God has tasks for each of His disciples to perform in order to expand His kingdom. This devotion looks at how God prepares us for His use.
Nuggets
- God prepares us so that we may be of use to Him.
- God prepares us by cleansing us of our sin.
- Repentance changes us to be who God has called us to be.
Devotions in Living Out God’s Word series
Paul knows how to pack a lot into a few verses. In the last couple of devotions, we have been talking about how our goal should be to be a worker approved by God.
Along with Timothy, we were advised to avoid certain things. Disciples were charged not to quarrel. We are to avoid speculation and ungodliness.
We must be careful to not let false teachers derail us from believing God’s truth His way. In fact, we are to depart from sin.
In the remaining verses we will discuss, Paul hits on a couple of these topics again to tie this passage up.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Vessels for God’s Use
“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” (II Tim. 2: 20-21 ESV)
God prepares us so that we may be of use to Him.
This is an interesting discussion to follow on the footsteps of the discussion on our foundation in God. Put together, these verses talk about having a strong foundation so that we can be of service to God.
That makes the house discussed God’s church. “He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house” (Heb. 3: 2 NIV).
We know we have been referred to as being refined as gold and silver.
- “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord” (Mal. 3: 3 ESV).
- “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’” (Zech. 13: 9 ESV).
- “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 1: 6-7 ESV).
Just as gold and silver are purified through fire, we are purified through sanctification. We cannot cleanse ourselves.
There is nothing that we can do that would be acceptable to pay the price for our sins. We can’t pay the price ourselves because we are unworthy until we have the blood of Jesus covering our sins.
Barlow made two good observations.
- God’s church is made up of good and bad people.
- People are not sanctified at equal levels.
Resource
Is it any wonder that our churches are made of disciples and non-believers? Yes, the goal of our churches is to make everyone disciples (Mt. 28: 19).
That only comes after we bring the lost to Christ. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV).
So, there are going to be people contemplating turning into the narrow gate (but haven’t yet) and some at different spots on the Sanctification Road.
Glossary
That means we are not going to keep Satan out of our churches. We want sinners coming to church to find God, not to remain in their sinful state.
Let’s talk through what Barlow said about having different levels of sanctification. I don’t want to give the wrong impression.
Are disciples equal? Yes and no.
We are all children of God once we ABCD. There are no step- or half-children. There are no second-class citizens. We all are heirs of God.
That being said, we know that people have different levels of faith. Some can withstand a lot more temptation than others. We are given different gifts and talents. We are given different tasks to complete.
That doesn’t even get into the fact that a third grader may just be beginning their Sanctification Road while I am looking toward the end in the next couple of decades or so. We are just at different stages of working out our salvation.
The verses talk about metal vessels and wooden or clay vessels. Just because the wood isn’t put into the fire as the metals ones are doesn’t mean they don’t also have a refining process.
The wooden pieces can have imperfections in the wood that must be worked out. The clay has to be molded to make the vessel.
The everyday dishes aren’t just slapped together and used however they turn out. They are refined, too.
God has given each of us some of the many tasks that He needs us to complete to expand His kingdom. We need to strive to do our best for Him. He is the master of the house — we work for Him, not ourselves.
Remember what holy means. Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
Holiness is connected to that. Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to our being set apart through consecration to mold to God’s Will.
Look what Beet said about holiness. He wrote, “Holiness is a source of every kind of human excellence. For it sets to work all our powers, and sets them to work in the best possible direction. It gives to intellectual effort its noblest aim, viz., to comprehend and to convey to others the life-giving truth of God; and it guards intellectual success from the perils which surround it.”
Resource
Our being used by God is dependent on the status of our hearts. Do we intend for them to be pure and submitted to God? Or do we seek personal gain?
Preparing Us the Right Way
“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” (II Tim. 2: 22-23 ESV)
God prepares us by cleansing us of our sin.
Sometimes, it can be really difficult to give up things from our childhood. We may age, but we are still affected by passions and desires that we now know are not in our best interest.
Reynolds and Barlow explained what some of these are. Reynolds wrote, “The juvenilia desideria, the immoderate hilarity, the irregular longings of the flesh and mind, the rashness of judgment, the self-indulgence, the love of admiration, which are weakness and failure of youth, not its beauty nor its charm.” Barlow listed them as pride, idleness, pleasure, and unrestrained sexuality.
