Clean As a Whistle
Friday, September 1, 2023
“To adulterate the church is to pollute a well, to pour water upon fire, to sow a fertile field with stones.” – C.H. Spurgeon
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines adulterate as “to corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance or element.” Likewise, it defines the word pollute as “to make physically, ceremonially, or morally impure; to debase, defile, or befoul.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone messing with my drinking water. I had enough of that when I visited Kenya on a prison ministry trip in 2014. Despite only drinking bottled water or soda, I still managed to contract dysentery, which made my insides feel like someone was wringing them dry with their bare hands. The term “gut-wrenching” doesn’t begin to describe the pain, anguish, and discomfort that caused me to lose 10 pounds in just a couple days.
The New Testament Church is also known as the Body of Christ. In other words, the true Church isn’t the building; it is the people inside it. And so, it only makes sense for Jesus to want to protect and preserve His Church, which is also referred to in Scripture as His Bride.
He doesn’t want it polluted with faulty doctrine or unclean behavior. That is why Paul was adamant about ridding the Corinthian church of a man who was sleeping with his own stepmother until he repented… and why he continuously warned Timothy about the dangers of false teachers.
My friends, let’s do everything in our power to keep ourselves pure so that we don’t dirty the House of God or damage His reputation. But, when (not if) we fall short, please remember that Jesus is ready, willing, and able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (see I John 1:9).
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” I Corinthians 6:9-11 (BSB)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
