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The Honorable Vessel

Paul presents a second stark contrast: a vessel for honorable use versus a vessel for dishonorable use.

Every house is equipped with vessels or utensils of various kinds: pitchers, pots, pans, bowls, and mugs. In a great estate, like in the television series Downton Abbey, vessels of gold and silver are designated for special occasions and plain vessels for ordinary use. The clean vessel is the honorable, noble vessel, the one set apart to teach God’s Word. Timothy is a clean vessel, and he is to pursue purity from any falsehood, wrong thinking, or error, not in an effort to be made clean, but in response to having been declared clean by faith in the work of Christ. What is his goal? A pure mind and heart. We are all called to be clean. What about you? Are you intentionally pursuing holiness? If so, how?

If we are clean, we must continue to pursue purity and flee youthful passions. We may be grown women, but we are still young at heart and must flee youthful passions (2 Tm. 2:22). John Stott tells us this verse “is not to be understood exclusively as a reference to sexual lust, but to self-assertion as well as self-indulgence, to selfish ambition, headstrong obstinacy, arrogance, and indeed all the wayward impulses of youth.” The flesh never grows up; it is always a rebellious youth. How often our culture applauds selfish ambition and headstrong obstinacy! What are the remnants of your youthful passions? Prayerfully consider this. Tomorrow, we will compare and contrast the old sinful self and the new Spirit-filled self. Ask the Lord to search your heart:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Ps. 139:23-24 ESV).