eph. 5:26-27

Ephes. 5:26-27 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, [27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Verse 27 is a good reminder. Even today at COW Ken talked about how people are so quick to say that they themselves are good people and how it is generally okay to just assume we are all not perfect, so it's not a big problem when we obviously do bad things here and there. But Jesus still says, "be ye holy as I am holy", and elswhere we are commanded, "be perfect" (gen. 17:1; deut 18:13; matt. 5:48 to name a few). Verse 27 is saying we should be perfect before His returning, or at least walking in that direction.

Verse 26, interestingly comes BEFORE this "should" statement, giving us the "how to" before the "what to". It says sancifying comes by the "washing of the water by the word". What does that mean? At first estimate one (or at least me) would think He's talking about His word, the Bible. I believe that that is the correct way to take it. By constantly and consistently keeping God's word before us, we are helped all the more. ( for example: Proverbs 3:3 "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:" and Proverbs 6:21 "Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.") These verses show that keeping God's word on our mind [or around our neck :) ] will help keep us from sin (or from the context from the verse above, from the evil woman with the flattery of her tongue).

Let us continually not only give ourselves a good body washing in the shower each morning, but also give our minds and spirits a good upload and santifying washing each day.