On Ripley’s Believe it or Not, there was a story of a man in the early 1800s who murdered 17 women by strangulation. Once caught, he was sentenced to die, and after his execution, scientists wondered if there was something genetically different about this man than the rest of society. They performed an autopsy to examine his brain, and what they found was utterly shocking: his brain was perfectly normal.

I think we, too, might suspect that such heinous actions would come from an abnormal brain. However, the scientists examined the wrong organ. Jesus says “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19). It was this man’s heart, not his brain, that led him to such abominable crimes, for his heart was terribly impure.

Though we want to call men like this "abnormal," we can’t. The unfortunate and ugly truth is that our hearts are equally susceptible to becoming impure. The LORD warns us to keep our hearts "with all diligence" (Prov. 4:23). He pleads with us in Proverbs 23:26, “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.” Our God knows how easy it is for our hearts to go astray and become impure.

King David, weighed down by the guilt of his sin with Bathsheba, cried out “create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10); and his son Solomon’s downfall began with his wives leading his heart away from the LORD unto the worship of false gods, beginning the downfall of the nation (1 Kings 10:4).

Why must we keep our hearts pure? There are many reasons, but I suggest we think about 1 Timothy 1:5, where Paul tells Timothy that the main purpose of his preaching was to stir up in the brethren "love from a pure heart." Think for a moment about the love that can flow out of a pure heart. I believe it is the love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. There is no perversion or impurity in this type of love. It is a love that would gladly give life for a friend (John 15:13). It is what we might call “true love” in the spiritual sense.

Sadly though, a heart darkened by sin can choke out love, just as the thorns of life can choke out the gospel seed in our hearts (cf. Matt. 13:22). It was impossible for that man to love those women. In fact, it is very possible that he strangled them because he wanted them to know how he felt: strangled by his sin. Removing sin in our life will open the floodgates of love in ways we never imagined. In 2 Cor. 7:1 Paul writes “...let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” How interesting that the very next thing he writes is “Make room for us in your hearts...” (7:2). Love knows no bounds in a heart swung open by purity.

Brian Messerli