Purify Your Mind Series (Part 3) by Joe Kirbyნიმუში

Are You a Pig?

"But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to his own vomit,' and, 'a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.'" (2 Peter 2:22)

Never forget, we are to be ruthless with sin. I hope this question doesn’t offend you, but are you a sheep? Or are you a pig? Supposing there’s a large mud puddle. A sheep might get a little curious, draw close to the edge, and before it realizes it, it’s fallen into the filth. As soon as it falls in, it climbs out of the mud and gets as far away from the puddle as possible. It’s ashamed that its coat is dirty; it’s a sheep. But when a pig sees a mud puddle, its eyes light up; it runs to the mud puddle and dives right in. In its free will, it remains there with no intention of getting out. It loves the filth; it’s a pig. The sheep’s nature is to be clean and pure. The pig’s nature is to be dirty and to wallow in the mire.*

So let me ask you the question again: Are you a sheep or a pig? When you fall into sin, do you try to get back out? Do you try and get as far away from sin as possible when you sin? When you do fall, do you feel angry and ashamed? Do you sense that this is not your home, not your native habitat? Do you know this is not where you belong?

If the answer is yes, you’re a sheep and you need to keep fighting this sin. The fact that you’re on Day 5 of a devotional on purity is evidence there is a battle going on, and you are not content to wallow in the mire. So keep fighting! Do not lose heart; remember, you’re a sheep, but not a lone sheep. No, you have a Good Shepherd (see Psalm 23) who will guide you away from all those mud puddles and will help to keep you clean until He takes you home to a place where there are no mud puddles to fall in.

* Oswald J. Smith, The Man God Uses (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1965).