Hand washing like a King

Talk to any woman about public restroom use and you will find out where there is a will there is a way to keep the germs away. Personally, the public bathroom is one of the most dreaded of places. And it's not unusual for most women to be highly skilled in public restroom use techniques passed on by mothers on how to get in and get out without actually touching anything. Most places even provide paper toilet seat covers to act as a germ shield and women who use them yet still do not sit on the seat. As I think about it, I'm not sure women take more caution in any other place than the public bathroom!

Just the other night I was watching 20/20 Fact or Fiction about germs, as apparently did many of my friends, and the next day we discussed the issue with enthusiasm. We discussed our own personal routines, such as using a foot to flush, or scrubbing our hands for 15 seconds, or using a papertowel to open the door. All this talk about the extensive careful measures we remember to take to avoid a germ made me think, can you imagine if we applied this much caution to avoid sin!!!

Why is it that we can watch a tv show about how to avoid the most germy places, and train ourselves to put them into practice, yet hear a sermon about how to avoid sin, and not apply the Word to our lives? Wouldn't it be much more beneficial for mothers to be teaching their children techniques to avoid sin?

Obviously we don't equate our supurb bathroom sanitation skills with godliness. James said, in Chapter 4:8 Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. If James' idea of washing your hands was just a physical act, I'd be a saint! Instead, the word of God teaches that clean hands are not those that avoid germs, rather hands that act as the hands of Jesus, doing the will of God.

Jesus said in Matt 23:25-26 "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." By our actions do we show that we are more afraid of a germ than of the Living God when we are more diligent to take every measure to avoid a germ, yet spend less time and effort to walk according to the Word? Both King David and Isaiah knew about hand washing. Look at the verses below:

Ps 24:3-6
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Isaiah 1:16 - 17
Your hands are full of blood;
16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right!
Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Obviously I'm not advocating that people stop taking sanitary measures in public bathrooms or that because we are highly skilled at avoiding germs that we are in sin. Rather, I hope to spurn you onto godliness. Wouldn't it be neat if everytime we go to wash the "outside of the cup", we are reminded to thank Jesus for washing our scarlet sins as white as snow and to ask him to help us keep the "inside of the cup" clean?