100% Pure?

Have you ever noticed items in your neighborhood grocery store proudly displaying a sticker or tag advertising something like this: “100% Pure”?

How can a person tell if the product is really 100%?

It’s fairly simple, actually. The product itself is the proof.

Take, for instance, orange juice. 100% orange juice will look, taste, and smell just like freshly squeezed oranges. The statement, 100% Pure, is confirmed or denied when someone opens the container, pours a glass full for themselves, and takes a sip.

If you saw a sign that read, 100% pure orange juice, yet when you tasted it, you could have sworn you were drinking orange flavored water; you just might want to demand your money back.

What about Christians? Pure, or defiled and unbelieving?

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” (Titus 1:15-16 ESV)

Apparently, merely advertising 100% pure isn’t good enough. What is it when it’s opened for people to taste and see?

Does your life back up your advertisement? Does your tag read, 100%, but nothing supports it once your lid comes off?

Or once you open your mouth?

Just the idea of tasting orange juice that has gone bad makes me halfway sick.

If you’re a professing Christian, like I am, do you agree we should do everything possible to ensure both the advertising and the actual product agree with each other? I do.

Yes, the Lord is good. And if he is our profession, the words “detestable”, “disobedient”, and “unfit for any good work” just don’t seem to match our tag.

What do you think?