1 Timothy 5:1-2 "Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as though he were your own father. Talk to the younger men as you would to your own brothers. Treat the older women as you would your mother, and treat the younger women with all purity as your own sister." This passage says word for word, "with all purity," but another way of reading it could be, "with the purity you would give your own sister or brother." So I ask, would you kiss your own brother or sister on the lips? Would you act in any sensual way with your brother or sister? Or would you be highly concerned about protecting his or her purity. In the majority of cases, wouldn't a brother protect his sister from someone who would have ill intentions against her. (same going for a sister wanting to protect a brother.) If we would then do that with a physical brother or sister, then why would we not do that for a spiritual brother or sister? The physical world will one day be completely destroyed, but our spirits live forever, so isn't it safe to say that the spirit is more real than the physical?
1 Corinthians 7:1 Paul says, "It is not good to touch a woman." He does not say it is necessarily a sin, but it is not good, just as he says, "All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial." The reasoning behind this is probably based on two things. First of all, man's mind does have a tendency to wander, and maybe even simply touching a girl may feed lustful thoughts, even if the touch is by accident or completely innocent. The same, to some degree, applies to girls, maybe they wish to feel a guy's muscles and end up being preoccupied with his physical strength, rather than spiritual strength.
If you touch a woman, it can do three things. It can feed lust in your life or it may look like lust to others, or even give someone the foundation to start a rumor. It is said that poison must be mixed with food for a rat to eat it, so in essence, if you have no food, you can't kill the rat. If you give a liar "food" all they need to do is mix in a little poison, and they can take you down.
You may still ask, "What then is purity, I don't fully understand?" Many believe purity to be a line. Many consider purity to be maintaining, to it's minimum requirements, virginity. Yet to others it is slightly higher, with some limits for extreme amounts of physical contact. Therefore, (according to many) purity is based on where you wish to set the bar, as long as you maintain semi-virginity. Many believe purity to be some line or fence that you can use as a balancing beam, that you can dabble in between purity and impurity, and yet somehow maintain purity. Then would it be safe to say that we could have one foot in a fire and one foot out of the fire, and somehow not get burned?
The flame concept can be easily used in this example, the closer to impurity you go, the hotter things become and the higher the chances of you getting burned. This then induces the question, "Is purity a line, or an agreement to completely abstain from something?" I have made my personal decision that purity is the only thing I can promise my future spouse, I could die, I could lose all my money, I could get crippled in a second, but the only thing I can control is what amount of purity I have. If I see something by accident that I ought not, I can do two things, pray to God and forget it, or think about it and poison my mind. Purity cannot be taken from you without your consent, and is the greatest thing you can give your spouse, so I believe that I ought to abstain completely from all forms of physical contact as much as I can. I want my future wife to know that she is worth every time I have to close my eyes when my flesh says to watch, and that my purity is completely dedicated to her. She will not be cheap and I shall give her the greatest amount of purity that a fleshly young man can muster, by the strength and grace of God.
So in answer to the question, "What is purity?" It is treating your spiritual brother or sister as you would a genetic brother or sister. Another way that it has been said to me is that I ought to imagine that the person I am with is married to someone, and I am married to someone else. Would I, if married, put your arm around someone that was not my wife, especially if they were also married? No. Remember, God has the perfect someone for you, so in theory, in God's eyes, time is nothing and He sees you as already married to the perfect match He has for you, but until you are married, you have no rights to each others bodies, and you would be stealing from yourself, the other person, and even worse, stealing purity from the temple of God.
Purity Continued