Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

these Paul is believed to teach that men are not, or at least may not, be thoroughly saved from
"carnality," "filthiness of the flesh and spirit," spiritual depravity, etc., in regeneration. In the second
he is believed to teach how and when we may be saved from it or them.
After reading and rereading what Drs. Crane, Boland, Tillett, and others have written to break the
force of Mr. Wesley's construction of this passage, we are still inclined to believe that he was
substantially correct in His interpretation, and for the following reasons:
1. These Corinthians were Christians. Paul calls them "brethren" and "babes in Christ." He says
that he had "fed" them "with milk" -- "the sincere milk of the word" -- and that this was still the
proper food for them. They had then been born again and were still alive spiritually. For unborn or
dead "babes" are not "fed with milk."
2. This weak condition of babyhood seems not to have resulted from backsliding, as is suggested
by Drs. Crane and Boland, but rather from a lack of development or of the infusion of divine strength
into their souls. For Paul teaches that they had never been strong and free from carnality: "For
hitherto ye have not been able to bear it." The term "hitherto" covers all their history since their
conversion, and shows that they had been weak and carnal from the first, and not as the result of
backsliding. Hence he adds, "For ye are yet carnal." If he had meant to charge them with backsliding,
would he not have said, "Ye have again become carnal."?
The truth seems to be that they had been born again -- had had some measure of life, "the divine
nature," imparted to them -- but as it was with the "thorny ground hearers," that new life or nature
did not fully dominate their old or nature. Rather, that the latter largely dominated or was at least
mixed with the former, and found expression in feelings if not in words of "envy," "strife,"
"divisions," etc. Observation shows that too often, if not generally, after the "freshet" of love and joy
-- the "emotional fullness" -- that overflows the soul at conversion subsides, the "carnal" nature
shows its presence still, and often finds such expression as it did at Corinth. And all observing men
must admit that because of differences in human conditions a much more vigorous life -- much more
of the divine nature -- seems given to some men at conversion than what comes to others. Dr. Mudge
takes this view, and puts the Wesleyan construction on this passage.
But suppose they had backslidden, such result most probably proceeded from the fact that they
had not been fully discipled -- had not been baptized with, or filled and strengthened and established
by, the Holy Spirit, and were hence, in the pre-Pentecostal state, like the weak and wavering apostles
before Pentecost. Paul in these Epistles instructs them, sets before them their privileges, gives them
a bright picture of "perfect love" in the thirteenth chapter of this Epistle, and in the sixth and seventh
chapters of His second Epistle intimates how this result, perfect love, may be brought about.
We now glance at 2 Corinthians vii. 1. Here is Dr. Steele's note:
"Let us cleanse [aorist] ourselves at a stroke from every filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
[present] holiness in the fear of the Lord. If Paul had been exhorting to a gradual inward cleansing,
he would certainly have used the present tense ... Cleansing is here viewed as a human work,
inasmuch as our application of the purifying power is by faith, just as we are to 'make ourselves new