2 Corinthians 7:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Is there a difference between the repentance of the lost soul seeking Christ, and the repentance of the seasoned believer? Well, we find there is to some extent, and here we read about it in this outstanding chapter.We have in the first verse what could be called a perfect verse. It is really amazing how much the apostle Paul says in a single verse. ‘Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved’ – the promises at the end of the previous chapter in and verse 18 – ‘let us cleanse ourselves.’ The apostle includes himself; he does not speak to them here from a dizzy height; he adopts this much more friendly manner. ‘Let us cleanse ourselves’ – by repentance, of course, and by renewed pledges to God to live for him – ‘from all filthiness of the flesh.’ ‘Filthiness’: it is a powerful word. It reminds us that all sin and all wrong doing is the pollution of the purity that God is working in us. And then an unusual term, although it has previously been used in this epistle – ‘of the flesh and spirit’. Here flesh does not refer just to sinful human nature as it so often does in the writings of Paul, but it means all sin to do with the body: the whole of the body, not just the sin nature. ‘All filthiness of the flesh and spirit’, in other words, it is the apostle’s way of saying, let us cleanse ourselves from all visible sin, and all invisible sin, or all external sin, and all internal sin. It is the whole person who is in mind here. Sins of the flesh would be the sins of appetite, and the sins of lust, and the sins of idleness and so on. Anything connected with this bodily part. And the sins of the spirit will be our thoughts, our dreams, our plans, and our motives and our pride, of course; all our self-seeking and self-love, and our unfaithfulness to God and to others. All those would be the sins of the spirit.The word perfecting is very interesting because it has to do with completing. Really what the apostle is saying is focus on the full range of conduct, not just part of it. Not just, for example, your religious life to the exclusion of your outward life in the world, or your outward conduct in some things and not your inner life, your thought life. ‘Perfecting holiness’ means completing or studying the full range of holiness. And how do we do that? Well, by frequent self-examination and prayer and repentance, and renewed dedication, commitment to the right. Perfecting holiness. Remembering also the positive virtues, the fruit of the Spirit given in Galatians 5.‘In the fear of God,’ or let us say, ‘in the sight of God’ as an equivalent phrase – with respect to him. God watches, we owe him so much. See him there. Fear his discipline, his punishment. Desire his blessing and his daily rewards and help. So he punishes and he rewards. ‘Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.’ It is a perfect verse, it goes right through the commitment to holiness and godly living.