Practicing Hesed (4): Virgin
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8
Pure – There are some strange facts about this Greek word, hagnos. Its development leads us on a dramatic path fit for a movie. Hagnos begins as a word about religious awe. It describes things that are taboo. In particular, it is used to speak about those things that make you unfit for worship and in ancient times these activities included touching the dead, having sex and disobeying rituals. Eventually the word settles around the concept of ritual cleanliness. Over time, the word moves from a description of outside purity to inner chastity and moral blamelessness.
But here’s an odd fact about hagnos. It is never found on the lips of Jesus. In fact, it isn’t used in the Gospels at all. In the New Testament, this ancient word about religious purity is never used to describe rituals. It is restricted to matters of the heart.
Look at 2 Corinthians 11:2 where the word describes that necessary inward quality of a bride of the King or 1 John 3:3 where the word describes the spiritual demeanor of a follower of Jesus. See how hagnos is tied to “what is right (that is, what conforms to the rule of God’s authority) in this verse. If we wanted to summarize the act and attitude of hagnos in the New Testament, we could say that hagnos represents the quality of being a virgin by choice. The person who exhibits hagnos knows that following Jesus requires the discipline of modesty, innocence, moral perfection and freedom from impurities. There is no such thing as “almost a virgin,” just as there is no such thing as “almost sinless.” Paul reminds us that focus on purity is in alignment with God. Anything less is unworthy.
Hagnos is one of the scary words. It’s a word that brings incredible conviction and nearly paralyzing guilt. The truth is that I am not pure. I don’t have that virgin attitude and action toward life. I’ve messed up and I’m often tripped up even though I wish to be faithful and pure for my Lord. That makes hagnos a word of judgment; a standard that I just can’t seem to keep. Maybe that’s why Jesus never used it. Jesus doesn’t want me to be confused. Hagnos is my goal but it is not my measuring stick. Paul tells me to focus my thoughts on purity because focused thoughts will transform the structure of my mind. But Paul knows quite clearly, and quite personally, that hagnos can only convict me if it is used to determine my spiritual worth. Don’t be disheartened. God doesn’t measure you by hagnos. He measures you by Jesus’ sacrifice. But He wants you to adopt hagnos as your objective. Think about it.
