Purity V

... if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you.

 - From 1 Corinthians 15

Purity comes in many forms. You may be pure in regards to smoking, meaning, you don't smoke at all, neither do you chew tobacco.

You can refrain from caffeine. No coffee nor tea. Many soft drinks are prohibited.

Some people voluntarily avoid foods to which they are not allergic. But they refuse to eat them anyway. They do not eat meat. They skip dairy. Gluten, sugars, fermented foods: all are typical foods that are avoided, as a matter of health, principle, and even politics. And there is no doubt, it is good for you if you so refrain. People that fast from meat and dairy affirm of the positive effects of doing without.

You may be pure vis-a-vis the law. A person that never speeds nor breaks any traffic law, is a purist in that area. They also will never get a ticket, and will have up to a hundred dollars that could be spent on a nice night out with family.

Some people strive to be ethical purists. Never lie. Never cheat. They won't even take a paper-clip home from the office, as that is stealing. This person, too, will never be accused of doing something improper in the office.

You can refrain from any swearing, cursing, or vulgarity. These people will never stir up anger in others, by their words.

And of course, the two "Biggies" of purity are abstention from alcohol and sexual abstinence. These both are big, because you can get mocked for choosing these lifestyles of doing without. The sexually abstinent is a virtual pariah in society. And I have always marveled at this. Why don't we celebrate people that aspire to such a high-level of self-control, and regard for the best interests of others?

You will not receive, nor spread around, any STDs. You will never have to worry about an "unwanted" pregnancy and the costs it forces on others. You will not have to worry about breaking someone else's heart. And you will be developing a form of self-control that is perhaps partly responsible for our out-of-control culture.

Someone suggested that the sex act is the most selfish act committed by one human to another (how many people, claiming to "love" someone else, would stay with that person if they never "put out"?) But turn this around, and it may be said that the most unselfish thing one can do is to bring a child into the world, and devote everything to him or her.

Purity is a thing because it's not easy. We can try to force acceptance of all kinds of vices, through pop culture, social media, and even through the law. But the basic definitions of what lifestyles are "pure" and which are not, can never change.

There's no "changing times" that can ever make an abstinent person equally as pure as a sexually active person, in regards to sex.

When it comes to drinking . . . no matter how society's values change, you can never sustain an argument that a person that drinks, even a little, is equally as pure as a person that never drinks.

And so perhaps the adult thing to do is to accept all of this and realize that there really is a bulls-eye for morality and purity . . . . even if a majority of us wishes there weren't.

Paul writes that we should "hold firmly" to what we have been told. We would not be advised to hold firmly to anything, unless it could easily slip away.

Purity is like that.