In life and in the Bible, words matter to God. He tells us as much in his Word.

In fact, the Bible calls Jesus Christ the Word, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that God’s words are pure words, just as he is pure.

“The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” 

—Psalm 12:6

Not only do the words God chooses matter to God, our words matter to God too.

When I first became a believer, there were two areas I remember distinctly where God immediately went to work in my life:

1) He gave me a desire to read and obey his words. 

2) He began to purify my words.

Words reflect the heart

That’s really not surprising, since words, like fruit, reflect a person’s heart:

“A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bringeth forth good fruit…. For every tree is known by his own fruit…. for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

—Luke 6:43-45

As I mentioned in my previous journal entry, words and language are important to God.

Throughout the Bible, God gives us, his children, specific instruction about how to use our words wisely. (Check out Proverbs 16:21, Proverbs 16:24, Matthew 12:36-37, 1 Peter 3:10, and James 3:6, to start.)

Purity also matters to God

As much as we as a society have downplayed purity, God is pure, and he desires for us to see that attribute in him. One way we see it is through the Bible, which reflects the character of God. A Bible that is not pure is not an accurate representation of a God who is pure.

God desires for us to be pure also

“And every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

—1 John 3:3

Only Jesus Christ can make us pure

The amazing thing is that once we are saved, God sees us as pure right away because Jesus is pure! At the moment of salvation, in God’s eyes, we are truly pure? Why? Because God looks at Jesus and see his righteousness instead of ours — the moment we believe!

But then God does an amazing thing: His Spirit starts working in us, so that God is continually purifies us. In fact, God continues to purify us more and more, all the way up until we see him face to face.

This is called sanctification, and Proverbs 4 describes it beautifully:

“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until the perfect day. But the way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” 

—Proverbs 4:18-19

I love that! We are either trending more and more toward the light, or we are trending more and more toward sin. There is no neutral.

But if we are in Christ, we are assured of our salvation, and one of the evidences of salvation is that God is continually making us more and more pure.

Definition of pure

When I look up pure in Websters 1828 dictionary, I find that pure means separate from all extraneous matter … clear … free from mixture.

Pure means absolute — that and that only, unconnected with anything else.  

Pure means holy — free from moral defilement, without spot, untarnished, uncorrupt, unpolluted. It means not having improper or corrupt words or phrases.

Pure. Just like the unspotted lambs without blemish that were birthed at Jerusalem, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and kept pure by the shepherds at the tower of the flock (Micah 4:8) who oversaw their birth! 

And we know Jesus himself was the Lamb of God, pure, unspotted, unblemished by the world, who came to take away the sins of the world.

“…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

—John 1:29

Since Jesus is pure, without one spot or blemish, we should expect nothing less from his Word! He IS the Word (John 1:1). 

The words of the Lord are pure words

So how do we know God’s words are pure? Two ways.

We know God’s words are pure by faith

1. The first is faith — by believing what God himself said about his words:

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” —Proverbs 30:5

We know without faith it is impossible to please God, so faith has to be a starting point for hearing God’s true words. Once you believe by faith, God himself by his Holy Ghost will show you that it is true!

We know the words of the Lord are pure by reading

2. The second way we know God’s words are pure words is by spending more time in his Word. 

Those in the banking world learn how to recognize counterfeit money by becoming intimately acquainted with real money. Then, when someone presents them with a counterfeit, they recognize it immediately.

The same is true for God’s Word. The more time we spend in the KJV, the more we will recognize and reject the voices that are not our Lord’s.

Once you are intimately acquainted with the language and cadence of the King James Bible, it only takes about 20 seconds of listening to a Bible being read to be able to tell whether you are listening to God’s pure words.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”

—John 10:27

“…and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth for this his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”

—John 10:3-5

Choosing God’s words over man’s words

One of the hardest things I had to do when I started reading the King James Bible was to admit I what I had been reading my previous 18 years as a believer was not God’s pure Word, but God’s words mixed with man’s words.

I really did not want to give up my favorite Bible version, so I contented reading it side by side with my KJV. Over time, I began to see that my modern version contained impure words that could never be attributed to a pure and holy God.

What words are those, you ask? I’ll give you some examples in future articles (John 3:16, Genesis 3:22). But for now, suffice it to say that if even one word of the Bible is impure, or gives an uncertain sound, then how can I trust the other words in that Bible? 

Righteous, pure and holy words

I serve a righteous, holy, and pure God, so I trust that he has given me his pure words in one book —  The Book.

The Bible says every word of God is pure. 

God has been faithful to maintain One Book that has been kept pure and unspotted from the world — which is one more reason I adore the KJV.

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