Purify the Soul, 1 Peter 1:22

[GHansen]

 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart (1 Pe. 1:22).

But why does the apostle say that we should purify our souls? He is well aware of the fact that after Baptism the lust of the flesh abides in us until death. Therefore it is not enough for one to abstain from the deed, to remain chaste outwardly, and to let evil lust stay in the heart. No, one must strive to purify the soul, so that evil lust and desire depart from our heart and the soul is hostile to them and constantly fights against them until it is rid of them.

And now St. Peter makes a beautiful addition, namely, that one should purify the soul by obedience to the truth in the Spirit. Many sermons have been preached and many books have been written about chastity. There they have said that one should fast for a certain length of time, not eat meat, not drink wine, etc., in order to get rid of the affliction. Although this has helped to some extent, it has not been enough; it has not subjugated lust. Thus St. Jerome writes about himself that he abused his body until it resembled that of an Ethiopian, but that this did not help and that he still dreamed he was singing and dancing among harlots in Rome. Thus St. Bernard also hurt and ruined his body until it stank, as I have said above. These men were sorely tried, and they undertook to subdue this by external means. But since this is external, the poultice has been applied only on the outside, not on the inside. Therefore it does not suffice to quell lust.

But here St. Peter has given a real remedy for this, namely, obedience to the truth in the Spirit. Scripture gives the same remedy in other passages, as, for example, in Is. 11:5: “Faithfulness shall be the girdle of his loins.” This is the right poultice; it girds the loins. The evil must come out, not go in; for it has grown inside in the flesh and blood, in the marrow and the veins, not outside in the cloth or in the garment. Therefore it is useless to attempt to curb lust with external means. To be sure, one can weaken and mortify the body with fasting and work; but one does not expel evil lust in this way. Faith, however, can subdue and restrain it, so that it gives room to the Spirit.

Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 30: The Catholic Epistles. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 30, pp. 40–41). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.