Purity II

When the time came for their purification ...

 - From Luke 2

There certainly is a lot of talk about "purity" in Scripture. When pure, good things happen. When corrupt, bad things happen. Or at least, this seems to be the case in the rise and fall of Israel.

But historians - - - the honest ones - - - have always observed and confirmed this fact of human behavior.

There is a commitment to standards of personal behavior, as a civilization grows in power and influence. Once on top of the global system, laziness sets in, they begin to scoff at those norms that we were all expected to follow. And decline (usually violent) follows the corruption of morals.

Humans will always mock the idea of purity. For whatever reason, we have equated lack of personal moral standards with being "cool." We strive to redefine morality so that, no matter what we do, at least we can align with contemporary standards of "morality."

Note how readily modern politicians - those that are quickest to denounce traditional standards of purity - define their motivations as being "moral."

We want to be thought of as "moral," no matter how we actually believe.

"He's a decent human being" means "He behaves as I want to, and is nice to the right people, while being hateful, in turn, to the right people."

Purification rites were standard fare in Ancient Israel. They mostly served the purpose of reminding us that we are fallen, that we die, and that the reason we die is because we sin. Therefore we seek to purify ourselves. We want to tame those selfish and urgent impulses that enslave us.

Valuing purity does not mean we expect everyone to act perfectly pure all the time.

It does mean that we understand the perfect standard, and hope to draw closer to it, as we progress through our lives.