1 Corinthians 6:11 - Exposition

And such were some of you; literally, and these things some of you were. As Gentiles, many of them had been "dead in trespasses and sins" ( Ephesians 2:1 ). (For a similar contrast of the change wrought by the Spirit of God, see Titus 3:3-7 .) But ye are washed . The voice and tense in the original differ from those of the following words. This cannot be accidental. It is better, therefore, to render, But ye washed away your sins; i.e. ye, by your baptism, washed away those stains ( Acts 22:16 ). The very object of Christ's death had been that he might cleanse his Church "by the washing of water by the Word." But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified; rather, but ye were sanctified, but y? were justified, namely, at your conversion. By "sanctified" is meant, not the progressive course of sanctification, but the consecration to God by baptism (Wickliffe, "halowed"). (For what St. Paul meant by justification, see Romans 3:24-26 .) In the Name of the Lord Jesus, etc. This clause and the next belongs to all the three previous verbs. Of our God. In the word "our" is involved that appeal to Christian unity of which he never loses sight throughout the letter.