John 15:3

John 15:3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

That was a "word" which had sorely grieved them, and cut them to the quick, so that the Saviour had to say to them, more than once, "Let not your heart be troubled." (See the 1st, and the 27th, verses of the preceding chapter.) They had felt the sharp edge of the pruning-knife, so Jesus said to them, "Now ye are clean (purged or pruned) through the word which I have spoken unto you."