ButchinNortheastTX blog post

"Cleanliness" What is it?

Good Evening people. What is cleanliness? When I was growing up I was taught in church and by others that "cleanliness is next to godliness" One day I had an appointment with a minister. My hands were dirty from the tire recap shop I was working at. I couldn't get them clean so when I met with this preacher I apologized and said "Like the Bible says Cleanliness is next to godliness." Then the minister responded with "That's not in the Bible" and you know what, he was right-it's not. He was not opposed to what we call cleanliness or sanitation, he was simply saying that phrase is not in the Bible.

Later on I was attending a singles event at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. He mentioned the book of Hezekiah. There is no book of Hezekiah in the Bible. He is mentioned in the Bible but there is no book by that name. What this pastor (who was not the pastor of the church, but the pastor leading the singles event.) said was "Hezekiah is the book we put things in that are not in the Bible like 'Cleanliness is next to godliness.'" He was right.

For a long time I did not believe in what we call cleanliness. Neither of these preachers was against what we call sanitation or cleanliness. The main reason I was against it was an incident with Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees had asked Jesus why his disciples had broken tradition by eating with unwashed hands. He referred to the Pharisees as whitewashed tombs who make the outside clean but within are full of dead men's bones.

My one female friend is Miss Clean America. I am Mr. Messy. My friend is very nice, very sweet and very honest. There are two reasons I changed my mind 1) My female friend. I wish she would but she has chosen to never get married again. So I will be content to be just friends and help her when I can. Reason number 2) The Holy Bible in what we call the New Testament mentions uncleanness several times and refers to "all uncleanness". I always thought of this as spiritual uncleanness which it mostly is but the inclusion of the word all makes me think that it also includes what we call sanitation.