Pure Life Alliance

We believe that God's standard, defined in scripture, will provide the most abundant life for us. Our heavenly Father loves us and He isn't some cosmic kill-joy. We believe God has revealed a plan for our lives that will result in an abundant life, if we walk in obedience.

The Lord's standards go way beyond just behaving a certain way. Our Lord wants our heart. Clearly the Lord wants our obedience, and proper behavior is necessary but not sufficient to maintain a pure heart.

Consider what Jesus said: You have heard that it was said, "Do not commit adultery." But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5: 27-28 NIV)

The Message, a paraphrased text by Eugene Peterson, reads this way: You know the next commandment pretty well, too: "Don't go to bed with another's spouse.' But don't think you've preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices--they also corrupt. "Let's not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here's what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. (Matthew 5:27-29 The Message)

The apostle Paul was equally clear:

But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity (Ephesians 5:3 NIV)

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths (Ephesians 4:29 NIV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will. ... (Romans 12:1-2 NIV)

God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful--as beautiful on the inside as the outside. (I Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7 The Message)

There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one." Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever-the kind of sex that can never "become one". "There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body. (1 Corinthians 6:16-20 The Message)

...Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5b NIV)

It isn't only the New Testament that talks about sexual immorality. Proverbs, in the Old Testament, is full of wisdom for men about sexual purity:

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23 NIV)

Don't lustfully fantasize on her beauty, nor be taken in by her bedroom eyes. You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread, but a wanton woman may well eat you alive. Can you build a fire in your lap and not burn your pants? Can you walk barefoot on hot coals and not get blisters? (Proverbs 6:25-28 The Message)

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. (Job 31:1 NIV)

Temptation is not sin, but once we give in our sin often progresses

But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15 NIV)

James also offers a simple prescription for healing: Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (James 5:16 NIV)