 Hey, what's up guys? It's Isaac and welcome back to the Daily Disciple channel today. I'm going to be digging into the problem with the purity movement and I know I've done videos on purity before. So notice that this video is not called the problem with purity. There's a big distinction there and you'll see that as we go along today. Recently, there's been kind of a falling out of a very popular pastor and author, Joshua Harris, who wrote I Kiss, Dating, Goodbye. And because of this kind of falling out, a lot of people have just kind of reexamined what was known as kind of the purity movement of the early 2000s. Just kind of, okay, what happened? This guy was one of the leaders of it and all of a sudden he leaves kind of the faith. He divorces his wife and what's going, what happened kind of thing. So I wanted to kind of dig into a little bit more what was what happened in the purity movement? What were some of the issues with it and how can we learn from it? So that's what this video is and let's jump into it. So one of the problems with the purity movement was that it promised successful relationships as the reward for being pure. It was more concerned with the seemingly pragmatic benefits of purity that were supposed to be this idea that, oh, you wouldn't be emotionally hurt anymore and you wouldn't have emotional baggage if you were pure. These were pragmatic benefits that they kind of elevated to the point where they were just kind of launching these off as like, hey, this is why you do this. This is, these are reasons why you should be pure because then you won't be emotionally hurt. You won't carry baggage. You know, your relationships will turn out well. This is the reward for being pure is a successful marriage. Lots of kids, everyone is, you know, tight-knit and there's no hurt at all. And I'm sure as you can identify here that that statement is completely misguided because nowhere in the Bible does it say, oh, look, if you're pure, your life's going to turn out perfectly. Your relationships are going to be, you know, there's going to be no emotional hurt, no pain, no nothing. That's not what it says. And we ought not be pure simply for the pragmatic benefits such as, okay, maybe perceived pragmatic benefits because these things don't don't always happen. It doesn't always turn out perfectly. Sometimes there is emotional hurt and emotional baggage and relationships do turn out badly even when people are pure. But why are we pure? Why are we pursuing purity? Is it because of all the things that we can get from it for ourselves or is it because is what God asks us to do in following him? That's a big distinction because if we're motivated out of a love for God and a love for others seeking to do what God has commanded, that we're going to do that. We're going to be pure. We're going to seek purity, right? In our relationships, we're going to seek righteousness and godliness in our relationships because we love God and we love others. But that's not motivated out of, oh, I can't wait to get that perfect wife or perfect husband or that perfect relationship just because I'm pure and I'm doing everything right and it should turn out right because if I do my part, then God does his part and it turns out perfectly because that's not how it works and that's not what God has promised to close off this major problem with the purity movement. I just want to say that as we're seeking to be pure and what we can learn from this is that our purity as we're seeking to be pure in our relationships and what does that what does that actually mean? Well, we can look in the Bible where it says, look, Jesus says whoever looks at a woman to lust after is already committed adultery with her in his heart. And we can use that as a guide and saying, oh, look, God's standard is a lot higher than our standard. We want to be pure of thought and physically as well until marriage. And so as we're seeking to be pure in that, it's motivated out of a love for God and wanting to follow him instead of, oh, well, if I do everything the way I'm supposed to. If I'm pure, then my relationships will turn out well and I'll have a successful marriage and I'll have, you know, all this, I'll have no emotional baggage and there won't be any hurt and any of these kind of things, it shouldn't be motivated out of that. Another major problem with the purity movement was that it taught people, especially girls, that their worth and their identity was found in their purity. Thus, if their purity was lost, so was their worth, at least in the context of relationships. Statements like girls, you'll have a better chance at finding a Christian guy, a good Christian guy if you're pure. And you can see how that, how disordered that thinking is. Once again, a lot of the problem with the purity movement is that it's so man-focused as opposed to God-focused. When a statement like that is said, oh, look, girls, if you're pure, guys will like you more, you'll get a good Christian guy. Or our purity is that which gives us our worth, which isn't true. And purity is not about, oh, well, you know, you'll find a good Christian guy, a good Christian girl if you're pure. That's not what it's about. It's about God. It's about honoring God. The problem with the purity movement is that we use purity as a means to get what we wanted. And we use purity to hold over people's heads and say, look, if you're not pure, then you're not worth something. You're not as valuable as somebody, as somebody that is pure. We became Pharisees and we began holding over the standard of purity over people. Instead of understanding what is purity come out of, it comes out of a love for God. So it's not a matter of law and it's not a matter of, look, I need to do these things in order for these things to happen in my life. No, it's about this is what God has commanded. I'm going to follow him because I love him instead of I'm going to use this thing. Purity as a means to get what I truly want a self-centered focus to just wrap up this idea that our identity or worth is found in our purity. I just want to say that our identity is not found in our purity. Just as it's not found in our impurity, our identity and our worth is found in who God says we are new creations in Christ. And he has transformed our hearts. So it's not about, oh, man, I'm pure. Therefore I am the top dog. I am, you know, the best out of all the people or conversely, oh, I'm impure. Oh, man, I've made mistakes and now I'm the lowest. I'm piece of trash. I'm garbage. I'm nothing. I'm not valuable. Nobody wants me. Both those lines of thinking are wrong, but that is what the purity movement has produced. So what I want to encourage you guys towards is not let's jump on the bandwagon of the purity movement. And yeah, we should all be, you know, pure so then our relationships turn out well and then we live happy lives. No, let's pursue purity because we love God. Let's pursue purity because we want to honor him. Let's pursue purity because we love other people. Well, those were my thoughts on the purity movement. Let me know what you guys think down below. I did a bunch of research and thinking about this topic and I hope it was beneficial to you guys as well. Also, I want to thank all my patrons on Patreon. It is a huge blessing to have any amount of people that are on there and it is just, it's just massive. It just helps to do more of what we're doing here and just make better content, make better videos. And it's just a huge blessing. So if you'd like to join that community, head over to patreon.com slash daily underscore disciple and sign up. It's kind of like a membership service. You'll get all sorts of bonus content, including fun monthly videos that I release exclusively to patrons on there. And yeah, it's going to be fun. So sign up on there. Thank you for everyone who's already on there and like subscribe. I don't know if I said that already and I'll see you next time. Bye guys.