But in a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
Paul compares the Christian profession on earth to a large house filled with very different vessels. The picture raises three questions: how did the house get so mixed, who are the vessels, and what should a believer inside it do?
One commentator sets this picture beside the description of the church in Paul's first letter to Timothy.
Here is a living picture of what the church was becoming. How different from the view given in the First Letter! (1 Tim. 3:15) There the house of God is called the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth... The assembly of the living God held out the truth before all eyes. But now, in the Second Letter, other things had flooded in. Ease had taken the place of suffering. Timidity had taken the place of courage. False teaching had come in, even about the most basic truths. So the Spirit of God pictures a very different state of things. The Spirit of God has not left His seat. But He no longer marks out the house as the house of the living God. It may look grander, yet there is far more that is unreal.
Paul never calls the church "a great house." He draws a comparison, and seeing that clears up much confusion.
He does not say, "In the house of God," but "In a great house there are not only vessels..." He is using an illustration. It shows what professing Christianity has become — and that profession is indeed the house of God as man has built it (1 Cor. 3). It has become a mixed thing, like a great house holding vessels for honour and vessels for dishonour.
The house did not start out mixed. One writer traces the change back to one early case — Simon Magus, a magician who was baptised though he had no real share in it.
On the day of Pentecost the people who formed the House of God when the Holy Spirit came down were no "strangers." All were true children of God... But how soon the "stranger" came in. The baptism of Simon Magus brought a man into the company where the Spirit of God lived, a man who had no part or share in the matter. Others soon followed. So even in the apostles' day the House of God came to look like a great house.
Commentators differ on what the materials mean. One takes the metals and the cheaper materials as two classes of people, and reads them alongside Romans 9.
Vessels of gold and silver are the vessels that belong to the service of the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar once took the gold and silver vessels from the temple at Jerusalem and carried them to Babylon (Dan. 5:2, 3). Vessels of wood and earth ought not to be in the house of God. Romans 9:21-23 shows us that vessels for dishonourable use are "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," and vessels for honourable use are "vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." So, broadly speaking, vessels of gold and silver stand for true Christians. They are vessels for honour. Vessels of wood and earth stand for people in the church who profess faith but are not converted.
Another writer finds no slight here on the cheaper vessels at all.
The passage makes no unfair distinction between the vessels of gold and silver and the vessels of wood and earth. The "honour" of a vessel appears to depend on its use rather than on its own value. They are of different materials and for different uses. Vessels of gold and silver may be to the honour of the Master. Vessels of wood and clay may be to His honour just as much, since each is doing what it was made for.
Material is not the last word. The same writer shows how a vessel of real value can still be put to dishonour.
You may take a golden vessel and use it for dishonour. When Belshazzar used the sacred vessels at his idol feast, they were put to a dishonourable use. In the same way, in the great house, where the vessels stand for people, a real believer in the Lord Jesus Christ may do something that dishonours the Lord Jesus Christ — perhaps gladly, and by mistake. But the Lord cannot approve that service, because it is tied to evil. A good servant taken up with an unholy service is a vessel to dishonour, not to honour.
That leaves the practical question: what does a person inside such a house do?
This takes in the whole of Christendom, everyone who claims to own the lordship of Christ, the Master referred to in verse 21. There are vessels of gold and silver, vessels to honour, and the Master uses these when they are fit for use. There are vessels of wood and earth, vessels to dishonour, and the passage does not say that the Master uses those. The great point is to be fit for His use. That can only come through a true separation from the vessels to dishonour. This is where the real heart-searching must come, because no one can get outside the great house.
- House. In Paul's first letter the house of God holds up the truth. Here the same house has grown large and unreal.
- Mixture. It was pure when the Spirit came at Pentecost. Strangers came in early, and the mixture has spread ever since.
- Picture. "A great house" is a comparison, not a new name for the church.
- Use. Commentators differ. Some read the materials as true and false Christians. Others rest honour on the use a vessel is put to.
- Fitness. No one can walk out of the great house. So the call is to separate from what dishonours the Master and be fit for His use.
If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, [in separating himself from them], he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Paul has just pictured the Christian profession as a large house, holding vessels of every kind — some for honour, some for dishonour. So what should a believer do, if there is no way out of the house?
The ESV reads "from what is dishonorable." The older wording these writers quote is "from these." One writer says it points back to the vessels just described:
Surely "if a man purge himself from these" refers not to what follows, but to what came just before — that is, the vessels for dishonour in the great house. If so, what can purging himself "from these" mean, except separation from ungodly people who profess Christ? ... In the Apostles' days the true-hearted had no need to "form themselves into a separate community," because they were still able to purge the wicked out. But the principle is a wide one, and God provides in it for a time when the wicked might be too many and too strong. Then, if we cannot purge them out, we must purge ourselves from them.
This separation involves people, not just their teaching:
You are sanctified and fit for the Master's use in proportion to your separation from these vessels — from persons, not merely from their doctrines ... It is not enough to reject their doctrines; their company contaminates you. You are coloured by the lowest company that you keep.
The Greek verb appears just twice in the New Testament. The contrast between the two places is striking:
This word "purge" is ekkathairo — to purge out. It appears only twice in the New Testament: here, and in 1 Corinthians 5, where the Christians are told to "cleanse out the old leaven" and to "purge the evil person from among you." In 1 Corinthians 5 the Christians obeyed and purged out the leaven. In Second Timothy the Christians do not seem to be obeying that instruction, and the whole lump has become leavened. And NOW the instruction is for the faithful to purge themselves out from the leavened mass.
Purging yourself does not mean abandoning Christianity. The house belongs to Christ, and there is no door out of it:
The professing church — what bore the name of Christ in the world — would become like a great house, where you find vessels of every kind, and for every use. What was to be done? Leave the Christian profession? Become unbaptized? That was impossible. There was no going out of the great house. Whatever state it was in, Christ was the Master of the house. ... So what was to be done? Stay with those who dishonoured Christ, because they too were in the great house? No.
The verse puts the job on each person: "if anyone cleanses himself." That makes it a task you can do:
To "purge himself" is the first duty of the faithful follower of the Lord. People say, "Why do you not try to put things right?" I have only to put myself right, because I am not competent to put others right. You put yourself right, and then you will help other people, and that is what I am trying to do.
Separation is not the goal. It is what makes a person useful to the Master of the house, and that qualification is open to anyone:
If we separate from such vessels, we shall be vessels for honour ... sanctified, that is, set apart, and holy because set apart, and fit, or serviceable, for the Master's use — ready for every good work ... Do you want the Lord to use you? Here is His own qualification for service. And remember, that qualification is within our own reach, as we depend on Him who reveals it to us, and through the power He will give. Then, when once qualified, it is His to take us up and use us how, where, and when He will.
The closing phrase describes readiness, which is different from the training described later in the letter:
The two very similar expressions — "ready for every good work" and "equipped for every good work" — are very instructive when taken together. In the first we have the essential qualification for being useful to the Master ... The second expression points not so much to our state, as to our equipment for service.
- Clean — the verb means to purge out. The early church could remove a wicked man from among them. Today the faithful must remove themselves from among the vessels of dishonour.
- Clean from what — "these" points back to the vessels just named. It means people and their company, not just their teaching.
- Clean where — inside the house, not outside it. Nobody can quit the Christian profession, so this separation is moral, not a change of address.
- Clean who — yourself first. You are able to put yourself right, and that is where help to others begins.
- Clean for whom — the Master, the Owner of the house. A clean vessel stands set apart, at His hand, ready for whatever work He gives.