God has a interesting way of using people. Sometimes we think we can tell how someone should be used, but it appears God disagrees with us. Sometimes we think we know how God should use us, but things don’t work out that way. Like the young man who had a heart for God, intelligent, handsome, dynamic, and answering God’s higher call to service who was struck dead by a drunk driver with no fault of his own. Or the young lady who is charming, and talkative, sold out to God, and could have any suiter she desired settles down with a garbage collector who would never mount to anything and has 9 kids to care for. She never became an author or pasters wife.
The opposite also happens. I’ve known of many preachers that couldn’t speak, Backwards people put on a public pedestal. I am not talking about people that obviously went against God’s design for their life, but those who found it to be very different than anyone could have perceived.
Such a person we see in the New Testament. A young man zealous to do God a service. A bright man. He was instructed by the best teachers of his time. He was given opportunities afforded to the elite. He was of a good knobble background. He had it all. He knew God’s calling. It was for him to become a ruling member of the Sanhedrin. He was on his way to prove his faithfulness to God by chasing down some of the swine that blasphemed by claiming Jesus to be God. He was going to drag them back from Damascus and watch them receive their just reward, just as he had witnessed that blasphemer Stephan receive his stoning several years before. Yes, Saul knew God’s plan for his life. He would be a vessel of honor. A knobble ruler of the Jews. At the very least he would be a Judge and a Rabi – teaching the lesser men how to follow God.
Fast forward many years to a dungeon cell. This same man baring the marks of the years that did not go according to his plan, writes a letter. In it, he tells of how all men have forsaken him. Trying to ignore the pangs of hunger, he writes of his imminent death. The life he lived is not the life he predicted. Nor was it what was prophesied about him. He remembered the times that he had been beaten by those who were supposed to honor him. He could still feel the scars of the times he had been whipped within an inch of his life. The blisters had all but left his feet from the miles he walked to teach others, when he once thought people would walk for miles to listen to him. Even his name had to be changed showing he was no longer the “sought after one” called Saul, but the lowly Paul.
Surrounded by the melancholy bars he pens a letter to a former pupil of his. Paul would have never predicted this turn of events when he was Saul, nevertheless, here was. He had no more hopes of grandeur. He knew now that he was never to fulfil what he once believed to be his higher calling. He had every right to be depressed, to be angry, to be bitter about the years that had been robbed from him! The people that betrayed him and those of his own countrymen raising up stones to murder him and then leave him for dead. I can see him rubbing a nasty scar on his face caused by one of the rough rocks, as he penned these words to Timothy: Rember to exercise your gift in the ministry “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Hardly the words we would expect from a man who had lost practically every early thing he had. He even, in this letter asks Timothy to bring him his books and coat that he left – surly for the edification of another – on his journey there.
Infact, the entire letter seems to be more like a call to arms of a general that knows victory is Imminent, instead of the regrets and disappointments of an old bitter man on his deathbed. That is because Paul understood that God’s plans were different from his own. Paul knew that he was used by God, and he wanted to see the same thing happen to Timothy. He wrote to him the secrets of being used by God for greatness. One of them is preserved for us in II Timothy 2:19-21.
II Timothy 2:19-21
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
The foundation is our Salvation and our Savoir Jesus Christ. The previous verse talks about how there were some people spreading a lie that Jesus’s return had already happened, but our foundation is sure. God knows all of those that are his and he will keep us. But there is an obli9gation for those who call upon the name of Christ. That obligation is to depart from iniquity. This cannot be done in our own strength, but God has made a way through Christ sacrifice. This is still an active decision on the part of the one submitting to Christ. It is our responsibility to yield to the Holly Ghost and depart from iniquity.
Many respected commentators claim that this great house is talking about the church of God, I cannot agree. This is an analogy. Paul is not limiting this to saved people or even the church, but these vessels are all people in general. You could say this house is the world.
The vessels mentioned all have different values. Some are made out of Gold, some are made out of silver, some wooden and some Clay or earth. They can all be used to hold something, but you wouldn’t be likely to serve an important king out of a paper cup if you have a nicer option. You probably won’t use the priceless dish you got from your great grandmother to feed the dog. While there is little difference between the function of some vessels, not every dish is suitable for every use. The point that Paul is making is that all of these vessels exist in the world. People all have value, but the usefulness differs greatly among individuals.
What makes a person a vessel of honor or dishonor is not what they are made of. From God’s perspective we are all made of the same sinful flesh. what distinguishes one person from the other is the degree in which God is willing to use that person. Paul is really answering an unasked question. That question is something like, how can I be used of God.
The answer is straightforward. If we are going to be used by God for something he deems honorable, we must be purged of these. What are the these? I believe they are the iniquities talked about in verse 19. There is more to the answer than this. It isn’t saying, don’t sin and God will use you. It is saying if you willfully sin God won’t use you honorably.
II Timothy is a short book of only four chapters. I encourage you to read them all. You will see that Paul is charging Timothy with a lot of things. Do this, don’t do that. I think, in some manner these are also what Paul is talking about when he says purge yourself from these. Take the 20 or so minutes to read these four chapters.
In truth if you look at the first two chapters of II Timothy, I believe the Idea is this, Do you want to be used by God or do you want to be snared by Satan. If you want to be used by God you need to be submitting to God, if you don’t you will fall into Satan’s snare and he will use you. Maybe to subvert followers away from the truth.
What if I were to set before you two cups. one cup is a beautiful crystal glass with elegant designs. The other cup is a simple clay pot. Which would you drink from? But what if I told you the clay cup was freshly cleaned and filled with crystal clear water, while the crystal cup had never been washed and the water was drawn out of a swamp.
An honorable vessel doesn’t mean that our lives look perfect, that we never have a hair out of place, that we are the smartest person in the room, and the most talented. Paul certainly was some of that in his own right, but he said he counted it but dung. It is not the outward appearance that gives us value and it is not the inward ability. The message or the content is what is honorable, our job is to not pollute it.
Paul was an honorable vessel because he had a valuable message. More valuable than clean clear water to a desert place. But it doesn’t mater how pure the water is, if it poured or mixed in a contaminated vessel the water is no longer pure.
How can God use you to deliver his message of forgiveness if you are harboring bitterness? How can God use you to tell others that He so loved the world if you are filled with hate? How can God use you to tell the world that adulterers and wordmongers he will judge when you are lusting in your heart? How can we bring light to the world if our eye is full of darkness?
Do you want to be used by God? Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity!
If you do not, you will be in the snare of Satan.
S.T.
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."
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