2 Corinthians 7:1 · World English Bible
2 Corinthians 7:1 Meaning Having Therefore These Promises
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
What does 2 Corinthians 7:1 mean?
A promise has been made, and now comes the work of becoming fit to receive it. A clouded mirror returns no clear reflection, and the film here is a double stain, the coarse appetites and the subtler pride that hides inside the spirit.
From the Sufism reading below.
2 Corinthians 7:1 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
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Sufism
A promise has been made, and now comes the work of becoming fit to receive it. A clouded mirror returns no clear reflection, and the film here is a double stain, the coarse appetites and the subtler pride that hides inside the spirit.
Cleansing is the patient wiping of both surfaces, honest with hidden faults as much as visible ones. What is promised stays ahead, still to come. Yet the One who is feared and loved is already near, since a mirror is polished only for the light that longs to shine in it.
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Live 2 Corinthians 7:1 today
- Pick the one habit you would be embarrassed to have on a screen share, and set a small limit on it today. Not a vow, just a limit you can actually keep.
- Next time you catch yourself telling a story that makes you look good, stop and tell the plainer version to the person in front of you. The small edit you were about to make is the dust.
- When someone criticizes you in an email or a meeting and your chest tightens, wait before replying. Ask yourself whether the sting is because they are wrong or because they are close to right.
Which stain is easier for me to admit, the coarse one or the proud one?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
A student polishes the mirror of the mind not to make the light appear but because the light is already there and only the dust hides it.
Stoicism · Epictetus
The hard work is on your own judgments and impulses, and the subtle pride of thinking you have mastered them is itself the next thing to be cleaned.
Bhagavad Gita
Desire clouds wisdom the way smoke clouds fire or dust clouds a mirror, so the clearing has to reach both the appetite and the ego behind it.
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