So me, I’m a little obsessed with water.  I just love the stuff.

My husband teases that we should start a scrapbook of my water bottles.  Kind of like Flat Stanley – you know, Flat Stanley goes to Washington.  Flat Stanley goes to Florida.  Well, my water bottle has some of the same adventures.

This is one of my husband’s favorite wedding pictures – it’s just so me.  With my water bottle : )

And here we are in the Cotswolds in England.  And yep, there it is.  Off to the side.  Do you see the water bottle?

So yes, I love me some water.

The other day, I asked my husband, “What comes to mind when you think of the word ‘pure’?”

He thought with his familiar pause.  Then he responded, “Water.”

I should have thought of that! : )

He was thinking about impurities in water.  If water sits really still, the impurities sink to the bottom.  At first glance, the water looks pure, but there are dregs hanging out at the bottom.  So if you nudge or jostle the water, the impurities get all mixed up and our ‘pure’ water becomes cloudy again.  The only way for impure water to become pure is to be distilled – to have the impurities removed.

As we look at Philippians 4:8 and thinking things that are pure, the illustration is helpful.  ‘Pure’ is from the word for ‘holy’ (you can see they are similar: ἁγνός is from ἅγιος).  In Scripture, ‘holy’ means separated from sin… separated from the dregs at the bottom of our bottles.  Our thoughts are to be clear and pure – holy and consecrated to God.  It’s no surprise that this is the adjective used for virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2).  That’s the kind of purity we’re talking about!

Ἁγνός …signifies often the pure in the highest sense.

Now purity of course pertains to more than just virgins – we’re not just talking about thinking sexually pure thoughts here.  Ἁγνός conveys a moral sense. It expands broader than sins of the flesh to moral spotlessness (1 Timothy 5:22), heavenly wisdom (James 3:17), ceremonial purification (Jn. 11:55; Acts 21:24, 26, 24:18), and purifying of heart and soul (Jas. 4:8; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 Jn. 3:3).  It covers purity in all departments of life... including our friendships!

Gratefully, just as we can purify impure water and get those dregs outta there, we can purify impure thoughts to keep our friendships dreg free.  Praise God that we can confess our dregs, be forgiven, and distill those suckers outta there!

We have so much to explore with friendships and dregs and the critical role of thinking things that are pure… and I am excited about some fun new characters that will journey with us!  They debut in our next post – I hope you enjoy them : )  They’re passionate about their mantra: Dreggy thoughts have no place in our pure water!