What Does 2 Corinthians 7:1 Mean?
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every stain of flesh and breath, completing our set-apartness in the awe of God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.THE KEY
The cleansing that brings holiness to completion reaches flesh and breath as one whole life.
THE MEANING
The promises place this cleansing within God’s nearness: it reaches bodily life and breath, not one while sparing the other. Holiness is being brought to completion as the whole person is cleared in awe of God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Holiness belongs only to the invisible inner life; the body can remain outside it.
THE ROOT
καθαρίσωμεν
katharisōmen
GROWS FROM
καθαρ
kathar
Clean, pure; to make clean.
“cleanse” in this verse is katharisōmen. The word family holds the act of cleansing beside both cleanness and purification. The verse frames cleansing as removing what soils, uncovering cleanness rather than adding a new spiritual substance.
ALSO GROWS
katharos: Clean, pure.
καθαρός
The clean state belongs to the same word family as the cleansing action.
katharismos: Cleansing, purification.
καθαρισμός
This noun names the cleansing process that the verse describes.
πνεύματος
pneumatos
GROWS FROM
πνευ
pneu
Blow or breathe; breath.
The word rendered “spirit” belongs to the same Greek word family as breathing and breath. Set beside “flesh,” it shows cleansing reaching embodied life and breath together, rather than leaving the body outside holiness.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To blow, breathe.
πνέω
This verb shares the breath-and-blowing word family behind pneuma.
pnoē: Breath.
πνοή
This branch makes the breath meaning of the family plain.
ἐπιτελοῦντες
epitelountes
GROWS FROM
τελε
tele
Completion; bringing something to its end or goal.
“completing” in this verse is epitelountes. The verse pictures holiness being brought toward completion as cleansing takes place. Holiness here is not merely a label; it is a process of becoming whole in awe of God.
ALSO GROWS
telos: End, goal, completion.
τέλος
This branch shows the goal carried within the completion word family.
teleioō: Bring to completion, make complete.
τελειόω
This verb shares the idea of carrying something toward its completion.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing reaches what is defiled and brings the person toward cleanness before God.
Remove my falling short with hyssop, and I am clean; tread me, and I am whiter than snow.Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.How much more will the blood of the Anointed One, who through the breath of the ages brought himself near without blemish to God, cleanse our shared sight from dead works to serve the living God.THE THREAD
If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.The word translated “cleanse” is καθαρίσῃ (katharisē), from the same verb family as “cleanse” in this verse. Here the cleansing reaches all unrighteousness; in 2 Corinthians, it reaches the defilement of flesh and breath.
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