The Temple at Home
but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith 1 Timothy 1:5 NASB
Pure – The real translation of this word is not “pure” but “clean.” It comes from the Greek word katharos. We get the English word “catharsis” from this Greek root. It means to “purge or cleanse.” Of course, what is cleansed is pure, so that’s why the translators chose to use pure rather than cleansed. But there is a slight difference and the difference is important. If we think about having a pure heart, we might conclude that we can make that happen ourselves. Right living, right thinking – following all the rules of life – maybe that’s all I need to have a pure heart acceptable to God. But that would be a tragic mistake. God does not grade on the curve. Our attempts to make ourselves pure in an effort to earn His favor are really an insult to Him. Why? Because no man can ever be good enough to become absolutely holy. To try that approach is really to say to God, “I can be like You,” an act that shows how wrongheaded we really are. Only God can be God. The essence of sin is idolatry – to put us in God’s position. Making myself pure is just another form of self-aggrandizement.
If I see that the verse really reads “out of a cleansed heart,” then I realize that this is a statement about ritual purity, not moral holiness. That means I need to understand this verse in the context of worship. To come into God’s presence requires that I be ritually cleansed. Every Jew knew this. Before I could ascend the Temple mount, I needed to go through an immersion (a Mikvah) so that none of the impurities of my life were carried into God’s presence. Of course, moral purity was also expected, but moral purity alone did not guarantee ritual purity. Many of the elements that might defile me were not sins. They were simply contacts with the profane. For example, a woman’s menstruation was not a sin, but it was profane. It carried ritual defilement. It must be cleansed.
Notice what Paul says about his instructions (by the way, the word in Hebrew would have been torah). The goal is the display of benevolence toward others from a ritually cleansed heart. Now, of course, no mikvah can cleanse my heart. Ritual purity is an external issue. But Paul makes it clear that the goal of instruction is not simply outside cleansing. It is outside cleansing that results from inside obedience. I follow God’s instructions. He provides a cleansed heart.
“Thank You, Father, for giving me a clean heart. I am eternally grateful. I kept falling down. All of my own efforts were grass-stained. Now green pastures are places for picnics.”
Topical Index: cleanse, katharos, ritual, 1 Timothy 1:5
The deeper, internal cleansing of the heart requires a willingness to see the destructive vileness of our hearts, and how it has caused us to wreck havoc while living here on earth. It requires a willingness to face the destruction and pain our actions have caused individuals. It requires us to be willing to feel the pain we have caused God and His creation and weep in Godly sorrow. Only then can the process of inner cleansing take place.
Thank you for the beautiful explanation of katharos. This encoured me to search further. It immediatly reminded me of Channah in 1 Sam 1:15 who answered Eli that she poured out her soul/heart before the Lord. This lead me to investiging the word pouring in hebrew which was a blessing. The pouring out ( the hebrew shephak-gush out, linked to mouth of a river or estuary, shephek) would be like a cataract which brings cleansing in the process to a sorrowful spirit. Bringing out that which has been defiled or hurt the heart on the inside. It seems as if the word also demonstrates the position of prayer in travail, stooping or bending, shephiphah in hebrew. The caph on the end of the word forms a pictogram of the bodily position. The attitude of humility of heart, shephloot is the preparedness to pour out the heart. .THe verb to water being hashaqah. Greeings from South Africa. Zyla Fourie-Kritzinger (Yzerfontein).
B-L-O-O-D. There. I said it. All things all cleansed-purged-made clean-forgiven-absolved-removed-purified by blood. (Hebrews 9.22: “according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
Blood used to be involved in temple sacrifice. It used to be the blood of bulls and calves and sometimes turtledoves, -but no more.
Another Sacrifice was made more than two millennia ago. Blood was spilled. Real red blood. The blood of a perfect Lamb.
And dear friend, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, Barbarian, Sycthian, (what’s a Sycthian?), bond or free all of us are “cleansed” or made pure by the blood of the cross. The tslav. The Execution Stake of the Messiah. Christ was crucified at Calvary.- May we ask “why?” Was the cross of Calvary necessary?
This. This is the focal point of all Hope. This. This is the focal point of all Love. This. This is the focal point of all history. This. This is the focal point of all mystery. This “cross” is the “why..” He- the Messiah-came to earth to die. Knowingly, willingly- He was a Man (the second Adam) with a mission.
On Calvary’s cross the blood of a Lamb was freely given for a some man’s sin. That man, -that man, dear friends- was me. It was my sin that held Him there- until it was “accomplished”. He paid for- in full- the hell I deserve. The wrath of G-d toward sin was fully spent upon the Son at Calvary. This. This is why G-d died. Yes. G-d died and we willingly, knowingly, amazingly crucified our own Creator.
His response toward us? “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do..” And (please) ask me..- what is my response toward tHis love?
~He that spared not His own Son- but delivered Him up for us all (does “all” mean “all?”) -how shall He not with Him- also freely give us (the ones responsible for His crucifixion) all (does “all” mean “all?) things? (Romans 8.32)
Indeed, this was the plan right back at Sinai, as Moses testifies:
Wait! Did we think that “circumcision of the heart” was a “New Testament” concept? Not so – here it is in Deuteronomy, when Moses is addressing the descendants of the generation that came out of Egypt; the generation that would enter the promised land. Right back then, the whole idea of “ritual purity” was not just to do with the “flesh”, but with the heart – the inner man – that which communes with God. So, what is the result? What is the indication that the heart is, indeed, circumcised?
But God knew that we would go astray. He knew that Israel would be cast out into the nations (because He knew what was truly in their hearts). Therefore, he promised:
Herein is the definition of “being circumcised of heart” or, dare I say, being “pure of heart”. Not perfect. Not “holier than thou”. Just “loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days.”
Is is possible that Paul (or, as I think he was probably known, Rabbi Sha’ul) may have known this when he wrote his letters to Timothy?
“Timothy”
“Now green pastures are places for picnics”
I must admit that I’ve never seen much in Timothy that I lked before
But I’ve always been a big believer in the three little “p”s
And the double cross, Y, and H, jump out at me now
~ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years ~ (Malachi 3.4,5)
~ The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD tries the hearts ~ (Proverbs 17.3)
~but He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold ~ (Job 23.10)
~ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Yeshua HaMashiach is revealed to the whole world ~ (1 Peter 1.7)
~ For you, O G-d, have tested us; You have tried us as silver is tried ~ (Psalm 66.10)
~ See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction ~ (Isaiah 48:10)
….and as David cried out to the Lord:” Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in me a right spirit.”
Here CLEAN is “tahovr” which is from the root “taher”, TO BE MADE CLEAN. The psalmist/king knew that he had no power to cleanse his own heart, but HaShem did.