4 Ways the Church Helps You in the Fight for Purity

Helping Each Other on Our Journey of Faith
The church is a primary means God uses to help you persevere in faith and be conformed to Jesus. You will not grow in purity or maturity apart from gospel community.1
God gives the church to help you resist temptation and draw you in a better direction, toward a better country. Our journey of faith is marked by the joyful assurance that God is with us and that soon we shall be with him. But this journey cannot be made alone; we make it together. You need other Christians, and they need you. Consider how God wants to use the fellowship of a church to help you fight sexual sin and endure in faith.
1. Commit to One Another
When God calls you to himself, he calls you into the church. Our union with Jesus necessarily unites us with other believers. A healthy congregation faithfully preaches Christ and fervently helps its members live for him. The deep fellowship and soul-strengthening friendships we need to fight for purity are best formed in our local church community.2
Commitment to a church is not optional for a believer; it is commanded.3 The commands to “exhort one another every day” and “not neglecting to meet together” assume we’re intentionally gathering (Heb. 3:13; 10:24–25; 13:17). They assume we’re actively involved in regular conversation about our spiritual condition. Let me put it this way: from the perspective of Scripture, it should be abnormal for a Christian to go a single week without a soul-strengthening, sin-fighting, Christ-honoring conversation with another believer.4 We are created to know and be known by each other.
Pure in Heart
J. Garrett Kell
In Pure in Heart, pastor J. Garrett Kell shares his own struggles with sexual sin and invites readers to join him in making a lifelong commitment to pursue sexual purity through the power of the gospel.
It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. I say it takes a church to raise a Christian. For many years I attended church but remained in isolation. I showed up, worshiped, and even ministered, but I didn’t experience the kind of persistent love that marks a New Testament church. It was mainly my fault, of course, and the effects were devastating. No one knew the state of my soul, or how it was being choked by hidden sin.
Again, sin thrives in the dark but withers in the light. That is, it withers when brought into the open of godly community. Selfishness, busy schedules, and spiritual laziness are enemies of the love that help us follow Jesus. You cannot help everyone in your church in the same way, but you can commit to a few close friends.
2. Warn One Another
The apostle James solemnly assured us, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20).
Jesus left heaven to seek and save the lost, to pursue wayward sheep, and to show us the Father who runs to embrace prodigals (Luke 15:1–32; 19:10). The same sinner-seeking love that marked Jesus ought to mark his people. Yet Satan craftily schemes to keep us from caring for each other in this way. While he ensnares one, he deceitfully assures others to leave them alone, lest the friends appear nosy and judgmental.
But God’s people mustn’t stand by and watch one another be devoured by sin. Rather, we must “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13). This verse assumes believers take sin’s danger seriously, are actively discussing ways to fight it, and are continually hoping for the day when they will sin no more.

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If someone does become ensnared, we imitate Jesus by going after him or her. The apostle Paul exhorts: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal. 6:1). Our attempts at reproof and reconciliation should be marked by urgency and prayerfulness, not anger or exasperation.
If you were ensnared in sin, who would come to rescue you? Are you developing intentional, transparent, accountable relationships with other believers? God gives real warnings to his people as a means of helping them persevere in faith. Hearing that “our God is a consuming fire” and that without holiness “no one will see the Lord” provokes a believer to cling to Jesus by faith.5 The church is God’s appointed means to ensure that the warnings in his word are regularly proclaimed.
3. Rescue One Another
Christians are people who “speak the truth in love” with one another (Eph. 4:15). This means we love each other enough to be honest about our struggles, and we care enough to help others with theirs. We pursue each other and discuss uncomfortable areas of our sin, for we know isolation is the enemy of purity and darkness the breeding ground for sin.
But being “authentic” is not an end in itself. Satan is glad for people to talk openly about their sin—so long as they make no strides toward repentance. There is a hypocrisy that appears earnest—even shedding tears in confession—yet makes no real steps to change. We must develop healthy relationships that graciously push each other toward honesty and repentance.
Are you developing intentionally intrusive relationships in which you are giving and receiving godly encouragement, confession, and rebuke?
God’s people mustn’t stand by and watch one another be devoured by sin.
4. Struggle Alongside One Another
Do you regularly talk about Jesus with fellow believers? Are you a sign-holder for struggling sheep? Satan would have us do anything but remind each other of the inexhaustible riches we have in Jesus. Jesus is God’s final Word, the risen one who equips us to do what is pleasing in his sight. He sympathizes with our weaknesses and stands ready to bestow mercy in our time of need. Jesus is our sure and steady anchor who holds us firm in temptation’s tossing seas (Heb. 6:19–20). Jesus is our risen high priest who eternally lives to make intercession for us. His completed work secures our redemption and assures us God will remember our sins no more.6 Jesus appears in God’s presence on our behalf, enabling us to hold fast to our confession with hope of promised reward.7
When feelings of discontentment tempt us toward sin, we point to Jesus who promises to never leave or forsake us (Heb. 13:5–6). Though our feelings, emotions, and physical stamina are ever changing, our hope rests in him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).
As we encourage each other with these truths today, we keep an eye toward the eternal day in which we shall see him face to face. Hope for Jesus’s return must remain in the forefront of our minds, hearts, and conversations.8
Even now, Jesus prepares to return for those eagerly awaiting him (Heb. 9:28; 10:13). So as we await that fast-approaching day, may we help each other toward heaven. May we gather weekly to fix our eyes on him through receiving his word, singing, praying, baptizing, and sharing in the Supper he gave. Then may we scatter to call the lost to believe, all the while helping each other obey his commands. May we do this day by day, until it is no longer called today.
Come soon, Lord Jesus. Come soon.
Notes:
- Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but pride tempts us to excuse isolation, to our detriment.
- Matt. 28:16–20; Acts 2:38–47; Eph. 2:11–22; 1 John 1:3.
- It is impossible to obey the “one another” commands of the New Testament without commitment to a local community of believers who know, love, and care for each other.
- Ephesians 4:25–32 (among other scriptures) specifically portrays the Christian life as being deeply intertwined in relationships that fight off sin while pursuing Christlike purity.
- Hebrews contains five strong warnings against forsaking Christ (2:1–4; 3:7–4:13; 5:11–6:20; 10:19–39; and these quoted from 12:12–29); Similar warning are echoed throughout the New Testament, including Matt. 5:13; 24:13; John 8:31; 15:6; Rom. 11:22; 1 Cor. 9:27; 10:12; 15:1; Col. 1:22–23; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 2:12; 1 John 2:19; 2 John 1:9; Jude 20; Rev. 2–3; 14:12; 21:7.
- The theme of Jesus being seated is prominent in Hebrews (1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). There were no chairs in the Old Testament temple, because a priest’s work was never done. Yet Jesus is seated in glory because his work has been completed—as he assures through his declaration from the cross, “It is finished!”
- See Heb. 7:25; 8:12; 9:12, 24; 10:17, 23
- See Heb. 12:12; Isa. 40:1–2; Luke 21:28; 1 Thess. 4:18; 5:11–14
This article is adapted from Pure in Heart: Sexual Sin and the Promises of God by J. Garrett Kell.
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