STRANGER SCRIPTURES - PART THREE

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Have you ever read something in the Bible and been thoroughly confused about what it meant or how it fit with the rest of the Scriptures?

Maybe you feel really comfortable with the Jesus you know and accepted as Lord and Savior, but you come across a verse that doesn’t really seem to fit.

What we believe about the Bible is absolutely paramount to our faith.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

If we believe that ALL Scripture is inspired by God, then we can’t just set some verses aside became they make us uncomfortable. We have to believe every single word of this Bible as deeply as we believe the passages we know that make us feel good.

John 3:16 is awesome. Mark 11:22-24 are powerful. Psalm 91 is comforting. Those are easy to believe and memorize and confess and claim all day long. What do we do with some of these others, though? If you’re able to disqualify even one verse as not being born out of the heart of God, you open up the conversation for any verse to be thrown out.

For the next few weeks, we’re going to be dissecting some of the most commonly misunderstood verses in the Bible. I believe this will help us to be stronger in our faith and more assured that the Word of God in its entirety is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives, according to Paul’s letter to Timothy.

The Bible was not written for your comfort. It was not meant to reinforce the instincts of your flesh or affirm your feelings. It is Jesus on paper, which means that it is going to challenge your paradigms. It’s going to disrupt your comfort zone.

At the same time, God is not schizophrenic. He doesn’t suffer from an identity crisis. He is consistent, which means His Word is consistent. In this series, we’re going to take a closer look at some passages in the Bible that may seem confusing or even contradictory on the surface and discuss their real meaning and how they fit into the truth of who God is, His heart for you, and how the whole Bible shows us that without exception.

Every weekend, we’ll put up a poll on Instagram with four options from which you can choose which passage you’d like to discuss the following Tuesday. This week’s poll came down to the wire, but our winner was...

Titus 1:15 ESV

15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

I’ve heard this Scripture quoted often and always with a different meaning. What’s important in studying the Bible is knowing what it actually means. What did it mean when the author inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote it? What did it mean to the original recipient of this letter?

In order to do this, we need to know who wrote it, who received it, and what the circumstances surrounding its writing were.

It was written by Paul to a guy named Titus, who was one of his disciples. They had gone to a place called Crete to evangelize and start a church. Paul and Titus had been together for years. They went to Crete, which is considered to be a place of intense debauchery. In fact, the word “Cretans” is still used to describe people who are wild and immoral.

So let’s expand the context of this verse.

Titus 1:10–16 ESV

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Would you believe me if I told you this passage was about food? Here’s the deal: the Jewish people had ceremonial cleansing rituals and didn’t eat certain foods that were considered unclean or impure. Things were purified by ritual. The Greeks (of whom Titus was one) argued about what they were compelled to do as Christians who weren’t Jews. Did they have to abide by the same rituals?

Paul is talking specifically here about those who were speaking about purification of flesh by ritual and not by faith. That’s why he says the defiled are unbelieving. The pure are those of faith. They’ve received their cleansing by the blood of Jesus and no other method. And when you’ve been made pure by the blood of Jesus, there is ceremonial impurity that can erase that.

Meanwhile, for those who are unbelievers, nothing has been purified. They’ve not accepted the only thing that can purify them, so nothing about them will be pure.

When Jesus is Lord of your life and His blood has cleansed you of all unrighteousness, there is no work of the devil that has the ability to make you unclean without your permission.

1 John 1:7 ESV

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

There is no ceremonial cleansing for us; Jesus has already done it. Our response and acceptance of what He’s done for us makes us pure in the sight of God.

No matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve walked away from Him, His blood is enough. Even if you’re caught in a cycle of going back to that trash over and over again, I want you to know tonight that His blood is enough. Receive the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ has purchased for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

How do we move away from sin? By moving toward a new identity. You can’t identify with the sin; you have to identify with the Savior. If you see yourself as defiled, you’ll act defiled. But when you receive the purifying work of the blood of Jesus, you begin to identify differently. In a world where you can identify as whatever you want to, what does a generation look like when they choose to identify themselves first and foremost as children of the living God? As purified by the blood of Jesus? As set free from the bondage of sin?

Your perspective matters. How do you see yourself and how do you see the world? If your heart is defiled - which means to be made unclean by a process of decisions - then the whole world will look a certain way.

But if Jesus is Lord and He’s made you clean by His blood, you see things differently. You see people differently. You see yourself differently.

You can’t earn the purification of your soul. It’s been won for you by the victory of Jesus. Accepting it should change you. Change the way you see yourself, which will change the way you live, and change the way you see everything else and everyone else, which results in a change in the way you treat people and see the whole world around you.

Matthew 12:34–35 ESV

34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

What you say will be a result of the condition of your heart. You need to change what you say, but you really need to change what you think.

Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

All the issues of life come down to the condition of your heart. Purify your heart. Let Jesus be the Lord AND Savior.

If you need to receive the blood of Jesus tonight, it’s available to you. All you have to do is ask in faith and receive!