filth and the evil that is so prevalent.”2 This is a common ethical maxim seen also in Colossians 3:18 and Ephesians 4:22, picturing the act of throwing away dirty clothes or clearing away sin like overgrown weeds. “Filth” here does not depict dirty clothes that can be washed but clothes so filthy they can only be thrown away. So these are not simply sins to be endured and gradually cleaned but are so morally evil that they have to be immediately discarded. James is thinking of anger, injustice,