EXCREMENT

EXCREMENT

“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.” Titus 1:15

These words closely follow a reference to "Jewish fables, and commandments of men," and this fact helps us to understand them. The whole system of living by tradition was unutterably evil, and our Lord Himself and His Apostles protested against it. Such traditions constantly led men to a burdensome life in that they made actions to be sins which were not sins, and left the truly sinful things of the inner life untouched. It is so even today. Manmade regulations as to what men may do or not do are the greatest enemies to real spiritual life that it is possible to conceive. These words, then, touch the true deep note about life. The "all things" refers to everything which is non-moral; such as appetite and food, desire and marriage, exchange and commerce, weariness and recreation, and so on through all the varied realm of life. To the pure all these things are pure, and they will be maintained in purity. To the impure, every one of them may be made the vehicle and occasion of impurity. No traditions, no commandments of men, no rules and regulations, can save the ordinary things of human life from positive obscenity, if the man handling them is himself as impure man. On the other hand, the man who is pure may enter into them all, and not only will he not be defiled by them, but will not defile them; he will hold them in pureness. To all of which the words of Jesus testify, that not what goeth into a man defileth, but that which cometh out of him. Their words reveal their condition and only those that follow Truth Himself see and hear the obvious.