that was and is taught today.

Commonly taught in the 1990s and early 2000s was the following:

• No sex before marriage
• Women, girls, and female presenting individuals were told to cover up and dress modestly to “avoid arousing sexual urges in men, boys, and male presenting individuals”
• Emphasizing traditional gender roles
• No casual dating
• Uses comprehensive moral systems that ties sexual behavior to spiritual identity, gender roles, and communal belongings

There are a lot of changes when it move society into 2026. Pre-marital sex has become incredibly common. All people are encouraged to express themselves however they would want regardless of what others would perceive. There’s been an intense movement away from traditional gender roles, emphasizing that two people should provide equal participation in a relationship. Casual dating was a way to introduce themselves to a relationship to see if it could lead to something long term.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When you look at purity, what does it mean to you? How did it impact your understanding of the world?

Impurities Found in the World

Let’s go read Romans 6:19 to see what more Paul had to say on impurity:

AMP – I am speaking in [familiar] human terms because of your natural limitations [your spiritual immaturity.] For just as you presented your bodily members as slaves to impurity and to [moral] lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now offer your members [your abilities, your talents] as slaves to righteousness, lead to sanctification [that is, being set apart for God’s purpose].

NRSVUE – I am speaking human terms because of your limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

VOICE – Forgive me for using casual language to compensate for your natural weakness of human understanding. I want to be perfectly clear. In the same way you gave your bodily members away as slaves to corrupt and lawless living and found yourselves deeper in your unruly lives, now devote your members as slaves to right and reconciled lives so you will find yourselves deeper in holy living.

Paul acknowledges the limitations of what we can understand due to our human nature. The belief was that sin impairs our ability to fully grasp divine concepts. The weaknesses of our flesh describes our sinful nature that inherently opposes God’s will. Paul wants to ensure that the Roman church comprehended what teachings he uses.

Before conversion, they were enslaved to sin, offering their bodies to the impurities of the world and the lawlessness that comes with it – describing the mindsets of most societies at the time that focused on idolatry and moral corruption happening. The were members that were totally submitted to these temptations. Paul calls on the Roman audience hearing this letter to live righteously, which is divinely possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. We are called to submit out lives to God’s will.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Paul calls out the Roman audience to separate themselves from their sinful behavior, and move to a place of righteousness and submissions to God’s will. What does this look like to you? What behaviors come to mind that may be against God’s will, and how do you find a transitional point to God’s will?

Comparing Purity Laws to Today’s Standards

If you are interested in learning about the purity laws of the ancient Jewish people, I encourage you to read Leviticus 11-15. There’s a lot of information to cover in those chapters that make its hard to summarize in one blog. A lot of the studies I’ve read on that carry these laws into Jesus’ time and 1^st century Judaism centered around idolatry, sex relations, and disreputable behavior.

The Jewish audience was taught not to worship any being, concept, or item that was supposed to represent God. Our eyes must stay focused on God and God alone. He is the one that released us from our bondage, not a golden calf. He is the one that sent His only son so that we can have a reconciled relationship with Him, not a statue. He is the one that forgives our sins and transforms us to be like His child, not the sun. Our eyes stay focused on on God, and we respond through gratitude, love, and a commitment to share that grace and mercy out to the world.

When it comes to sexual relations, continuing slightly our conversation from Part 1, a lot of what I understand comes from the management of the marriage covenant and the exchange and cleanliness of the bodily fluid. We talked a lot on how important it was to maintain the marriage covenant, not necessarily for procreation purposes, but to help create a loving, caring, and compassionate relationship. The impurity of maintaining the covenant would have been if there was any cheating or anything that voids the sanctity of the relationship you had with your spouse. A lot of impurity conversations tend to be around the exchange of fluids that happen during sexual activity, or during menstruation. It didn’t make those involved sinfully impure, but they would have had gone through cleansing rituals and proceedings. It’s a reminder for us to be intentional on our sexual journey, being mindful that our relationships and activities have the foundation of God’s love, care, and compassion for each other.

Disreputable behavior is potentially the tougher one to help wrap our minds around because that can be subject to our own perception. However, I tend to go back to what Jesus labeled as the top commands: love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves. God’s will is to reflect the same mercy He gifted to us to all others, as a response to the sacrifice He made to give us a path towards recreation. It’s when we let our ego, our pride, or greed, and more get in the way of showing true care for our neighbor. We would want to be loved and cared for as much as the next person. Through God, and what we witness in the ministry of Jesus, we learn what it means to share that grace and mercy, and how we can use the talents and skills that reside within us to move us forward into the right direction.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: Through idolatry, sexual relations, and disreputable behavior, which do you see yourself struggling with more? Why? How can you work on turning towards God to help out?

Seeking Cleansing

As mentioned, let’s look at the cleansing of this impurity in 1 John 1:9.

AMP – If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].

NRSVUE – If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

VOICE – But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done.

The big focus is confession – to acknowledge your sins before God. Confession was often accompanied by acts of repentance and sacrifice (in the Old Testament. Confession is about recognizing our wrong decisions and turn away from the path that those decisions set us down. In the New Testament, confessions shifts to the forgiveness found through Jesus. Accepting Christ’s sacrificial offering means that we agree with God about our sin, showing that we come to Him humbly and honest.

God responses through His just nature, acting in accordance with His righteousness. We can trust that God will respond to confession with forgiveness. God will not overlook sin, but will address it in a way that is consistent with His character. Forgiveness is something we receive through Jesus’ death and resurrection. When we accept that this act was done on our behalf, we receive complete forgiveness, finding our freedom from the penalty of sin. This forgiveness restores our relationship with God, allowing for spiritual transformation and growth.

Cleansing goes beyond forgiveness. It shows a purification process that transforms our life. We’re purified through the sacrificial blood of Jesus during His crucifixion. (Sounds gross/morbid, but it connects to the Old covenant’s sacrificial rituals.) The cleansing process lasts for all of our lives, through the power and purity of the Holy Spirit. God wants to see us transformed, so that we can live in His righteousness and move towards His holiness.

God’s goal is to see us turn away from our sinful decisions and move towards His open arms, embracing the work that has been for us to develop a relationship with Him. We receive forgiveness of our past hurts, habits, and hangups and we work towards a life-long transformation process that creates us into His image and His vessel to go out and care for our neighbors as He cares for us. We will not have a perfect path to get there, however – God is with us each day and step of our journey. This is why it’s a life-long journey, because it’s going to take time, but it’ll be worth it in the end. We get to share God’s love and compassion to the world, hopefully leaving it in a better place for the next generation, and so that we find our place in eternity.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: The goal of the cleansing of our impurities is to see us transformation as a reflection of Christ for the world to see. How do you see a cleansing process happening for you?