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By John Hendrix

Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is pure…think about such things.”

“We were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.”  - Rich Mullins

For the last 10 years, I've drawn a side-project comic strip called The Holy Ghost. This little diversion has given me a way to ruminate on ideas using the fictional voices of a doubting little squirrel, a self-righteous badger and a blue ghost (the latter of whom may or may not be one-third of the Trinity). These comics often explore the dance between doubt and faith that is familiar to any believer, no matter your religious variety. Squirrel and Badger also represent the two sides of my own heart that are in constant conversation: the pharisee and the prodigal. 

Purity falls most obviously on the side of the pharisee. Of all the words Paul calls us to in Philippians 4:8, I think “pure” is the one that can cause the most consternation these days. Why think about what is pure? What are we to do with a call to dwell on purity? Imagine yourself suggesting in a staff meeting that your workplace should do more to value and dwell upon “purity.”  Purity cultures are often the most exclusionary and the least welcoming. They can lead to all kinds of sins, from perfectionism on one end to racism on the other—depending on how a group defines the “pure” and the “impure.”

Any close look at oneself also reveals a deep problem: who among us is pure? What purity is possible for any human being? And what does that mean for how we see and judge others? Do the doors of the church swing open only for the pure of heart, those who have conformed themselves to the likeness of an obedient disciple? 

The question plagued me early in my Christian life. As a young believer, I found it especially hard to read and pray the Psalms. Certain Psalms seemed just off limits until you reached an appropriate threshold of discipline. Only a “Master Jedi Christian” could pray Psalms 26: “Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life, I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered,” or Psalm 17: “Hear me, Lord, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my cry, it does not rise from deceitful lips.” I thought only very advanced believers could begin to pray such words.

Gradually, though, I began to grasp the true scandal of the gospel.  The call of Christ, to drop everything and follow him is not given to the pure, but to the opposite. Christ claims the ones in the most need of cleansing. Christ is pure; we are not.

That is why Dietrich Bonhoeffer said the best way to read and pray the psalter was through the voice of Christ, who is now your intercessor. 

Jesus Christ has brought every need, every joy, every gratitude, every hope of men before God. In his mouth the word of man becomes the Word of God, and if we pray his prayer with him, the Word of God becomes once again the word of man. All prayers of the Bible are such prayers which we pray together with Jesus Christ, in which he accompanies us, and through which he brings us into the presence of God. Otherwise there are no true prayers, for only in and with Jesus Christ can we truly pray.*

Purity is not a behavior or a state of being, but the person of Christ himself. It is the invitation to a tax collector to come to dinner with God himself. No preparation needed. Bring only yourself.

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John Hendrix is Professor and Chair of the MFA Illustration as Visual Culture program in the Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis, Director of Communications for The Carver Project, and a Carver Project Faculty Fellow.

A collection of his comics, “The Holy Ghost, A Semi-Blasphemous Comic” will be published by Abrams Books in 2022.