Follow“Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God”
© 2026 C. O. Bishop (Perfecting Holiness)
2nd Corinthians 7:1 “1 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.”
Introduction:
What does it mean, “Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God”? We can see several things in this verse. Some are very important: Some not. For example, the verse is only 25 words long. Is that important? I doubt it: But it is an example of a “packed” passage. It has lots of vital information “packed into” few words. We need to “unpack it,” just as the Bereans “searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” So, let’s unpack it: One phrase (or one word) at a time.
Having Therefore “these” Promises: (In regard to Holiness)
What Promises? And…what do I do with that word “therefore?” (Stop and see what it is there for!) This “therefore” looks back to 2nd Corinthians 6:16-18, where we see “these” promises regarding Holiness:
“16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Did You See the Promises There, Regarding Holiness?
- We are the Temple of the Living God!
- God said He will live in us! He says He will WALK in us!
- He says He will be our God, and we shall be His People!
- He says as we separate ourselves from the World, and its sin, its filth, (practical holiness) He (the Lord Almighty) will receive us and deal with us as His dear children.
God cites other promises in 2nd Peter 1:4. He says we have “exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we may be partakers of the Divine Nature.” And He says, seeing that we HAVE such promises, He wants us to respond accordingly, “perfecting Holiness.”
“Dearly Beloved:”
So, to Whom is this addressed? Paul only says “dearly beloved” regarding one group of people. It is the believers: the followers of Jesus! This is not a “recipe” telling unbelievers how to become the children of God. Jesus already told Nicodemus how to become a child of God. He said,“Ye must be born again!” Jesus explained how to be born again by faith (John 1:11-13; John 3:16.) This is a recipe for practical holiness among believers.
Therefore, the people Paul addressed were already believers. So, the information here is relational in nature, and practical holiness is a recipe for a serene, growing relationship with the Living God. But the next thing He says is that we are to cleanse ourselves.
“Let us Cleanse Ourselves:”
How can we cleanse ourselves? Psalm 119:9 Is the only place where the King James Bible says how a believer can cleanse himself. Many passages demand that we do so! Jeremiah 2:22 says even if we scrub ourselves with “nitre” (lye…a very harsh cleansing agent) we are still unclean. We cannot produce Holiness on our own! (Jesus said so: See John 15:5)
James 4:8-10 commands us, “8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
James specializes in teaching Practical Holiness.
Hands
We cleanse our hands through confession, according to 1st John 1:9. He calls upon us to repent (change our minds) enough that we can confess who we are and what we are doing. But He still says for us to cleanse ourselves…and it is an ongoing process. HE cleanses us positionally. Once He has cleansed you, He eternally sees you as clean: He has conferred His Holiness upon you! But our condition wavers all over the place.
That is why, in John 13:10, Jesus said, “if you have been washed, you are clean: but your feet will still need washing.” 1st John 1:7 says that “…the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanses us from all sin.” That is our position in Him. He has permanently made us clean by conferring His Holiness upon us.
Feet
So, we go to God in confession to “wash our feet.” But in terms of how we live before Him, and how, as His ambassadors, we present Him to the World, He tells us to apply His Word to ourselves so that it changes us: And we memorize His Word to make it a permanent change. This is how we “improve upon our practical holiness.”
Psalm 119:9-11 says, “9 How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto, according to Thy Word! 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from Thy commandments. 11 Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee.”
So, from what are we cleansing ourselves?
“From All Filthiness”
To What does this refer? Ephesians 5:1-8
“1Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”
There are many other similar passages: I chose this one because the Lord contrasts light and darkness, here, and says that we have no business living in darkness anymore: We are part of God’s light, now, and our behavior should reflect His light. That is why Jesus told the people in Matthew 5:15-16 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven”
“Filthiness Of the Flesh”
What is “Filthiness of the flesh?” Romans 1:24-32 “24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
8 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
This passage described the “downward slide” of the Human race into depravity. We became spiritually filthy, first, and it resulted in our becoming physically filthy as well.
And Filthiness “Of The Spirit”
What is “Filthiness of the spirit?” Galatians 5:16-21 “16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The next two verses describe the (Singular) fruit of the Spirit. Failing to “walk in the Spirit,” (as verse 16 commands) leaves the only other option: Living carnally—in the flesh. Most of the things listed here are matters strictly of the heart.
ALL of them can be a picture of the heart of man. We can most easily observe some of them when they become outward behavior. But most can find their identity in the deceitful heart, even if they never blossom into a visible behavior. God says we are also responsible for our thought-life. 2nd Corinthians 10:4, 5 calls us to “…bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
“Perfecting Holiness”
How can WE “perfect our holiness?” Who declares us to be Holy? 1st Corinthians 6:9-11
“9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, (cleansed) but ye are sanctified, (made holy) but ye are justified (declared righteous) in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
On what basis does God declare us to be Holy? Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified (declared righteous) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”
1st Peter 2:1-10 “1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
What Part Do WE Play, in Perfecting Holiness?
We strive to walk with Him, and to live out the holiness God has conferred upon us. Positionally, He has declared us Holy, and set us apart for His service. But we want that holiness to be our daily condition, as well. 1st Peter 1:16 “ Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
Holiness “In the Fear of God”
What does “Fear of God” mean, as compared to 1st John 4:11-21? In Psalm 19:9, we see that “the Fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever.” And, Romans 3:18, says, of the unbelieving world, “There is no Fear of God before their eyes.”
So, the “Fear of the Lord” is a good thing: We are awe-stricken before Him, seeing ourselves as we truly are: In Isaiah 6:5, Isaiah said, “…Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Yes, God has cleansed us, positionally: We stand before Him cleansed of our sins, but we still see His unimaginable Holiness and Authority, and we experience the clean, eternal, “Fear of the Lord.” In Isaiah 6:1-8, we see that even the Angelic host cannot look fully upon His Glory: They, too, are overcome by His Holiness.
A Wrong Fear, Not Resulting in Holiness
But the Fear mentioned in 1st John 4:11-21 is the fear of punishment: It is the Fear that because we cannot in ourselves match HIS Holiness, God will break His Promise and abandon us. Or that He will change His mind regarding the fullness of Jesus’s completed Work at the Cross, and somehow allow us to slip away from Him into hell.
God says that if we are experiencing that sort of fear, then we don’t know Him well enough. He says that, if our love-relationship with Him were complete, we would be in Love with Him: We would be completely trusting Him in His Love and His Grace, and HIS Holiness, knowing that He is utterly Faithful.
Lord Jesus, teach us to walk with You, and to separate ourselves from our old practices, our old thought patterns. We confess to You that we are “Saved Sinners.” Yes, we stand before you In Your Holiness, as Your offspring, but we confess that, apart from Your abiding guidance and control in our lives we cannot hope to live in such a way as to please You. Help us to desire that relationship with You MORE than we desire our old patterns and pleasures. Help us to live out the Holiness that You have conferred upon us!