Many people will tell you that you need to keep the bad influences out of your life to keep your life pure. That makes one very bad assumption. It assumes that you are naturally good. This means some bad influence is always responsible for any bad thing you have ever done. Come on, you know better than that!
The sin of Adam infected all of humanity. It has taken away our innocence. We can sin while we are all alone. We don't have to have an outside influence.
Living a pure life must, therefore, include something outside of the fallen world. It must be something that comes from God's grace. God's grace is all that is truly good in the world today. His grace is predominantly noticed in the gift of His Son on the cross. He paid for our sins out of His grace.
His grace has given us His Word. The Bible came through the hands and minds of people whom God led. He authored the words through these people. He sent His instructions to us. He tells us in Psalm 119 that we can keep our way pure (He actually says "young man" but that is easy to understand. About 95% of all crime comes from young men. If young men can keep their way pure, the rest of us will find it much easier by following these same instructions.). He tells us to center our lives in His Word.
He tells us to wholeheartedly live our lives according to His Word. We seek the Lord through His Word. We treasure it in our hearts. We are taught by it. We tell it to others. We repeat it to ourselves. We meditate on it. We praise God over it. We store it in our memories. It is through these activities with the Word of knowing it fully and doing it with delight that we keep our way pure.
How shall we be taught this Word? Jesus has promised us that the Holy Spirit would teach us. We have lost the meaning of the Word if we simply open our Bibles and read it as literature. It has a spiritual dimension that no other book has. I, personally, invite the Holy Spirit to read the Word to me. New insights to the Word arrive by His speaking into my heart. This, too, is God's grace.
You will never keep your way pure by keeping out bad influences. You must have the Spirit of God enter your life through trusting in Jesus Christ as your savior. You must have the Word enter your life through a daily time of reading, meditating, reciting, applying and memorizing this Word. You must have the Holy Spirit give you the insight of what the Word says.
Ultimately, keeping our ways pure will always be a love issue. In this it is just like a marriage. The reason that a man keeps himself only for his spouse is because of his commitment and love for his wife. He may make every excuse for infidelity but she will always know that there was a problem with his love for her. Often the reason for infidelity is because the husband (or wife) loved himself more than he loved his wife. He is sorry later but he has also broken a bond of purity.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep the Word. Then, you will be on the path to purity.
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