'... ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.'--1 Peter i. 22.
Note these three subsidiary clauses introduced respectively by 'in,'
'through,' 'unto.' They give the means, the Bestower, and the issue of
the purity of soul. The Revised Version, following good authorities,
omits the clause, 'through the Spirit.' It may possibly be originally a
marginal gloss of some scribe who was nervous about Peter's orthodoxy,
which finally found its way into the text. But I think we shall be
inclined to retain it if we notice that, throughout this epistle, the
writer is fond of sentences on the model of the present one, and of
surrounding a principal clause with subsidiary ones introduced by a
similar sequence of prepositions. For instance, in this very chapter, to
pass over other examples, we read, 'Kept by' (or in) 'the power of God
through faith unto salvation.' So, for my present purpose, I take the
doubtful words as part of the original text. They unquestionably convey
a true idea, whether they are genuine here or no.
One more introductory remark--'Ye have purified your souls'--a bold
statement to make about the vast multitude of the 'dispersed' throughout
all the provinces of Asia Minor whom the Apostle was addressing. The
form of the words in the original shows that this purifying is a process
which began at some definite point in the past and is being continued
throughout all the time of Christian life. The hall-mark of all
Christians is a relative purity, not of actions, but of soul. They will
vary, one from another; the conception of what is purity of soul will
change and grow, but, if a man is a Christian, there was a moment in his
past at which he potentially, and in ideal, purified his spirit, and
that was the moment when he bowed down in obedience to the truth. There
are suggestions for volumes about the true conception of soul-purity in
these words of my text. But I deal with them in the simplest possible
fashion, following the guidance of these significant little words which
introduce the subordinate clauses.