#Pure heart clean hands free#

Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. The apostle Paul explained that God looks for servants who commit their entire being to Him: “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. The greatest commandment, Jesus said, is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). The Lord desires His followers to be laser-focused in heart, mind, and purpose (Matthew 6:33).

#Pure heart clean hands free#

It suggests a single-mindedness of purpose that is free of distractions.ĭouble-minded people lack purity of heart. The term pure here indicates the absence of impurity, contamination, or filth. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The apostle John acknowledged that the true children of God who look forward to Christ’s return “purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). Earlier, James noted that double-minded people are “unstable in all they do” (James 1:8). A similar charge was issued against the people of Isaiah’s time: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13). Their vacillating was dividing their loyalties. James branded the believers “double-minded” because they continued to live with one foot in the world while claiming to love and worship God. His language closely resembles that of the psalmist: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god” (Psalm 24:3–4).

“Purify your hearts, you double-minded” was James’ clear and distinct call to inner purification-to recognize and confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. Believers who stray from the Lord must submit themselves to God and draw near to Him again through repentance.

God desires His followers’ wholehearted loyalty and devotion (Exodus 34:14 Mark 12:29–31).

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8, ESV). James passionately told his readers to repent from their wicked ways and return to the Lord: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. An alarming epidemic of spiritual adultery and “friendship with the world” ran rampant in the early church (James 4:4).