Vessels in a Large House

Paul picks up something out of an ordinary household. A large house has vessels of gold and silver in it, and it also has wooden ones and clay ones, some kept for honorable use and others doing the common daily work. Anybody who has laid a table knows the difference between the good dishes and the ones that live by the sink.

So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.

In a real kitchen a clay pot cannot turn into a silver one. What a thing is made of settles what it gets used for. Then Paul breaks his own picture. Anyone, he says. A vessel is allowed to change what kind of vessel it is, and what changes it is not talent, or family, or a good record so far, but being cleaned out and being available. Useful and prepared. Neither of those is a flattering word, and neither one is out of anybody's reach.

Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Flee and pursue are fast words, and which way a man runs has to be settled long before the moment arrives. Timothy does not run alone. Whatever he runs from and whatever he runs after, he does it beside people who are calling on the Lord with clean hearts.

Then Paul is back on the arguing. Foolish, ignorant speculation breeds quarrels. A servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome: he has to be kind to everyone, able to teach, and patient with people who are hard work. Kind to everyone is the demanding part. Not kind to the reasonable ones, or to the ones who might come round in the end.

What comes next is a pair of words that do not usually travel together. Timothy is to reprove the people who oppose him, and he is to do it gently. Reproving is not ignoring. It means telling somebody to his face that he is wrong, and Paul asks for it softly, with a hope attached, which is that God may grant them repentance and a knowledge of the truth.

Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.

Paul does not describe these people as enemies who need beating. He describes them as caught, held to somebody else's will, needing to come round the way a person wakes up. Nobody has ever been shouted out of a trap. Verse 25 puts the rescue somewhere else: Timothy reproves gently, and God may grant repentance, and you are careful with them while you do it.