“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” Titus 1:15 (KJV)

The “pure” here are people whom God has saved by His grace (Eph. 2:8-9), such as the members of “the body of Christ.” In Crete, where Titus was stationed (Titus 1:5), some “vain talkers... of the circumcision [of Israel]” (1:10) were false teachers, telling the purified grace believers in Crete’s churches that they would be “defiled” if they ate meats prohibited by ‘the law of Moses’ (Lev. 11:43).

But intelligized believes who know “the gospel of the grace of God” (Act 20:24) are not to be deceived by impure teachers of “the law” in the pulpits of many churches of today, knowing that they “are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14b), We know that under grace “the kingdom of God [today] is not meat [food] and drink” so “all things [food] indeed are pure” for we who are already purified believers (Rom. 14:17, 20), just as Paul told Titus in 1:15.

But “unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure,” not even the foods that Moses approved under the law! If you’re wondering why everything an unbeliever eats is impure, it is because everything he does is impure. You see, everything an unbeliever does, in God’s eyes, is considered to be ‘sin.’ When a believer plows his field, he is being obedient to God’s command to work for a living, but “the plowing of the wicked, is sin” (Prov. 21:4). The “wonderful works” that unsaved men do are considered “iniquity” in God’s eyes (Matt. 7:22-23), for all of their righteousness is “as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).

• “Even their mind and conscience is defiled” (Titus 1:15), for
• “the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD” (Prov. 15:26), because
• “their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity [sinful]” (Isa. 59:7).

So, the bad news is this, if your mind is defiled, you’re not going to be able to trust your conscience, despite how unsaved people encourage one another saying; ‘let your conscience be your guide.’ We must let the Lord cleanse our conscience by receiving His love, grace, mercy and salvation, by faith in Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24, cf., Rom. 16:25)

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead [evil] works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14 (KJV)

Paul knew by experience that the conscience of unsaved men “is defiled” (Titus 1:15), because before he was saved, Paul brutally executed God’s people “in all good conscience before God” (Acts 23:1). His defiled mind was telling him that they were wrong and he was right, so his defiled conscience didn’t bother him a bit!

The good news is, there is the cure for the impure mind and conscience!

As impure as men are in the sight of God, He still offers;

• “our Saviour Jesus Christ... gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people” (Titus 2:13-14).
• “Jesus Christ...loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5).

The Corinthians believers were a very sinful group of people, but Paul could even write to them and say, “ye are washed...ye are sanctified... ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” (I Cor. 6:11).

Just how does an impure sinner access this cleansing blood of Christ?

Well, it is certainly “not by works of righteousness which we have done” (Titus 3:5). Every purified sinner has believed and knows that it was “according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5).

The word “regeneration” (from the above verse) is the Greek ‘paligenesis,’ meaning, “going from being dead to “newness of life.” Thus, Paul wrote;

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become NEW. (2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

But how was this accomplished? The new creation sequence is; ‘death first… then newness of life.’

“Therefore we [the believer’s Old man] are [currently] buried with him by baptism into ‘death’: [so] that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should [now] walk in NEWNESS of life. (Romans 6:4 KJV)

If you don’t care much for how you are doing in your present life, why not let God give you a new life? One that will begin the moment you believe that “Christ died for our sins...and... rose again” (I Corinthians 15:3,4). This is the everlasting life that will never see an end.

- Portions Adapted from by Ricky Kurth -