For the last few weeks I have been dealing with the fallout of a moral lapse of a close friend and ministry colleague. These struggles are hardly news for the church, but still the strain and residual harm seems to mushroom with each new look at it. It has caused me to consider again the idea of purity. Not just the virtue of it, but also its significance in the realm of leadership.

The idea that haunts my meditation is this one from Paul:

“To the pure all things are pure…” — Titus 1

In general we think that a person becomes pure (at least in the logic of the old purity code) by abstaining from the impure. That is: only doing, touching, and thinking about the things that actually are pure. It has always been that things either are themselves (objectively) pure or impure, and the people who are pure are, naturally, the people who stay away from the things that corrupt their purity (the things are objectively pure or impure), and the person then is subjectively pure or impure based on our interaction with those realities. In other words, we decide to be pure or impure, butthings themselves don’t. We change. They don’t.

And yet, here it is: a reversal of that way of thinking. Paul seems to be offering us the possibility of a person who is objectively pure, and who somehow changes the nature of the things she interacts with. For the pure person (objective, a static state) all things become pure (a subjective dynamic state).

Revolutionary. I want to be pure in this way. I want the relationships I have, the leadership I offer, my motives and mindset to be pure. I want to be holy. I want to teach leaders to be holy in this same way.

The problem with the old purity code is that we externalize holiness. We think that purity (or impurity) is something that happens to us. If I am around a beautiful woman then of course, I will lust and then be riddled with impure thoughts, so I shun that woman. If I am around a more successful leader then I will envy and be riddled with impure thoughts. If I am put on stage I will be tempted to ambition, if I am mocked or embarrassed or slighted then I will be tempted by malice, bitterness, or rage. These things represent static threats and I am the one who changes by encountering them. But what if Paul is right? what if there were a way to be pure? To enter into each of these situations with a pure heart and mind, to look upon that woman or that leader as something holy? To see a beloved sister, a potential mentor, and the loving correction of God? Perhaps it is each situation that can be pure or impure depending on the state of the heart that encounters them.

I think this is right. I think that we can be pure before we encounter the world around us. It is a question of primacy, and even something that is considered corrupt to another can be pure for us, because we see the work of God in it. The converse is of course also true, to the impure, everything is impure. If you find yourself struggling with lust, envy, or greed, the answer (I am sorry to say) may not be simply cutting off the supply of those experiences. Maybe those things are not what is impure. You are. Your only real hope for lasting purity is to deal with yourself. To become someone who is pure.

Maybe those things are not what is impure. You are.

When I consider that work, I realize that there is only one place, or rather one person to whom I can turn. Jesus waits for each of us, each morning and each evening, before and after every conversation and every conscious thought. He is eternally present to take us by the hand and to lead us deeper into his way and his world. He waits for us to offer him our hearts, our minds, and the whole of our lives so that he can make them pure. He has cleansed us by the washing of water of his word. He waits to baptize us in his words every day. The deeper we go into those waters the more we are changed.

Into someone more like Jesus, who when faced with almost irresistible temptation in the desert, simply turned away. Because he was pure.

This is the work and value of purity, to allow God to change who we are before we encounter temptation. Purity is not accomplished in the moment of struggle, it is exposed then. Be holy Jesus said, as your Father is holy.

And every encounter then is changed, as radically as we are.