15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
The picture comes to mind of a scene from Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail movie. Two peasants are gather mud to be used for making bricks or some other purpose. They are on their hands and knees in the mud, picking it up in large globs and dropping it in a basket. Their hands and arms are thickly covered in mud. Would you want them at that moment to hand you a delicious pastry with their bare hands? Of course you wouldn’t! In fact, I can bet you would not even want them near any of your food, or even in your kitchen without a very good shower. It just makes sense that everything those two people touched would be contaminated with the mud. It was inevitable. There is no way they could do otherwise. So it is with those who reject the Gospel. How can we expect them to handle the pure Word of God in a manner that does not stain it with their own corruption? Everything about their being is polluted with sin, so how could they possibly deliver the Truth without messing it all up? For Timothy’s edification and our instruction, Paul points to the corrupting effects of sin in the unbeliever’s life. Because they have not accepted the only way to get cleaned up, their minds and consciences follow the road of rebellion against God’s authority. They are the proverbial out-of-town visitor who keeps trying to give directions to other out-of-town visitors. Both giver and receiver of those directions will get lost. But for those of us who are Jesus-followers, everything is pure because we have been made pure by Jesus’ actions. We can handle the Word without polluting it with our own agendas, because we are vitally connected to our Head through the neural network of the Holy Spirit. We don’t step outside His guiding and He would never guide us in a way that would cause contamination.
The Arnold Journey 