Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7, 1.
The lack of hygiene frequently causes diseases to develop. Similarly, a good spiritual healthy condition necessitates regular “hygienic care”. The Lord Jesus explained to Peter that if He did not wash his feet, he could not have fellowship with Him (John 13, 8). Clean feet speak of the cleanliness of our moral conduct wherever we go. Defilement troubles our communion with the Lord and prevents us from serving Him usefully.
We insist on our children washing their hands before they appear at the table for a meal. Let us therefore not tolerate any defilement of the heart or conscience, so that we maintain a happy relationship with the Lord, particularly when we meet around Him with our brothers and sisters to remember Him in His death. Do we spend more time attending to our outward appearance than to preparing ourselves spiritually? “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16, 7).
The longer there is wrong within us, the more difficult it is to rid oneself of it. As far as our bodies are concerned, we use water to wash. On a spiritual level it is the Word of God that purifies us. Jesus Christ, who loves His church, cleanses it “with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5, 26). By reading the Bible daily we can be cleansed from “all filthiness of the flesh and spirit”, visible and invisible, in our acts or our thoughts.