To put it another way, he is saying that God isn’t going to use a garbage pail life to serve the pure gospel to a hungry world. Paul is saying that no one should be a vessel for dishonor. Others, such as the false teachers Hymenaeus and Philetus, are probably not born again. Some who associate with the church are truly born again. Rather, the large house represents the professing or visible church. If you took his illustration to its logical conclusion, you could say that the dishonorable vessels serve a legitimate function and thus are just as necessary as the gold vessels. It would be easy to misapply Paul’s point here. They often get broken and are cheaply replaced. The wood and earthenware vessels are used for dishonorable purposes, perhaps in the kitchen or to carry out garbage or human waste. The gold and silver vessels are kept clean so that they may be used for honorable purposes, such as dinner parties. Paul uses the illustration of a large house that has different kinds of vessels. Now he urges Timothy to be a cleansed man who flees sin and pursues godliness, summed up under four qualities: righteousness, faith, love and peace with the Lord’s true people. He reminds Timothy, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness” (2:19).
In the verses just before, he has exhorted Timothy to use the Scriptures properly, not as Hymenaeus and Philetus, whose false teaching had led some astray.
WORTHY VESSEL MEANING HOW TO
Paul is telling Timothy how to deal with some difficult problems in the church of Ephesus, where he was ministering. God uses cleansed people who flee sin and pursue godliness. The simple message of our text is that God uses cleansed people, who are defined by two characteristics: You may be a renowned Bible scholar, and yet be detrimental to the cause of Jesus Christ. While, as we saw last week, being careful students of the Bible is very important, it is not the main thing. Or you may think that God uses a person who has a great knowledge of the Bible. While seminary has its place, I know of many men who graduated from seminary, but they’re not even in the stadium, let alone in the game! Or you may think that God uses a person who has been to seminary and has a lot of training. As we saw in the national news recently, a man may be a gifted Christian leader and yet bring terrible disgrace to the name of Christ. While spiritual gifts play a part, they are not the main feature in being used by God. You may think that God uses people who have impressive abilities and gifts. Our text reveals the kind of person God uses. But if you truly know Christ, you can’t be happy sitting on the bench or in the stands. And yet for so many that name the name of Christ, their faith is like football-an occasional Sunday spectator sport. He has given gifts to each one to be used as good stewards. That leads me to ask, “What kind of vacancy would there be in this church if you left?” It is God’s clear intention that every one of His people be used in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. “Retired? Then what are you going to do to fill the vacancy?” The owner replied, “Jake didn’t leave no vacancy.” He asked the proprietor, “Where’s Jake?” “Oh, he retired,” was the answer. One day the man noticed that Jake was gone. The proprietor has a clerk named Jake, who seemed to be the laziest man in the world.
A man used to visit a tiny general store in the country.
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