SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/27/2025 10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Illustration”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 2:20
Message of the
verse: “Now
in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels
of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.”
I want to begin this SD by writing about the words honor and
dishonor as they do not refer to true and false Christians, respectively. Now Jesus makes it clear in the parable of
the wheat and tares seen in Matthew 13:24-30 and also in His teaching about the
sheep and goats judgments of the nations seen in Matthew 25:31-46 that the
visible church on earth will contain both unbelievers and believers until He
returns and orders the final separation.
However Paul is not speaking about that distinction.
MacArthur writes: “Nor is he speaking here of the God-given differences among believers. In his letter to Rome, he says that ‘God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly’ (Rom. 12:3-6). He emphasizes the same truth in his first letter to the Corinthians, saying, ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired’ (1 Cor. 12:17-18).
“The honorable vessels represent believers who are faithful and useful to the Lord. They are the good soldiers, the competitive athletes, the hardworking farmers mentioned in verses 3-6. By contrast, the dishonorable vessels are the cowardly soldiers, the lazy athletes, and the slothful farmers, defiled people fit only for the most menial, undistinguished purposes. Honor and dishonor therefore refer to the ways in which genuine believers are found useful to the Lord in fulfilling the work to which He has called them. In this sense, all believers should be but are not always, vessels of honor.”
This
last paragraph goes along with something that I have written about in different
SD’s that I have written over the years. It comes from Ephesians 2:8-10, and
most believers can quote verses 8-9, but perhaps not verse 10. “8 For by grace you
have been saved
through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that
no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God
prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” The
highlighted portion of verse 10 has always spoken to me by saying that in
eternity past the Lord not only chose those who will come to Christ for
salvation, but also gave them gifts for them to do. I give an example of John MacArthur because I
quote from his commentaries and sermons a lot, and so I believe that God, in
eternity past gave the gift of preaching and teaching to him. Now just as we looked at the last paragraph
it can be seen that even though a person has been given a gift to fulfill in
the church age, does not mean that that person will continue to use that gift
so in looking at our verse from 2 Timothy and the last thing that I wrote from
MacArthur’s quote “In this
sense, all believers should be but are not always, vessels of honor.” I hope all of this makes sense, and also it
is my prayer that those who read the Spiritual Diaries that I write each day
will be vessels of honor doing the things that the Lord has called you to do
for His glory.
2/27/2025 10:58 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment