Verse 1
1. Having This verse completes the last section, and should belong to the sixth chapter.
These promises In the Greek the position of these words in the sentence renders them emphatic, these glorious promises. Paul refers to the promises of the last verse of the previous chapter, in which Jehovah promises us, upon our departure from sin, that we shall be his sons and daughters.
Let us cleanse ourselves Let us exert our active powers to our own purification; yet through the gracious power derived from God.
Filthiness Pollution, soiling, staining.
The flesh and spirit Sins of the flesh are those that arise from man’s animal or corporeal nature, as gluttony, intemperance, licentiousness; sins of the spirit are those that come from man’s intellectual nature, as pride, scepticism, falsehood, idolatry, etc. By the former, man is allied to brutes; by the latter, to devils. Yet both these classes of sins the apostle stigmatizes as filthiness. They defile the purity of man’s nature. He thereby stands before the perfectly pure God spotted with guilt.
Perfecting The positive process of which the purifying is the negative. To perfect is to bring to completion or normal maturity.
Fear That sentiment that deters and drives from sin, but can never bring us to holiness without the mingling and predominance of love.
On this passage we may note that a perfected holiness is here represented as a possible attainment; that it is the result of a properly-directed activity, and that its attainment is not to be delayed until death, but is to be realized and possessed during the Christian’s life.
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