The steep price of holiness and purity of heart

<p>2 Timothy 2:22 - Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.</p><p>Paul was encouraging Timothy to stick to these basics of Kingdom living to ensure he would remain separated from falsehood. To pursue righteousness, Paul argues, one needed only to focus on faith, love and peace with all, especially those within the community of Messiah. This would breed righteous actions, indicating pureness of heart among the believers and all would be encouraged.</p><p>Yeshua also illustrated with his own life the steep price that that his followers would have to pay in order to live out these principles in the process of following him.</p><p>Matthew 16:24 - Then Yeshua told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."</p><p>So, now we get to the heart of the matter. Being set apart as pure of heart and a peacemaker involves a critical practice: denial of self. To deny oneself is to set oneself apart for some other, greater purpose. When we can get outside of ourselves and our personal, selfish impulses, it is then that we have the capacity to be filled with God's Spirit so he can teach us how to become the pure and peaceful people he wants us to be.</p><p>How like Timothy and those early believers we should strive to be! We must remain steadfast in the things we have learned, cleansing ourselves from every false way so that we may live righteous lives that honor God. </p><p>-----</p><p>If you enjoyed this week's podcast, be sure to visit <a href="http://coreofthebible.org/">coreofthebible.org</a> to read hundreds of articles on these topics and to find out more about the message of the Bible reduced to its simplest form in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.</p><p>Have questions about today's topic, or comments or insights you would like to share? Feel free to email me at <a href="mailto:coreofthebible@gmail.com">coreofthebible@gmail.com</a>.</p><p>Thanks for your int