Tackling Life
Maintaining and Growing in Purity
Maintaining and Growing in Purity
1. Be a beacon that clearly reflects Jesus as the Light of the world and Savior of those who trust in Him. That is why it is so important for Christian friends and relatives to keep one another from disgraceful sins. Who would want to have a personal relationship with a God whose followers don’t honor Him? See Proclaim the Gospel and Be Light to the World Together
2. Take very seriously how much our society needs honorable people with biblical morals and ethics in neighborhoods, on jobs and everywhere else. Our hurting world needs people who will build it up, not tear it further down. God did not take you to heaven the moment you joined eternity through Jesus Christ because He wants to use you to make life better for those who do not believe. See Be Salt Together in a Bland, Tasteless World
3. Expect close Christian friends to check on the strength of your faith and your resistance to ethical and moral sin. Let them know that you want them to do this. Give them permission to ask you personal questions. Don’t insist on the kind of privacy that risks God’s honor. Autonomy is hardly biblical. See Examine One Another’s Faith
4. Gather a group of two or three other friends and make a commitment to pursue holiness and perfection together. Satan uses secular culture to promote temptations and take you away from holiness — from being set aside for God. You want to go often to a close group of Christian friends and tell about victories of resistance to moral and ethical sins. See Pursue Holiness and Perfection Together
5. The Evil One loves to attack with monetary and sexual temptations. Make a pact with those in your Christian inner circle that you will warn each other whenever one of you seems weak in the face of these enchantments. Alert each other when you see someone tempting them or from dangers that they bring into their own lives. Admonish one another toward diligent and stubborn resistance to evil. See Warn and Admonish One Another
6. Make sure that those in your Christian inner circle place courage into one another to live ethically and morally. To achieve and maintain moral purity, surround yourself with Christians who want to live for God so faithfully that they are transparent, not so private that they hide personal information for safety. They need to be open about their need for courage rather than hide this out of pride and go on to stumble. See Encourage One Another
7. Open up the possibility of spiritual healing by confessing any moral sins to your closest Christian friends and relatives. The longer you wait, the more entrenched ungodly desires and behaviors will become. Ultimately, you will negatively affect your quality of life in heaven. See Confess Sins to One Another
8. Avoid the notion that the most valuable kind of worship is singing in church. Recognize that the way we live is either costly — therefore highly valuable — worship (in spirit and in truth) or disgraceful, the opposite of worship. Do not allow yourself to think you met your obligation last Sunday in church and can now “live off the grid.” See Worship God Together
9. Since your eternal life has been purchased by the precious blood of God’s only begotten Son, let God have His way in your moral life and come under His authority. God’s way is what is best for you through this short earthly life, and most certainly what is best for your never-ending life. Don’t let yourself eventually face the transition of death with unnecessary regrets as a result of forbidden, momentary pleasures now. See Submit to God Together
10. Do some significant service for God together with a close friend who knows what is going on in your life. Don’t limit yourself to a ministry team that experiences only superficial relationships. Christian facades can hide morally wrong behaviors that are a threat to the integrity of the ministry. Joshua 7 shows us how even death can come from the immoral behavior of unknown people in the group. Knowing that your pure behavior is absolutely critical to the success of something you are trying to do for others can help you make right choices when attractive but destructive temptations arise. See Serve God Together
11. Love close friends with agape love, which is self-denial for another’s good. Protect those you date from your own sexual urges as well as his or hers. Know that a forbidden sexual relationship is not good for the other person or yourself in the long run. Self-denial for the other’s good (and for your own moral purity) is a gift you give God. Avoid greed, drug and alcohol abuse, adultery, etc. See Love One Another
12. Don’t do anything to disrespect your friends or their futures. Be devoted to those you do things with. Seek their long-range good. If you would not do it with your mother, father, sister or brother, don’t do it. See Be Devoted to One Another
13. Commit yourself to the morals of your primary citizenship, which is heaven. Be aware that those of God’s kingdom do not have the same lifestyle as the cultures in which they live. Instead, God’s honor is the main consideration, and people are too precious to corrupt. See Live as Citizens of Heaven
14. Meet frequently with other Christians who live for God’s glory rather than primarily to have a good time. This will help you be more faithful to your true identity as a Christian. The more you are immersed in society’s wayward or oppositional culture, the more frequently you need to be with active, faithful believers. See Meet Together Regularly
15. Never exploit another person. It is your responsibility to bless others with God’s grace flowing through you. Satan will want you to give in to your selfish desires instead. Get more excited about being God’s agent of goodness than about participating in any worldly or sensual experiences. See Administer God’s Grace to One Another
16. If you find yourself in a potentially compromising situation, tell your friend(s) your convictions and ask them to help you stick to them, even if they are not of similar persuasion. If your friends try to dissuade you from following your conscience, confront them for being unhelpful. You may have to break a friendship, but do it by kindly explaining your reasons. See Speak to One Another Truthfully and Helpfully
17. You and your friends need to test each other’s ideas when questionable opportunities come along. The more attractive a sin, the stronger we tend to rationalize that it is okay. Don’t destroy your own faith or make Christianity look bad in the eyes of outsiders for a few forbidden pleasures or extravagant pursuits. See Contend for the Faith Together
18. Jump right into the battles your Christian friends have with temptations. And let them help you fight off your own temptations before they become sins. Without your friends in the war against temptation, you will fall into something you really don’t want as a follower of Jesus Christ. See Battle Temptation Together
19. Commit as Christian friends to begin rescue operations immediately if one of you begins doing something very wrong. Once the rescue is effective, build your friend up to be much stronger so it does not happen again. See Rescue and Restore One Another
20. Keep each other from reacting to stress with dangerous diversions. Face each other’s hardships together and don’t let discouragement and stress weaken faith. Help each other solve problems and come out of hardships stronger than ever. See Endure Trouble and Hardship Together
21. Keep each other’s hope in heaven strong so you’ll have the incentive to go on living a pure life in honor of the Lord. We can become so shortsighted that disappointments and defeats stimulate a stressful “who cares” attitude. This weakens your resistance to sin and sensuality. See Preserve One Another’s Hope