What are the virtues of chastity and purity?

Purity is a positive virtue: communion with the Holy One, that we may become an icon of the heavenly and holy Bridegroom, and may be made ready for the heavenly marriage feast as a holy, pure, and perfect bride. Purity or holiness is the gift of God the Father in His Holy Son through the work of the Holy Spirit. Purity, or having a clean heart, concerns a person’s whole being: soul, body, mind, emotions, abilities, energies, thoughts, words, and actions. It is life in the holy Christ that is expressed in our whole being as the believer cherishes the image of God within him that was distorted through sin and was restored to him through the cross. Unfortunately, we often view purity only as a negative virtue, as if it were nothing more than abstinence from sinful bodily actions, evil thoughts, inappropriate language, and every foul behavior. But if we think this way, we devalue the virtue of purity, for we treat purity as something that does not exist, whereas impurity and corruption are things that do exist; and so, purity is nothing more than the absence of the latter.

However, God’s pleasure is to see His children pure in everything as He is pure (1 John 3:3), perfect as He is perfect (Matt. 5:48) and holy because He is holy (Lev. 11:44–45). Chromatius of Aquileia says, “So the Lord shows that it is pure-hearted people like this who are blessed. They are the ones who, living by faith in the Lord with a pure mind and unstained conscience, will win the right to see the God of glory in the heavenly kingdom to come, ‘no longer in a mirror and in a riddle, but face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12), as the apostle related.”⁷⁹⁵