Vessels For Honorable Use
VESSELS FOR HONORABLE USE
2 TIMOTHY 2:20-26
The Christian message and Christian character are inseparably linked. People will never come to Christ through quarreling or speculation but by our open commitment to truths clearly shown in our lives.
Upright living and the proper exercise of godly discipline in the church are the themes of these verses. The general bearing of the illustration from the vessels in a house is clear, but the detailed application is not. In a large house vessels of wood and earthenware have their uses, and Paul would certainly not have thought that the humble and ill-equipped have no place in God’s scheme of things. The thought is not so much the native qualities of believers as what they do about themselves. It is as though the vessels were able to determine for themselves something of their quality. Paul is saying something rather like the metaphor of costly or shoddy materials in building, which he uses in 1 Corinthians 3. So those who “purify themselves” will be “for honorable use” not dishonorable.
Paul develops the theme that Timothy (and others) should aim at uprightness in character and living (2:22), but this brings him to the further thought that this means refusing to associate with “stupid, senseless controversies” (2:23). The proper attitude toward those in error is a matter of some difficulty. On the one hand the Lord’s servant must not do or say anything to support the error. On the other hand, the Lord’s servant is not so much concerned to win an argument as to win people for Christ, that is he or she must resist the error but in such a way that those who hold it are not repelled. The Lord’s servant must correct opponents, but “with gentleness” (2:25). The aim is to deliver them from “the snare of the devil” (2:26).