How To Cleanse Ourselves

2 Corinthians 7:1
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.

We are to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. We are to do this based upon “these promises.” What promises you ask, the promises that are in chapter 6, verses 16b-18...

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

These are great promises from God, to us. Do you know where Paul (who wrote 2 Corinthians) got them? Leviticus 26:12, Isaiah 52:11, and a combination of texts from 2 Samuel, Ezekiel, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Exodus. The promises in these Old Testament books are for us. Obviously using proper hermeneutics, there are certain commands and promises that were specific to a particular people in a particular time. But we ought to let the truth of this sink in. Paul is reasoning from Old Testament texts. These texts are the promises that we are to believe in order for us to obey the command to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.

Thank you Lord for your great and precious promises. Give to us the faith to believe and embrace them.