Uncleanness<\/a>. When a person when through the cleansing ritual, it wasn’t a thorough washing. The person would be sprinkled with a special water.<\/p>\nThis isn’t to say that people in the Old Testament did not bathe, but the idea of becoming clean after contacting something unclean had a specific purpose that wasn’t concerned with physical cleanliness. In the New Testament, the rules regarding uncleanness were not carried over. There is no cleansing ritual today.<\/p>\n
Your belief that God requires you to wash is merely something that you made up. Thus, your scrubbing is imposed on yourself. Any consequences for not washing is not coming from God; instead, you are making yourself miserable because you didn’t follow through with your self-imposed religion. “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh<\/em>” (Colossians 2:23).<\/p>\nTherefore, since you are doing this to yourself, the only person who can stop this is yourself. One way to overcome these compulsions is to have a trusted person work with you, where you do something that triggers your compulsion and then not follow it up with the compulsion. At first, it will be hard to resist, but over time it will gradually become easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I am suffering from a problem of excessive hand washing. I wash my hands for hours after using the toilet or touching private parts. I fear touching things which I touched earlier with dirty hands and wash and rub my body again and again after having sex. I\u2019m not bothered about about germs, but I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[508,965],"class_list":["post-3848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-mental-illness","tag-ocd"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53547,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-compulsively-wash-my-hands\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":0},"title":"I compulsively wash my hands","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I am a very strong believer in Christ. He has my whole heart and soul. I have very strong faith in Him. I have seen miracles that He performs. I have severe OCD. It happens when I read the Bible, take communion, fast, and prayer. I get all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56281,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/foot-washing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":1},"title":"Foot Washing","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dudley Ross Spears Question: \"What is your understanding of feet washing as it was practiced in the Bible? Some people still practice it in church. What do you think?\" Answer: This question deals with foot washing, not merely for sanitary purposes, but as a religious act allegedly done in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/washing-feet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":94715,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/acts-2216\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":2},"title":"Acts 22:16","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Acts 22:16 Links Baptism and Calling Together with Washing The grammar of Acts 22:16 strongly links baptism and the washing away of sins as simultaneous actions, both carried out while calling on the name of the Lord. The Greek Structure of Acts 22:16 The verse reads:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66534,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-foot-washing-indicate-acceptance\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":3},"title":"Does Foot Washing Indicate Acceptance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Much has been made over the recent \"He gets us\" ads depicting various scenes of different kinds of people washing their feet and having their feet washed. The debate is over what this means. Is it a good illustration of what Jesus would do? Does it accurately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68708,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/baptismal-regeneration\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":4},"title":"Baptismal Regeneration?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some teach and believe that the water of baptism is in no way tied to regeneration or salvation. They think it is something you do after salvation as just a symbol of what already happened in your heart. We see no proof of that view in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40155,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-like-people-touching-my-food-is-it-biblically-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":5},"title":"I don’t like people touching my food. Is it biblically wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to know how to deal with an issue of mine from a biblical point. I have a problem with people touching the food I'm eating and not having clean habits (by the way, it seems like a very silly \"problem\" now as I write it). It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}