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2Co_7:1 closes the previous section.
Since we accordingly (according to 2Co_6:16-18) have these promises (namely, that God will dwell among us, receive us, be our Father, etc.), we wish not to make them null in our case by an immoral lif.
ταύτας ] placed at the head, bears the emphasis of the importance of the promise.
καθαρίσωμεν ἑαυτούς ] denotes the morally purifying activity, which the Christian has to exert on himself, not simply the keeping himself pure (Olshausen). He who has become a Christian has by his faith doubtless attained forgiveness of his previous sins (Rom_3:23-25), is reconciled with God and sanctified (comp. 2Co_5:19 ff., and see on Act_15:9); but Paul refers here to the moral stains incurred in the Christian condition, which the state of grace of the regenerate (1Pe_1:22 f.) as much obliges him to do away with again in reference to himself (Rom_6:1 ff; Rom_8:12 ff.), as by the power of God (Php_2:12-13) it makes him capable of doing so (Rom_6:14; Rom_8:9). And no one forms an exception in this respect; hence Paul includes himself, with true moral feeling of this need placing himself on an equality with his reader.
σαρκὸς καὶ πνεύματος ] The Christian is in the flesh, i.e. in the material-psychical part of his nature, stained by fornication, intemperance, and such transgressions and vices as directly pollute the body (which ought to be holy, 1Co_6:13 ff; 1Co_7:34); and his spirit, i.e. the substratum of his rational and moral consciousness, the seat of the operation of the Divine Spirit in him and therewith the bearer of his higher and eternal life (1Co_2:11; 1Co_5:3; Rom_8:16), is stained by immoral thoughts, desires, etc., which are suggested to him by means of the power of sin in the flesh, and through which the spirit along with the νοῦς is sinfully affected, becomes weak and bound, and enslaved to sin (comp. on Rom_12:2; Eph_4:23). The two do not exclude, but include each other. Observe, further, that Paul might have used σώματος instead of σαρκός ; but he puts σαρκός , because the flesh, in which the principle of sin has its seat and hence the fomes peccati lies, serves as the element to which every bodily defilement ethically attaches itself. This is based on the natural relation of the σάρξ to the power of sin, for which reason it is never demanded that the σάρξ shall be or become holy, but that the body (1Co_7:34) shall be holy through the crucifixion of the flesh, through putting off the old man, etc. (Col_2:11). By these means the Christian no longer lives ἐν σαρκί (Rom_8:8 f.) and κατὰ σάρκα , and is purified from everything wherewith the flesh is soiled; comp. 1Th_5:23; Rom_8:13; Rom_12:1. The surprising character of the expression, to which Holsten especially takes objection (see z. Evang. d. Paul. u. Petr. p. 387), is disposed of by the very consideration that Paul is speaking of the regenerate; in their case the lusts of the σάρξ in fact remain, and the σάρξ is defiled, if their lusts are actually gratified. Calovius, we may add, rightly observes: “ex illatione etiam apostolica a promissionibus gratiae ad studium novae obedientiae manifestum est, doctrinam apostolicam de gratuita nostri justificatione et in filios adoptione non labefactare pietatis et sanctitatis studium, sed ad illud excitare atque ad obedientiam Deo praestandam calcar addere.”
On μολυσμός , comp. Jer_23:15; Jeremiah 3 Esdr. 8:83; 2Ma_5:27; Plut. Mor. p. 779 C.
ἐπιτελοῦντες ἁγιωσύνην ] This is the positive activity of the καθαρίζειν ἑαντούς : while we bring holiness to perfection (2Co_8:6) in the fear of God. To establish complete holiness in himself is the continual moral endeavour[254] and work of the Christian purifying himself. Comp. Rom_6:22.
ἐν φόβῳ θεοῦ ] is the ethical, holy sphere (Eph_5:21) in which the ἐπιτελεῖν ἁγιωσ . must move and proceed. Comp. Rom_11:19-22, and already Gen_17:1. Thus the apostle closes the whole section with the same ethical fundamental idea, with which he had begun it at 2Co_5:11, where, however, it was specifically limited to the executor of the divine judgment.
[254] Although with this the moral perfection itself, which the ideal injunction of it requires, is never fully reached. It is “non viae, sed metae et patriae” (Calovius); but the Christian labours constantly at it, striving towards the goal at which “finis coronat opus.” Comp. BengeL The success is of God (Php_1:6), the fear of whom guides the Christian.