Resources
Too many times, we write things off as kids just being kids. That can be true. Other times, we just say it is our human nature regardless of age.
We do our kids a disservice when we write off their behaviors. When we do not try to correct them, they don’t follow God.
We don’t want to dismiss youthful exploits as human behavior. Dale noted that the biblical meaning of lust included a disposition of the mind. That means the lust is wrong from the thought, not just the act.
Resource
When we are inclined to sin, we have to take caution to not put ourselves in those situations. Paul had just talked about avoiding sin. “But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness” (II Tim. 2: 16 ESV). We don’t want to form habits that lead us away from God.
But God isn’t calling us to just give up sin. He wants us to follow Him.
Well, that doesn’t go far enough. God wants us to pursue righteousness. We have to actively seek the indwelling goodness of God that we get through a relationship with Him. This comes about by living a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments.
In other words, our righteousness grows as our faith grows.
Repentance Makes Us Useful
“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” (II Tim. 2: 24-26 ESV)
Repentance changes us to be who God has called us to be.
Paul went back to the reminding us not to be argumentative. God does not want His disciples to be in conflict with each other.
Instead, we are to be meek. That shows that we place our dependence on God.
We are to focus on God’s truth. When we learn God’s truth, it gives us the foundation we need to live right.
We do that by seeking God. Gaining knowledge builds the foundation brick by brick.
Did you see what Paul said? We are supposed to be able to teach, correcting others with gentleness.
Yes, God expects us to become mature enough to teach.
I know. Sunday school directors everywhere are asking, “Why, then, do people refuse to teach?”
They see all the things they think will go wrong. They will not be able to answer a question. They won’t be able to keep the discussion going for the assigned amount of time. They will be seen as lacking.
I was always lucky. The Southern Baptist material that we use gives us a pretty good outline to follow with a lot of commentary to fill in. It gives us questions to ask.
Oh, yeah. Things do go wrong. You go with the flow. If I didn’t know an answer to a question, I told them I would research or ask and get back with them.
If we barreled through because no one had much to add, we fellowshipped. We determined ways we could help each other or other church members.
The big thing we need to focus on is repentance. We turn from evil ways and escape the consequences of our sins.
Clark tied all of this together. He wrote, “The meaning is, we are to instruct them with meekness, lest peradventure, by our heat and passion, we raise in them a just prejudice against us, when, by meek instruction, they might possibly have been brought to repentance, and to the acknowledgment of the truth, and so we, by our ill-behaviour become answerable for their miscarriage.”
Resource
Elaine-speak. We don’t want to run non-believers off by our fire and brimstone. That doesn’t mean we don’t tell them hell is waiting for them if they remain non-believers. It means we teach them to give God the reverence due Him.
Making the Connections
We have to realize that, like all disciples aren’t at the same level of sanctification, the wicked aren’t at the same level of corruption, either. There are different levels to their searching.
Resource
That means there are going to be people all over the place within the church. We will have to have instruction and programs for the new disciple as well as the mature disciple – and places in between.
We have to have those places ready when they arrive. Someone feeling that they don’t have a seat at God’s table could be more quarrelsome.
How Do We Apply This?
- Submit to God as members of the house.
- Understand that the church is for the healing of sins.
- Understand that God calls us to godliness knowing we can only be godly in part while we are in our physical bodies.
- Strive for purity.
- Renew our hearts and minds.
- Respect God.
- Barlow said “… fast, pray, hear, read, meditate; deny themselves, afflict their souls, give alms, do and suffer anything.”
- Give God the glory and honor He deserves.
- Seek God and His righteousness.
- Seek God to increase our faith.
- Love as God would have us love.
- Pursue peace.
- Guard against sexual seductions.
- Guard against self-indulgences.
- Don’t get a big head; practice meekness.
- Hate evil.
- Be faithful to God.
- Associate with like-minded believers.
- Evaluate ourselves so we know what our sinful desires are.
- Relinquish our self-love.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Resource
Father God. We want to be used by You for Your work. Change us so that we imitate You. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
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