And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, a busy port city in ancient Greece that was well known for its permissive culture and moral complexity. In the verses just before this one, Paul lists behaviors he says are incompatible with God's kingdom — including sexual immorality, greed, and drunkenness. He then pivots sharply with this verse: 'And that is what some of you were.' He's speaking directly to people in the church who had lived those ways before encountering Jesus. 'Washed' refers to spiritual cleansing and baptism. 'Sanctified' means set apart and made holy. 'Justified' is a legal term meaning declared not guilty before God. Crucially, all three of these things happened through Jesus and the Holy Spirit — not through any effort or improvement on the people's part.
God, thank you for the word 'were.' For the past tense — for the fact that what I was doesn't have to be what I am. I want to actually live like I've been washed, not just know it as a fact I carry around. Help me walk today in what is already true. Amen.
Three words in this verse carry the weight of everything: washed, sanctified, justified. And they're all past tense. Done. Paul isn't encouraging the Corinthians to try harder or clean themselves up — he's telling them what already happened to them. His audience wasn't a room full of mild, respectable people who needed a little polish. He'd just described a genuinely grim list of ways human beings can lose themselves. And then: 'that is what some of you were.' The word 'were' is doing enormous work here. It's the hinge everything turns on. Not 'that is what you are,' not 'that is what you'll always wrestle with' — were. Past tense is the gospel in miniature. If you've spent years quietly convinced that your history defines your ceiling — that what you've done or been is too woven in to actually change — this verse is not offering you a pep talk. It's making a claim. You can't wash yourself. You can't declare yourself not guilty. But someone did. And the tense is not an accident.
Paul uses three distinct words — washed, sanctified, and justified. What do you think each one means, and why might he have piled all three together instead of choosing just one?
Is there something in your own past that still feels like it defines you, even though you believe in forgiveness? What would it actually look like to live as though the 'were' in this verse is fully, finally true for you?
Does knowing you've been completely forgiven tend to make you take sin more seriously or less seriously — and what does that reveal about how you actually understand grace?
How should this verse reshape the way you see people who are still living in the 'were' — people caught in behaviors you've been freed from?
What is one specific way you could live differently this week because of who you already are in Christ, rather than who you are still trying to become?
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Titus 3:5
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Colossians 1:13
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:22
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:5
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew 9:13
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1 Corinthians 1:30
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another , and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Ephesians 5:26
And such were some of you [before you believed]. But you were washed [by the atoning sacrifice of Christ], you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made holy], you were justified [declared free of guilt] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer's new life and changed behavior].
AMP
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
ESV
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
NASB
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
NIV
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
NKJV
Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
NLT
A number of you know from experience what I'm talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you've been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.
MSG