{"id":4723,"date":"2022-06-09T17:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T23:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4723"},"modified":"2022-06-03T20:31:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T02:31:04","slug":"following-the-pattern-purity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4723","title":{"rendered":"Following the pattern: purity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the last in our series of blogs on <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4708\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">following the pattern<\/a> from 1 Timothy 4.12:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>in speech,<\/em><\/li><li><em>in conduct,<\/em><\/li><li><em>in love,<\/em><\/li><li><em>in faith,<\/em><\/li><li><em>in purity. (1 Timothy 4.12, ESV), bulleted for clarity)<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wish I didn\u2019t have to write this one. It\u2019s so simple: Set the example\u2026in purity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Apostle Paul was explicit elsewhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. (Ephesians 5.3, ESV)<br><br><\/em>So I\u2019m not going to name any examples of sexual immorality and impurity within the church although it\u2019s a target-rich environment out there. Recently a major US denomination was in the news for the usual: pastors and other church staff taking advantage of women, and, as usual, covering it up. One blogger was especially exercised, using Jesus\u2019 diatribe against the Pharisees as a guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>I\u2019ve had it with you! You\u2019re hopeless, you religion scholars, you [denominational leaders]! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God\u2019s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won\u2019t let anyone else in either.<\/em>..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You can\u2019t squirm out of this: Every [precious victim\u2019s reputation and health that you destroyed], beginning with the [first victim who ever came forward to report abuse] whom you [accused of threatening the work of my kingdom\u2014how dare you!], is on your head. All this, I\u2019m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.<\/em> &#8211; <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/lifereconsidered.substack.com\/p\/frauds-snakes-cold-blooded-sneaks?s=r\" target=\"_blank\">Judy Wu Dominick, May 24, 2022<\/a>, adapted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+23%3A13+-+39&amp;version=MSG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matthew 23.13 &#8211; 39, MSG<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But no one has a corner on the sexual impurity market: every flavor of church from Roman Catholic to charismatic, conservative, liberal, Calvinist, Arminian &#8211; one\u2019s polity or theology doesn\u2019t seem to provide any protection. The temptation to sin is the same as well as the desire to excuse it or cover it up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A long time ago I was serving in the famous Building 500 at Offutt Air Force Base, Headquarters of the Strategic Air Command. I was in charge of a 24-7 communication center (long before the days of email!). Sometimes on the midnight shift, my guys would load a large steel cart with trash and take it to another part of the building. Occasionally, they would be a little careless and run it into the wall, leaving a gash. Around the corner from my office was a full colonel, chief of administration. He called me in and asked me to tell my guys to be careful and not do that anymore. \u201cYes, sir.\u201d Unfortunately, a few days later, they did it again. The colonel called me in again. \u201cEwell, I thought I told you not to bang into my wall with that cart anymore.\u201d \u201cYes, sir. I talked with the guys\u2026\u201d Then he stood up, all 5-foot, 3 inches of him: \u201cEwell, I\u2019m telling you as a colonel to a captain. Cut that stuff out!!\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think God is tired of our excuses. \u201cCut that stuff out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Set the believers an example&#8230;in purity. (1 Timothy 4.12, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the last in our series of blogs on following the pattern from 1 Timothy 4.12: Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. (1 Timothy 4.12, ESV), bulleted for clarity) I wish I didn\u2019t have to write &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4723\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Following the pattern: purity<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1eb","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4724,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4723\/revisions\/4724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}