Commercial Sterility: The condition achieved by the application of heat, alone or in combination with other treatments, to render a food free from viable forms of microorganisms, including spores, capable of growing in the food at temperature s at which the food is designed normally to be held during distribution and storage.
Axenic: (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Microbiology) (of a biological culture or culture medium) free from other microorganisms; uncontaminated.
So a commercially sterile material may contain non-viable forms of microorganisms but an axenic material will be microorganism - free