Coffee and Compromise
Over the years I’ve had a couple of short conversations with a few people about the benefits of water for the body. And I agree, pure water is essential for the body’s health. However, these same people said they drink a lot of water because they drink coffee. I tried to explain to them the reality that once pure water is combined with any other ingredient, it no longer is pure water. It then is transformed into an ingredient to make the other beverage and no longer has the same beneficial properties to the body as pure water.
That got me thinking about my own spiritual life and wondered if I had indeed deluded the “pure water” of my spirit by adding it to something else the world has to offer, then becoming a mere ingredient to the world’s “spiritual beverages” and no longer pure water. And to go a step further; do I believe that being a mere ingredient of the world is just the same as being pure and set apart?
As a follower of Jesus, it is hard to balance this correctly. How am I to be “in the world but not of it”? Jesus himself was a friend of “tax collectors and sinners” yet the pure water of his existence remained pure. He was in the world and did not become deluded (or compromised) by the world around him. Instead, he transformed the lives around him from being deluded by sin, the world and Satan into people who were pure, holy and set free.
Am I brave enough to ask the hard questions: how much have the pure waters of my soul been deluded by the world around me? And how much has the pure waters of my soul actually brought the pure waters of Christ to the souls around me?
Thankfully, unlike water being added to coffee, which can never be turned back to pure water again, our souls, once deluded by sin and the world, can indeed become pure again through the blood of Jesus Christ, confession and repentance. What a glorious thing to have the deluded waters of my soul become pure, clean and free again! “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
But growing in maturity in Christ, it doesn’t stop there. I must learn how to lean into Jesus daily in order to guard against the compromise of purity of my soul, which can certainly include deluding myself into thinking I cannot become deluded.
Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash
