Our eyes may be opened, but we are walking steadily out of the garden of paradise. To lose purity and chastity is to lose innocence. More emotional chaos, heartbreak, hardness of heart and raging restlessness result from this lack of understanding than our world would ever have the courage to admit. Our world, in fact, does the church a huge favor when it points this out.īeyond this, however, the world does itself immeasurable harm by not understanding the place of purity and chastity. Living and loving are messy businesses and to be excessively given over to purity is to be a prude. To love in real life is to stain the purity of our baptismal robes and our childhood dreams. An excessive concern for purity can crush life, rob it of its earthiness, its spontaneity and many of its deep pleasures. To believe in purity, especially sexual purity, is tantamount to believing in Santa and the Easter Bunny. Purity is, for the most part, seen as naivete, as lack of nerve, as lack of drive for life. Purity and any type of chaste hesitancy is, in our world, regarded with a disapproval bordering on disdain. On the other hand, the world does not understand purity. Still, in the end, the church has been, and still is, too fearful here. Passion without proper checks has led to an early grave for more than a few loves and lives.
People perceive things quite subjectively and the church is often times as much scapegoat as it is villain. That is a perception and perhaps it is unfair. In the world, the church is seen as the enemy of passion. Many people, in fact, perceive the church as anti-erotic and anti-sexual, as an institution that, regarding passion and sex, is excessively fearful, timid, paranoid and restrictive. More commonly, at least in how the church is perceived by the world, there is the image of an institution that is so concerned for purity, especially sexual purity, that it fears passion and positively denigrates it. However, that is not the general picture. Let us begin with the church: Clearly there are within the church individual voices and traditions, important ones, which cannot be accused of not understanding passion. Too often the church’s concern for purity blocks it from properly appropriating passion, just as the world’s unbridled romance with passion generally blinds it to the importance of purity. That might be rather simplistic and a dangerous generalization but, to my mind, it contains some important truth. In a culture obsessed with dating, sex, and intimacy, the need for Elliot’s freeing message is greater than ever.Someone once said that the church does not understand passion while the world does not understand purity. *putting God’s desires ahead of personal desires *the man’s and woman’s role in relationships *whether or not to marry, and who is the right one *loving passionately while remaining sexually pure Includes honest, biblical direction on these important matters of the heart These revealing personal glimpses, combined with relevant biblical teaching, will remind you that only by putting your human passion and desire through His fire can God purify your love. Through letters, diary entries, and memories, she shares the temptations, difficulties, victories, and sacrifices of two young people whose commitment to Christ took priority over their love for each other.
In her classic book, Passion and Purity, Elisabeth Elliot candidly shares with you her love story with Jim Elliot as evidence that she has been there. But so often it is a painful, lonely process that takes longer than we want it to.
We know we need to commit daily to Christ all matters of the heart and to wait upon Him.
Theology -Exegetical Historical Practical.