Naive or Innocent

To the pure all things are pure; 

but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure;

but even their mind and conscience are defiled.

They profess to know God,

but in works they deny Him,

being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

Titus 1:15-16

You say naive; I say innocent.

You say sheltered; I say pure.

How many times have you said or been told, "You are just naive."? 

Think on it for just a minute.

Maybe you know the person who is sheltered and naive or maybe that person was you.

I have been both, usually more on the receiving end.

This past week the Lord has brought up innocence to my heart several times.

As I read the word and go deeper with the Lord I realize, never once have read "Teach sexual immorality so we do not become sexually immoral."

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but from what I can recall I haven't read it.

I feel like today we try to teach people sexual immorality and make them aware of the evil in the world.

We decided that if we all know what is wrong we won't do it.

 But when you teach these things it fills your mind with them.

We are brought to the battle of "It looks fun. Does God not want us to have fun?" 

Another common association with sexual immorality "Everyone is doing it. It can't be THAT bad."

The Lord doesn't call us to KNOW sexual immorality so that we can see innocence.

The Lord calls us to be pure of heart so we can see evil.

When we teach innocence evil is revealed because our hearts are learning purity.

When we teach evil our hearts are learning evil and innocence is forgotten. 

Our hearts become so focused on the pattern of this world that we suddenly see in gray.

Our vision is clouded because evil has consumed our thoughts and it's hard to tell whether something is right or wrong.

Titus 1:15-16 speaks of false teachers.

Why are they false teachers?  Because they are defiled and unbelieving. 

They cannot see the pure because their vision is clouded by evil.

They claim to know God but because evil was taught they cannot tell the difference between innocence and evil.

Gray is all they can see.

This challenges my heart to seek innocence.

Being innocent doesn't mean that we are unaware.

It means we are MORE aware because if our hearts are innocent the evil is revealed.

Teach evil and innocence is forgotten.

Teach innocence and evil is revealed.