A Vessel of Honor
2 Timothy 2:21New American Standard Bible (NASB) 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. If someone gave you the choice of a beautiful gold vessel that is dirty or a plain ordinary vessel that is clean. Which would you choose? I would choose the clean vessel, no matter how ordinary it looks. All of the beauty is compromised by the uncleanness of the dirty vessel. Mark Twain wrote It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them. There is a lot of truth in that statement and the lessons Paul gave to Timothy prove that his desire for Godliness was premiere in his thinking. What is your desire? Is it to be the head of some committee at your church or be known as the person who is most faithful in living a life of purity for the Lord? We are all vessels. We are either dirty ones or clean ones. God desires for us to be clean and then He can use us in a most excellent way. So what are you pouring into your mind, your heart, your home, your life? Is what you are pouring in laced with the purity of God’s Word? You are always receiving something, whether it is seen or heard or felt. Just… what are you getting and is it making you more pure or more dirty. Power and position should never outweigh purity and purpose in a believer’s life. Power and position tend to make us become more prideful than we should be and less in tune with the God who put us there. Purity and purpose tend to lead us to draw our strength and direction from the one we have learned to rely on and that is God.
What comes from a pool of pure water?
Wonderful taste – everyone you meet will be drawn to drink from what you have inside because of the positive effect it has on their life.
Quenching refreshment – Jesus told the Samaritan Woman that when she drinks of the water of eternal life, she will never thirst again. People want something to rely on and something that lasts. The refreshment from a pure life is lasting and replenishing. Only the born again experience can make that happen and that only comes from God.
Attainable Wisdom – Wisdom is not something God keeps from us, but He gives generously. James 1:5 says “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. If you have the answers, per your relationship to God, to life’s answers. You are a source of hope in the most hopeless of situations.
There are so many other pluses to being a vessel of honor and those are found in the book called The Bible. You may ask where? Just start with Genesis and go through Revelation and all of the answers to life are found in the many pages between those two books.
I want to be a vessel of honor, so I must allow God to minister wisdom to my life and live
Choose to be a vessel of honor today and your life will have so much more meaning and purpose as you pursue purity. That’s God’s way.
The Pilgrimage continue…
David Warren