In Eph. i. 4, "Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love;" chosen in the past eternity that we should be "holy and without blemish" in the coming eternity, not here, but there; not now, but then; for the word translated "before" is the same Greek word (_katenopion_), translated in Jude 24 "before the presence of." In Col. i. 22, "To present you holy and without blemish, and unreprovable before Him." Here he is speaking again of our future standing, for the word translated "before" is the same as in Eph. i. 4. "Without blemish" then is sinlessness, having no sin. "And if we say (here on earth) we have no sin (are sinless--blemishless--faultless--flawless), we deceive ourselves (but no one else!), and the truth is not in us" (1 John i. 8). He that has the truth in him knows only too well that he has sin in him, though "cleansed from all sin" by the blood, and though "cleansed from all unrighteousness" by the might of the uttermost Saviour. It is most instructive and humbling to notice how the Spirit of truth has placed that "If we say we have (present tense) no sin, we deceive ourselves," in between His two statements about the "cleansing from all sin" and the "cleansing from all unrighteousness." But though we will never be able on earth to say with the truth in us that "we have no sin,"--that we are without blemish, yet the whole Bible teaches us that we may, in this life, be saved "from our sins." (Note the difference between "sin" and "sins.") We may be saved from sinning. "These things write we unto you, that ye sin not" (1 John ii. 1); and this is the condition described as "blameless," "unreprovable," "without reproach." See 1 Cor. i. 8; 1 Tim. iii. 10; Tit. i. 6, 7; where the Greek word _anegkletos_ (unreprovable) is used. Also 1 Tim. iii. 2; 1 Tim. v. 7; where the Greek word is _anepileptos_ (without reproach). Also Matt. xii. 5, where _anaitios_ (guiltless) is used. Also 2 Pet. iii. 14, where _amometos_ (blameless) is employed. Also Luke i. 6; Phil. ii. 15, and iii. 6; 1 Thess. ii. 10, iii. 13; and v. 23, where _amemptos_ (without blame) is the word used. These words describe a state or condition of heart and life which is not only attainable here, but imperative; and the passages we have just been reading prove that it _has_ been attained. This is what is meant by a clean heart, to be "blameless," not "faultless." "I was sitting alone in the twilight, With spirit troubled and vexed, With thoughts that were morbid and gloomy, And faith that was sadly perplexed. "Some homely work I was doing For the child of my love and care; Some stitches half wearily setting In the endless need of repair. "But my thoughts were about the building, The work some day to be tried, And that only the gold and the silver, And the precious stones should abide.