“Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
Parents used this saying with my generation, but it may not be said as much today. This was deemed motivation to get a child to clean his room or eat at the dinner table without making a mess. Yep, the parents played the ole God card, so it was hard to argue with them, right?
This saying is not a Bible verse, but has apparently appeared in many forms over thousands of years. We have more modern-day English speakers to thank for passing it along and keeping it relevant.
You might recognize the name, Sir Francis Bacon. He was quite the renaissance man of his day, and once wrote: “Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.”
Another name you may recognize is John Wesley, considered the founder of the Methodist denomination along with his brother, Charles. In John’s Sermon #88, he spoke: “But, before we enter on the subject (of outward dress), let it be observed, that slovenliness is no part of religion; that neither this, nor any text of Scripture, condemns neatness of apparel. Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. ‘Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness’.” He was paraphrasing George Herbert who said, “Let thy mind’s sweetness have his operation upon thy body, clothes, and habitation.”
Anyway, you get the point. Smarter people than I have said it, but it doesn’t make it a Bible verse.
The godliness and cleanliness that God is concerned about most:
“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:7-10