Every house has so many bowls, “some for honor, some for dishonor.” In the House of God, what sort of bowl do you want to be? According to Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, it is up to you.
“Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” 2 Timothy 2:20-21 (Holman translation).
I once bought an iron pot at Dollar General. I cooked with it for a year or so, and then the handle became cracked, and the pot was immediately demoted to a dog food bowl. It soon developed a tiny hole in it where it rusted through. That pot’s brief cooking days are over.
Before indoor plumbing, damaged pots became chamber pots—indoor toilets when it was too dark or cold to use the outhouse. This is what Paul is talking about: there are vessels for honor and vessels for dishonor. Which do you want to be? I want to be a vessel for honor. How? Easy—cleanse yourself from things of dishonor.
“If anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work,” 2 Timothy 2:21 (NAS translation).
What dishonorable things do we need to be cleansed from if we want to be used and useful to the Master? (I know you can think of a few!) Paul immediately offers a list:
“Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace… And refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels,” v. 22. Paul immediately names the first dishonorable thing most of us would think of—lust.
Flee lust because it is dishonorable, and afterwards God can use you as a special vessel for honor. That’s what we all want, isn’t it? Don’t you want to go to Heaven and be told “well done, my good and faithful servant”? Don’t you want to do things on earth that matter, that come with eternal rewards? It’s better to be a soup pot than a chamber pot—and God’s House has things greater than soup. Consider the temple—be a holy vessel, like the table of shew bread or the ark of the covenant. A cedar tree can become a casket, buried in the ground only to decay, or it can become cedar paneling to line the walls of God’s holy temple. And in this case, the trees (people) get to make the choice.
Let’s choose to purify ourselves from dishonorable things. What are you putting in your mind? Do you believe it when the Bible says there are things you should NOT think about, talk about, or listen to stories about? Do you realize that there are deeds done in the darkness that are so dark, the Bible cautions you not to even mention them? Ephesians 5 says:
“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to SPEAK of the things which are done in secret” Ephesians 5:11-12.
Did you know there are things so evil, so dark, we are warned not to even talk about them? All of us have been exposed to such things. That’s the nature of the so-called “Information Superhighway”—it is a freeway to all manner of worldliness, piping a polluted stream into your life every day. Some of the things in there are extremely toxic. And I don’t mean simple nakedness, though there is far too much of that. But there is so much more—ideas, conversations, things for sale, destructive things the simple thought of which can be harmful.
Can you think of secret things so bad “it is disgraceful even to speak” of them? I can. I think you probably can. For example, things you would be uncomfortable talking to your parents or grandparents about—the discomfort you feel is probably because those are things “disgraceful even to speak of” with anyone.
What I am trying to say is, if you want to be used by God, purify yourself. Reject those things. “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness,” and do not think about them, do not watch movies and television shows about them, do not even let those things into your mind. If you cannot talk about it, then why do you give it a home in your thoughts?
Purify yourself “from anything dishonorable,” and you “will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”
Dear God, teach us to keep our minds pure. Prick our consciences and let us know when we are letting things in that should not be in there. Teach us to purify ourselves so we can become special instruments, vessels of honor, prepared for every good work. We love you, Jesus, and we want to please you. Teach us to choose holiness. Help us to love your word, to read your word, study your word, memorize your word, and obey your word. Help us to SUBMIT ourselves to the authority of your holy word. Help us to lay before you all our bad habits, our entertainment, our favorite jokes, favorite entertainers, everything. Show us what we need to cleanse ourselves of so that we can be pure. We want to serve you with our lives every day. Make us pure so we can be pure vessels, ready for your highest purposes. We love you.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 