08/26/2026
PURIFY YOURSELF, JUST AS HE IS PURE
This morning’s devotion really challenged me. 1 John 3:3 says, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
Think about those last words for a moment: “Just as He is pure.”
Often when we talk about living holy, walking in purity, or living as Jesus lived, the immediate response is, “But we’re only human.” Yet Jesus was truly human. He experienced hunger, exhaustion, emotions, suffering and temptation. He even grew in wisdom and stature.. Hebrews 4:15 says He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Being tempted is not the same thing as sinning. Jesus experienced temptation, but He never yielded to it. That distinction matters because Scripture never teaches that the believer has to surrender to the desires of the flesh because we are human.
Paul tells us plainly in Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Notice what he says. He doesn’t say we will never experience temptation. He says when we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. That means the question isn’t whether temptation will come. The question is, what are we going to yield to when it does?
Romans 6:11 tells us to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Then Paul continues, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body.
That’s completely different from believing sin has to control us because we are human. In Christ, sin is no longer our master. We have been made alive to God, His Spirit lives within us, and we MUST continually renew our minds by His Word.
Will we have moments when we respond from the flesh instead of yielding to the Spirit? Absolutely. That is why the renewing of our minds is so important. But our failures should never cause us to lower God’s standard to match our experience. Instead, His Word should continually bring our experience into alignment with His truth.
John says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” — 1 John 2:6
Jesus is our example. He is the One we follow.
By the renewing of our minds we're learning to yield to the same Holy Spirit who now lives within us and allowing Him to transform the way we think, speak and live.
Maybe instead of asking, How much sin can a Christian get away with and still be saved? we should be asking a completely different question:
What does my life look like when I truly walk in the Spirit?
Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16
The goal isn’t perfection produced by our own strength. The goal is a life increasingly surrendered to Him, where what He has done inside of us becomes visible through the way we live.
“And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:3