Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. —2 Corinthians 7:1
In the previous chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul issues a call for separation. Consecration to God implies separation from the world. Paul employs five rhetorical questions in 2 Corinthians 6:14–18 that express our break from this world system. He closes with the promise that God will own us and adopt us. On that basis, chapter 7 begins.
Notice the pollution from which we must be cleansed—our flesh and our spirit. Such cleansing was promised in Ezekiel 36:25, 29. The pollution of the flesh referred to outward sin; which the believer is now to avoid, while the pollution of the spirit described inward sin.((Wesley, Explanatory Notes, 460.)) It all has to go. However, the two-fold description does not imply that true Christians are unclean, immoral, and defiled in their lifestyle. Rather, it reminds us of the constant need to repudiate any possible defilement. William Greathouse explained:
This text clearly implies that there are degrees of Christian holiness. The Corinthians are being called upon to “perfect” the holiness that was theirs in Christ by appropriating God’s promises and cleansing themselves from any remaining moral defilement.((Greathouse, Wholeness in Christ, 199.))
We who are beloved by Almighty God are called upon to cleanse ourselves. The Greek verb katharizó is the basis for our word catharsis. But how can we cleanse ourselves? We cannot make ourselves holy. This exhortation does not imply a works sanctification. However, we can consecrate ourselves. And what God commands or promises he also enables us to do through his power.
What we do in the power of God is no other than the work of God within us, who fulfills his own promises through our instrumentality; and what the power of God accomplishes through our energies exerted in faith is counted by him our own act.((W. B. Pope, “Perfecting Holiness,” The Inward Witness, 224. Pope’s previous sermon, “Perfecting Conversion” was based on Matt 19:21 and Luke 18:22.))
Holiness is begun when we are born again. The bondage of sin is broken. John Fletcher explained:
For the same Spirit of faith, which initially purifies our hearts when we cordially believe the pardoning love of God completely cleanses them when we fully believe his sanctifying love.((Fletcher, Works, 2:645.))
In his sermon, “On Sin in Believers,” John Wesley taught that we have power over both outward and inward sin from the moment we are justified. But he denies that we have been freed from all sin. While sin remains, however, it does not reign. He explained that when Paul exhorts believers to “cleanse” themselves “from all filthiness of flesh and spirit,” he plainly teaches that those believers were not yet cleansed therefrom. Such Christians know that they are of God and cannot doubt it for a moment. Yet they
continually feel an heart bent to backsliding, a natural tendency to evil, a proneness to depart from God, and cleave to the things of earth. They are daily sensible of sin remaining in their heart, pride, self-will, unbelief, and of sin cleaving to all they speak and do, even their best actions and holiest duties.((Wesley, “On Sin in Believers,” Sermon #13, 3.7.))
Therefore, holiness must be perfected or completed. This is the Greek word telos with the prefix epi. This prefix serves to intensify the perfection—bringing fully to completion. While this perfecting is a present participle, Paul Barnett argued that it does not imply a process in which we are constantly advancing in holiness, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3:18. The main verb, purify or cleanse, is in the aorist tense and controls the time element of the present participle, perfecting. Certainly, there is a progressive facet of sanctification, but the emphasis in this text is on complete cleansing from all pollution.
“The holiness that is to be perfected is covenantal rather than developmental or processive in character.”((Barnett, New International Commentary on the New Testament: 2 Corinthians, 357.)) In other words, the emphasis here is not on process, but on entering a deeper relationship with God.
Our relationship with God must never be presumptuous. Paul’s admonition references fear, a reverence for God which implies that to ignore these promises evokes his displeasure. Therefore, Wesley preached:
You have therefore good reason to believe he is not only able but willing to do this—to “cleanse you from all your filthiness of flesh and spirit,” to “save you from all your uncleannesses.” This is the thing which you now long for: this is the faith which you now particularly need, namely, that the great physician, the lover of my soul, is willing to “make me clean.”((Wesley, “The Repentance of Believers,” Sermon #14, 2.3.))
Sermon Suggestions
- The residue—inward pollution of sin which remains in the believer
- The remedy—complete cleansing from that inward pollution
- The reality—God’s power brings Christian holiness to completion