​Vessels

Introduction.  As we assess the contents of our home, we generally place things into one of three categories. First, there are precious things we would keep at any cost, then things we could easily part with but keep because they have some use, and finally, those things we just throw away as clutter or refuse.
 
God also places people into categories. People who are precious to Him, then people who could be precious if they allowed it, and finally people who have made themselves into refuse.
 
Of Honor or Of Dishonor.  Paul described the first two both in our home and in the church.
  • “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. (2Tim. 2:20-22).
Every “great house” has vessels: “of gold and silver,” kept at all costs and “of wood and clay,” easily parted with. Paul further refined the category. Those “for honor” we place on tables and shelves to be seen and admired. Those “for dishonor,” we keep hidden: sponges to wash dishes, mops to clean floors, brushes to clean toilets. Such items are neither precious nor special to us.

Just as we have precious things, God has precious people. “Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15). Enoch, who “walked with God,” Abraham who was “My friend,” Daniel who was “greatly beloved,” and Job of whom God said “I have no one like him in all the earth” are all placed in the precious category (Gen. 5:22-24; Isa. 41:8; Dan. 9:23; Job 1:8).
 
Of Mercy or Of Wrath.  In another comparison God again used vessels: “of wrath” and “of mercy.”
  • “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? Rom 9:22-24
“Vessels of wrath” are “prepared for destruction,” not by God, but by themselves. We all have the same opportunity! God, “who desires all men to be saved,” and “not wishing that any should perish but that all come to repentance,” waits with longsuffering hoping we will become “a vessel of mercy.” (1Tim. 2:4; 2Pet 3:9). Even the “chief of sinners,” Paul, could be restored to a vessel of both mercy and honor (1Tim. 1:15-17). No one is fixed into one category or another. We place ourselves in one or the other by our own choices.

So what choices have we made? Are we like Israel who refused to repent and were lamented: “You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.” (Lam. 3:45).
 
Cold or Hot or Lukewarm.  Are we like the “church of the Laodiceans” of whom Jesus said, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Yet even after such a rebuke Jesus still offered them hope. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:15-16, 19).
 
When “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” arrives, if we are “self-seeking and do not obey the truth,” we will receive “indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish.” But if we “work what is good,” there will be “glory, honor, and peace” (Rom. 2:5-11).
 
Conclusion.  Never forget Jesus’ warning: “at the end of the age the angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt. 13:49-50). The choice is ours and ours alone.