The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 192

with 1111 diligence. "Yea, what II clearing of yourselves!" What solicitucle to be right with Gocl I "Yea, what indignation I" ,vhat lively abhorrence of evil! "Yea, what fear I yea, what longing desire I" ·what anxiety to satisfy the apostle,- or any Dervant of God who has brought our sins home to our conscience, that we are and mean to be what he would approve! Thus the effect of godly sorrow is to make the heart tender ancl affectionate as well as pure. " Yea, what zeal" in reformation I "Yea, what revenge I" What holy severity against sin I When a sinner, charged with his offences against God, stands on bis defence, he is fertile in excuses. 'fhe sin was a little one ; or the motive was not bad ; or the provocation or temptation was grea~; or the circumstances almost ~ompel~ed him ; or he did it without thought; or be did as others do. But when he 1s conv10ced of the Holy Ghost and moved with godly sorrow, he has no plea, and does not wish to have any excuse pleaded for him. He wants rather to have revenge upon his sin, and abhors himself on account of it, repenting in dust and ashes. There is no peace for bis conscience but in the sin- purging blood of Jesus Christ. When the believer (and this rather than the other is the case which this text suggests) is reproved,for grave inconsistency, moral earnestness is roused within him. Not that be is bound to accept the strictures and rebukes of ill- natured -and censorious persons who call it faithfulness to find fault freely with their neighbours.· But let a righteous man smite him, and he takes it as an excellent oil. As his fault is shown to his conscience, he scorns to excuse it. He breaks off the sin by righteousness, and that with a sort of sacred indignation, not against the reprover, but against· the thing reproved. Indeed, a sorrow God-ward for one fault works a repentance for all sin. As Gurnal says, "One spot occasions the whole garment to be washed. A careful man, when he findeth it rain in at one place, sends forth the work- men to look over all the roof. So should the discovery of one fault lead to a general renewal of self-examination and repentance; and sorrow for one sin should rend the heart for all sins."-F. Ver. L--The practical power of the promises. The Apostle John gives a very similar counsel. In 1 John iii. 3 he says, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Our hope is based upon the promises ; and the promises which the apostle has been recalling to mind are (1) the indwelling of God; (2) his free reception of us; and (3) his fatherhood and our sonship, with all the love and care and keeping which these involve (eh. vi. 16--18). St. Paul argues in this way-Because you are saved, because you have entered into such a state of privilege, because you are covered by such " exceeding great and precious promises," therefore be in earnest to cleanse yourselves from all evil, watch over all the various forms of conduct, and seek to tone and purify every expression of the life. The expres- sion; " filthiness of the flesh and spirit," needs explanation. St. Paul evidently had in mind the immoralities which are associated with idolatry, and which the Corinthian Church had treated too lightly when brought into their midst by the incestuous member. Writing of the apostle's association with Corinth, Archdeacon Farrar says, "There was one characteristic of heathen life which would come home to him with overwhelming force, and fill his pure soul with infinite pain. It wa.s the gross immorality of a city conspicuous for its depravity even amid the depraved cities of a dying heathenism. lts very name had become a synonym for reckless debauchery...• So far from acting as a check upon this headlong immorality, religion had there taken under its immediate protection the very pollutions which it was its highest function to suppress. It was to the converts of this city that he addressed most frequently, and with most solemn warning and burning indignation, his stern prohibition of sensual crime. It was to converts drawn from the reeking haunts of its slaves and artisans that be writes that they too had once been sunk in the lowest depths of sin and shame. It is of this city that we hear the 8orrowful admission that in the world of heathendom a pure life and an honest life was a thing well-nigh unknown." Dis- tinguishing between the flesh and the spirit, though these are so subtly related, we may say, "The outward defilement is caused by sins of the flesh, or budily part of man; the inward by those of the spirit, such as pride, unbelief, or the liktJ." Dealing comprehensively with the topic suggested by the passage, we may show- I. 'l'aE V4B1ETY OF TB.S PBO.ltUSES, They are found scattered throughout the sacn:d  UI0 THE SECOND EPISTLE ro THE CORINTHIANS. [en. vn. 1-16.