I’ve never had anyone define purity. You probably can’t define purity. Purity is to live according to original design.

McDowell frames “purity” not as a merely negative ideal (the absence of sexual activity or moral “stain”) but as a positive alignment with a Creator’s intent. By saying purity is hard to define, he suggests it is often reduced to rules or shame-based policing; his definition relocates it in teleology—what humans were made for. “Original design” implies an objective moral order grounded in Christian theology, where flourishing comes from living in accordance with God’s purposes for body, relationships, and character. The quote also functions rhetorically: it disarms listeners who expect a narrow sexual ethic and invites a broader, identity-and-purpose-based understanding of holiness.