Sample from the Book: Personal Purity

Occasionally I've been posting samples from the book Messages from the Scriptures. These samples aren't actually in the book, but they are paragraphs that were originally written for it. (Several were taken out before publishing to reduce the page count and therefore printing costs.) Even though they aren't actually from the book, they are good examples of the kinds of things you will see when you read it.

Personal purity will help us avoid the influences of the devil and return to live with God.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

 
As I child, I was intrigued by the story of the devils and the swine: “So the devils besought [Jesus after he had cast them out of two individuals], saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters” (Matthew 8:31–32). The story is a bit bizarre. Of course, there may be several lessons that can be obtained from this short and unusual passage, but perhaps one of them relates to the Law of Moses, where it is stated, “the swine, . . . he is unclean to you” (Leviticus 11:8). The story might be symbolic that the impure are susceptible to the devil’s influence. It is essential to maintain personal purity. Isaiah said, “be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isaiah 52:11). We must avoid sin at all costs. Indeed, those “having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, . . . [can enter] into the rest of the Lord their God” (Alma 13:12). And of course, our “garments [can be] washed white [only] through the blood of the Lamb” (vs. 11).