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The Greek word — like the cognate form, "holiness" — seems to come from a root denoting reverence. It suggests the thought of the awe with which nature herself regards the presence of purity. All kinds of purity carry an awe with them. Whether it be the purity of aim and motive in all things — the singleness, disinterestedness, unselfishness, which we see rarely but certainly manifested in social, political, ecclesiastical life — that high and noble principle which carries a man straight to the mark of truth and duty, without one side-look to the convenient, the remunerative, or the popular; or whether it be — and probably this is the thing more directly in view — that chastity of the heart and of the soul, which alone can see God, and alone move unscathed and unscathing on an earth rife with temptation — in either case we have here the primary condition of a blameless ministry, lay or clerical; in either case we have here the quality which wins reverence — which makes men feel, and the more closely they approach it, that here is a Divine presence — that here, in this man of like passions as they are, there is, moving and working, a Spirit not of man but of God — a Spirit which has a further message for them, whether they will hear it or whether they will forbear.

(Dean Vaughan.)

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KJV: By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,

WEB: in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love,