2 Corinthians 6:6

By pureness... — The word may possibly mean “purity of motive” in its widest sense, but the use of the corresponding adjective in 2 Corinthians 11:2; 1 Timothy 5:22; Titus 2:3; 1 Peter 3:2, and, indeed, its general sense elsewhere, is decisive in favour of “purity from sensual sin” — personal chastity. In the general state of morals throughout the empire, and especially in writing to such a city as Corinth, it was natural to dwell on this aspect of the Christian character. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 7:7.) The “knowledge” is obviously not that of earthly things, but of the mysteries of God (Ephesians 3:4). In “kindness” we trace the consciousness of an effort to reproduce the graciousness which he looked on as a characteristic attribute of God and Christ (Ephesians 2:7; Titus 3:4). In the “Holy Ghost” we may see a reference both to spiritual gifts, such as those of tongues and prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:18), and to the impulses and promptings in which he traced the general guidance of the Spirit (Acts 16:6). “Love unfeigned” (i.e., without hypocrisy) presents the same combination as in Romans 12:9 (“without dissimulation” in the English version).