A familiar Bible saying, checked in context
Cleanliness is next to godliness
No exact KJV match
The familiar maxim does not occur word for word in this site's KJV index.
By @The..Mustard..Seed · Updated
Read the relevant KJV passage
James 4:8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Compare the evidence
Jesus says eating with unwashen hands does not defile a person. His dispute concerns what actually makes a person unclean.
Matthew 15:20These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
Mark’s parallel turns attention from what enters a person to what comes out. The issue is ritual purity and conduct, not ordinary hygiene advice.
Mark 7:15There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
What the context adds
James 4:8 uses cleansing language as a call to draw near to God, but it does not rank household cleanliness next to godliness. Matthew 15 and Mark 7 make the comparison more revealing: Jesus resists treating unwashed hands as the measure of a person’s spiritual state. That does not make practical cleanliness unimportant. It does show why the saying should not be presented as a biblical quotation or as the point of the Gospel passage. Ask whether a discussion is about washing, ritual practice, or the condition of the heart before attaching a verse to it.
A source for the saying
John Wesley uses a closely matching line in his sermon “On Dress,” while discussing neatness of apparel. This is an attested use, not proof he invented the saying. Read Wesley’s On Dress ↗
A question to carry forward
Does the passage you are reading discuss physical washing, ritual defilement, or a change of conduct?
Keep reading
Read James 4:7–10 and notice how outward and inward language work together.
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