¹Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. ²Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. ³I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. ⁴Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction

We are now part of God’s family, fulfilling promises God spread throughout the OT and quoted by Paul at the end of the previous chapter. And we are not to be yoked together with unbelievers. In light of these two truths, how then should we live out our personal lives? Paul writes, “Therefore” we should clean up our lives. Notice his tone. First he calls them “beloved”—Paul is not trying to destroy the Corinthians (vs. 3) but is writing them with “tough love” because he cares for them. Second, he includes himself in the admonition. We all, including the apostle Paul, need to constantly be in the self-cleaning business. The pressure to be tainted by the world is continually working to pull us away from godly living. Our goal is nothing short of the continual work of “perfecting holiness.” That is God’s goal for us (Eph. 1:4, 5:27), and it should be ours as well:

[L]ike the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15–16)

So this quest for holiness needs to infect their relationship, and that includes their attitude toward Paul. He avows that his intentions are pure and he has caused no one any harm. His record is out there for everyone to see. He is willing to die for them and therefore also to live for them, denying his own comforts of life.

We find here a tremendous spiritual principle: a spiritual leader never gives up on those he leads. He expresses his confidence that they will respond to correction properly. We could aptly say that Paul believes in them no matter how far they have fallen away from holy living. So he can speak boldly to them. He boasts in their anticipated response to his correction. He is helped immeasurably by this belief in them, which is in reality the comfort (literally “help”) of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:4). And he is using his confidence in them to help them respond in the same way. He sets the bar high for them and encourages them that he believes they can reach it.

Lord, thank You for the work You are doing in my fellow believers’ lives.