Is the Saying “CLEANLINESS Is Next to Godliness” Biblical?

You’ve probably heard the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness.” A friend of mine lived on campus at Liberty University, the Baptist college founded by Jerry Falwell, and he said the staff would cite this proverb to motivate the students to keep things tidy and clean, including their personal hygiene. Is this saying true?

Let’s start with this passage:

15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:15-16

Peter was quoting the book of Leviticus:

44“I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”

Leviticus 11:44-45

“Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.’ “

Leviticus 19:2

While the context of the first passage is in reference to the Hebrews staying away from unclean foods, the second verse was a general instruction, which corresponds to Peter’s exhortation to “be holy in all you do.”

So, we’re to be holy in everything we do, but what does ‘holy’ mean?

The Greek word for ‘holy’ is hagios (HAG-ee-os), which means “different, sacred, due to being set apart (consecrated) to the LORD.” The corresponding Hebrew word is qadosh (kaw-DOHSH).

Because God is absolutely pure, holiness refers to absolute purity, which can be observed in several passages where holiness is cited as the opposite of what is impure and indecent:

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

1 Thessalonians 4:7

Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

Hebrews 7:26

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

Notice how we’re to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates (dirties) the body and not just the inner self. Speaking of which…

Bodily Cleanliness (Personal Hygiene)

Since we–believers–are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16 & 6:19) and we are instructed to “be holy in all we do,” be attentive keeping your body clean, which houses the Holy Spirit. Everyone naturally gets dirty & sweaty after physical labor, like yardwork, but then you shower or bathe. What is unacceptable is to go days without bathing and thus stinking like a trash dump. (The obvious exception would be people in rare situations where they can’t bathe because they don’t have access to water, soap and so forth, which is perfectly understandable). Those who refuse to regularly bathe get used to the smell and therefore don’t think they stink, but everyone else can smell the odor, especially people in public who don’t live with them and therefore aren’t used to the stench.

If gross body odor is offensive to random people, how about the Holy Spirit who has to live in the ‘house’ of the person who reeks?

Notice how the Bible describes the noble king of Israel, which is applied to the King of Kings, the Anointed One (Messiah):

All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;

from palaces adorned with ivory

the music of the strings makes you glad.

Psalm 45:8

Both the earthly Hebrew king and the heavenly King of Kings had a pleasant aroma, not the foul stench of body odor! If you are a believer then you are a child of the King (John 1:12). So do likewise–regularly bathe and keep yourself smelling good. As it is said, cleanliness is next to godliness.

Keeping Your “Camp” Clean

Notice what the LORD instructed the Israelites when they were camping out in the desert wilderness before conquering the Promised Land:

For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

Deuteronomy 23:14

God wanted the camp of the Hebrews to be kept holy so that it would not hinder His actions/movement in the camp. This would of course include keeping the area cleansed of filth of any kind.

The other day I was working out in our humble gym in the basement when I noticed that one of our cats puked on a gym towel. I took it to the sink in the dark corner to wash it and noticed how dirty the sink had gotten due to neglect. Naturally I took the time to wash the whole sink. After all, if the LORD wanted the Israelite’s camp clean, He’ll want the neglected areas of our abodes clean as well.

We shouldn’t get legalistic about this, of course. Genuine love in the home is far more important than it being perfectly clean and ordered, the latter of which can create a sterile atmosphere. Healthy homes are “lived in,” if you know what I mean.

Spiritual/Moral Cleanliness

Another piece of the puzzle is that evil spirits are referred to as unclean or impure spirits:

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

Matthew 10:1

The Greek word for “impure” here is akathartos (ak-ATH-ar-tos), which simply means unclean or impure. It reveals that evil spirits are filthy. This makes sense in light of the fact that the LORD is absolutely pure—holy—and so anyone consecrated unto God must likewise be purified. Thus anyone who rejects the Almighty and is cast from His presence becomes the opposite—unholy, impure. Since you can’t get further from God than the irredeemable fallen angels, they’re utterly unholy—unclean, impure, filthy.

Being filthy, there’s a stench to unclean spirits in the spirit realm. This explains why one spiritually-sensitive minister said he could always recognize someone who was walking in sexual perversion, like homosexuality, when they came up for prayer at his meetings. He said there was a foul odor in the spirit.

One of my relatives married a literal witch and she wasted no time in getting her new husband to totally separate from his family. My nephew met her when he was a child and he kept curiously asking “What’s that smell? Something stinks!” He was just a little kid at the time and said the odor smelled like vomit. No one present knew what he was talking about, so he was obviously picking something up in the spirit. Children are more sensitive to the spiritual realm and are therefore apt to pick up things that hardened adults can no longer perceive.

All this explains why the Bible instructs us:

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

James 1:21

While believers are born holy in their spirits when they receive spiritual regeneration (Titus 3:5), practical holiness only occurs as you learn to put off your flesh—the “old self ”—and live according to your new righteous nature—the “new self ”—with the help of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:22-24). This is what theologians refer to as the process of sanctification—purification—and part of this process includes doing what James instructed: “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent.”

Impure spirits are naturally attracted to that which is morally impure. Just as flies are attracted to doo-doo and rats are drawn to garbage, so filthy spirits are attracted to that which is morally filthy. So get rid of all moral filth and you’ll stop attracting filthy spirits! It’s not rocket science.

This article is available in book form as chapter 10 of…