Vessels of Dishonor or Honor – 2 Timothy 2:20-26

In Scripture the word “church” has several connotations.  It can refer to the universal church of all true believers in heaven and earth.  It can refer to the church in the world.  It can refer to the group of churches in a region (like Galatia).  It can refer to a local church (all who identify with the church in a city).  It can refer to the house churches that make up the local church.  And it can refer to the church which is made up of both believers and unbelievers, because we often don’t know that all who profess faith have genuine faith.  That is what Paul is addressing here.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.  (2 Timothy 2:20-26 ESV)

If Timothy or we want to be honorable vessels in the house of God, ready for every good work and approved as true believers, we must meet certain conditions:

We must run away from undisciplined expression of our sexual passions and run towards righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

We must run away from fighting over meaningless doctrinal controversies and run towards kindness, sound teaching, patient endurance of evil, and gentle correction of falsehood in the hopes that those who are trapped by the devil to do his will may receive God’s gift of repentance and escape the devil’s falsehood.

Paul’s remarks about the devil’s snare, highlight the inability of unbelievers to repent on their own (in Ephesians 2 Paul also adds the influence of our own sinful nature and the influence of the world as snares).  God must grant repentance leading to a knowledge of the true.