There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
The verse stands in that part of Proverbs which contains the words of Agur, held to be of later date. It portrays a generation that counts itself pure while still unwashed from its filthiness and sin, whose own estimate of cleanness does not make it clean in truth. That self-approved yet uncleansed people is set forth as one distinct kind of wicked generation, belonging to the wicked as over against the righteous.
A favorable judgment of one's own character of this sort is false and self-deceiving, for men overlook the plain evidence of their sin and misery and thereby cheat themselves concerning their hope of salvation. Such self-righteousness goes together with pride and unwillingness to humble the heart and obey God, a course that ends in spiritual ruin. This confident profession of purity while remaining defiled is hypocrisy, since cleansing and pardon are given only on repentance, and those who stubbornly maintain their own purity shut themselves away from mercy.
No human effort can wash away that guilt and stain of sin, for cleansing comes only through the blood of Jesus, so that none can afford to mistake self-approval for true purity.
The verse stands in that part of Proverbs which contains the words of Agur, held to be of later date. It portrays a generation that counts itself pure while still unwashed from its filthiness and sin, whose own estimate of cleanness does not make it clean in truth. That self-approved yet uncleansed people is set forth as one distinct kind of wicked generation, belonging to the wicked as over against the righteous.
A favorable judgment of one's own character of this sort is false and self-deceiving, for men overlook the plain evidence of their sin and misery and thereby cheat themselves concerning their hope of salvation. Such self-righteousness goes together with pride and unwillingness to humble the heart and obey God, a course that ends in spiritual ruin. This confident profession of purity while remaining defiled is hypocrisy, since cleansing and pardon are given only on repentance, and those who stubbornly maintain their own purity shut themselves away from mercy.
No human effort can wash away that guilt and stain of sin, for cleansing comes only through the blood of Jesus, so that none can afford to mistake self-approval for true purity.