So, does anyone else have a parent or grandparent with a house full of stuff you are not allowed to use...ever? Like the blue and white china in a china cabinet in their dining room? Yea, thats the GOOD china. The set that will be used on the day Jesus, The President, or some other dignitary comes over to eat. However, until then, it will sit there in the cabinet and wait...or be broken by "roughhousing" in the dining room.
So, in 2 Timothy 2:20 Paul is writing to his protege, his main man, his son in the faith, Timothy. Paul creates a really great metaphor that I have read a few dozen times over the past couple years, but recently, has really spoken to me profoundly.
Paul says "In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work".
So, by keeping ourselves pure we can become the good china. The stuff used only for the dignitaries, not on hamburger helper night. Let me just throw out there 3 things this tells me that have been doing a number on me lately.
1. The Utensils, they are expensive because of what they give up to attain gold or silver status. Now i know this sounds like a credit card offer with all the different precious metal status's we can attain, but i think it's true. The reason some utensils are more expensive is because they simply cost more. But God isn't the one doing the purchasing, no, we are. We can purchase the purity of our lives with the sacrifice of those things which God doesn't hold valuable. In short, by giving up, things that aren't concerned with the Kingdom (video games, music, the quest for popularity, etc) we increase the value of our make-up. Not that God loves one of us more than another, but that someone cares about God's kingdom enough to give up EVERYTHING that distracts them, and someone else only cares enough to give up a little. The person that gave more, that sacrificed more, makes themselves out of Gold and Silver because the cost was greater.
So why don't we just give all to attain the status of being Gold and Silver utensils, fit to be used for the highest of causes in God's kingdom? Sometimes it just costs too much. Honestly, sometimes there is a counting of the cost to following Jesus and after we run the numbers we decide the cost is much. I find it slightly ironic that America is in a foreclosure free fall because the majority of us live lives beyond our means, our lives are too expensive for us. However we are quick to decide that the Christian life is the one that is too expensive because it costs us much more than cash or a credit rating.
2. I believe that ever human being is created for a reason and that no one arrives here on earth to drift around for 80 years or so then die. The crazy part is that God creates us all with purpose, but i am beginning to believe he leaves the effectiveness of our purpose largely up to us. You see let's say there was a girl, her name is Zelda. Zelda was created by God to be fork. Zelda the fork can either be the nice sterling silver fork that rich people eat shrimp cocktails with, OR the clunky gerber brand fork that my son eats raviloi with, then combs his hair, then stabs the dog with. What is the determining factor? Zelda is. Zelda can decide through her commitment to God's word, her actively responding to it, letting is shape her life, and giving up those things that God requires, to be made the finest fork in the drawer. OR Zelda can decide the life she is living is far more valuable to her than the purposes of God and she can be content being the fork that you stick in the toaster to get things stuck out of.
On a side not, this quest to attain Gold and Silver standing in God's good china cabinet, sometimes God puts us on a payment plan type arrangement. He comes to use tightens the belt a notch, asks for a little more, then a little more. So no one go out tomorrow and disown your family and start eating locusts okay? There are a few steps between where you are now and where God ultimately will bring you with a surrendered life. We are only responsible to respond to God's leadings in the area of sacrificing things in our lives as they come, not all at once, and not because we thought it would be a good idea (Galatians 3:3).
So, final though on point #2, it's staggering to think about the fact that God created us with a purpose, but if we view ourselves through the scope of 2 Timothy 2:20, then there is still a creation process going on, and we have a large part to play in it. People aren't created Gold or Clay, they are created with purpose, then their decisions and sacrifice, and obedience create their substance. In fact, i think they also call this same substance, character.
3. The cheap ones are for secular purposes, the expensive ones are for the kingdom, but it doesn't stop there, the more you give up, the more "expensive" you become. I do think this passage tells us that the more you sacrifice the more authority you will carry. The ministers I look up to, Judah Smith, Joel Houston, Michael Giroux, they all carry an authority when they speak and minister and pray that is not founded in eloquence, or intelligence, or humor. No, when they speak, pray, lead, or sing, i believe that we believers recognize it as something Gold, or Silver. Not something common like clay or stone, but somethings valuable. That the words being prayed or preached came at cost. Further that they are being spoken by a man that paid that cost and has attained something that we who are still working towards such influence in the kingdom should attain to. The more we give up, the more expensive we become. Think about it. Not everyone wakes up to hear God's voice in the morning, to read his word. Not everyone gives up secular music for the purity of their ears. Not everyone chooses not to date while their friends think they are crazy. When we choose to do things that God accepts, that people often do not, that is a very rare thing. And according to Paul, that is what makes it a very valuable thing.
So let's count the cost of following God and remember that the things we may be asked to give up are worthless things that will only cause the character and substance of our lives to be common, to be clay, to be stone. Let's remember that we are created with a very specific purpose in mind, and do what is necessary to ensure that we fulfill that purpose on the grandest scale, and the nicest table, that we can.
