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That is a very remarkable "and" with which this verse begins. The apostle has just been touching the very heights of devout contemplation. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." And now without a pause, and linking his thoughts together by a simple "and," he passes from the imaginable splendours of the beatific vision to the plainest practical talk, Mysticism has often soared so high above the earth that it has forgotten to preach righteousness, and therein has been its weak point. But here is the most mystical teacher of the New Testament insisting on plain morality as vehemently as his friend James could have done. The combination is very remarkable. Like the eagle he rises, and like the eagle, with the impetus gained from his height, he drops right down on the earth beneath!

I. IF WE ARE TO BE PURE, WE MUST PURIFY OURSELVES. There are two ways of getting like Christ, spoken about in the context. One is the blessed way, that is more appropriate for the higher heaven, the way of assimilation and transformation — by beholding: "If we see Him" we shall be "like Him." That is the blessed method of the heavens. Ah! but even here on earth it may to some extent be realised. Love always breeds likeness. And there is such a thing, here on earth and now, as gazing upon Christ with an intensity of affection and simplicity of trust, and rapture of aspiration, and ardour of desire which shall transform us in some measure unto His own likeness. But the law of our lives forbids that that should be the only way in which we grow like Christ. The very word "purify" speaks to us of another condition; it implies impurity, it implies a process that is more than contemplation, it implies the reversal of existing conditions, and not merely the growth upwards to unattained conditions. And so growth is not all that Christian men need; they need excision, they need casting out of what is in them: they need change as well as growth. Then there is the other consideration, viz., if there is to be this purifying it must be done by myself. To take a very homely illustration, soap and water wash your hands clean, and what you have to do is simply to rub the soap and water on to the hand, and bring them into contact with the foulness. And so when God comes and says, "Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, your hands are full of blood," He says in effect, "Take the cleansing that I give you and rub it in, and apply it: and your flesh will become as the flesh of a little child, and you shall be clean." That is to say, the very deepest word about Christian effort of self-purifying is this — keep close to Jesus Christ. You cannot sin as long as you hold His hand.

II. THIS PURIFYING OF OURSELVES IS THE LINK OR BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE. The act of passing from the limitations and conditions of the transitory life into the solemnities and grandeurs of that future does not alter a man's character, though it may intensify it. You take a stick and thrust it into water; and because the rays of light pass from one medium to another of a different density, they are refracted, and the stick seems bent; but you take the human life out of the thick, coarse medium of earth and lift it up into the pure rarefied air of heaven, and there is no refraction; it runs straight on! The given direction continues; and where'er my face is turned when I die, there my face will be turned when I live again. Don't you fancy that there is any magic in coffins, and graves, and shrouds to make men different. The man is the same man through death and beyond. Death will take a great many veils off men's hearts. It will reveal to them a great deal that they do not know, but it will not give the faculty of beholding the glorified Christ in such fashion as that the beholding will mean transformation. "Every eye shall see Him," but it is conceivable that a spirit shall be so immersed in self-love and in godlessness that the vision of Christ shall be repellent and not attractive; shall have no transforming and no gladdening power.

III. THIS SELF CLEANSING IS THE OFFSPRING OF HOPE. There is nothing that makes a man so down hearted in his work of self-improvement as the constant and bitter experience that it seems to be all of no use; that he is making so little progress. Slowly we manage some little patient self-improvement; gradually, inch by inch and bit by bit, we may be growing better, and then there comes some gust and outburst of temptation; and then the whole painfully reclaimed soil gets covered up by an avalanche of mud and stones, that we have to remove slowly, barrow load by barrow load. To such moods then there comes, like an angel from heaven, that holy, blessed message, "Cheer up, man! 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'" A great deal of the religious contemplation of a future state is pure sentimentality, and like all pure sentimentality is either immoral or non moral. But here the two things are brought into clear juxtaposition, the bright hope of heaven and the hard work done here below. Now, is that what the gleam and expectation of a future life does for you?

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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KJV: And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

WEB: Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.