From the Pulpit...

Last time (2:20-21) we asked ourselves whether we really want to be useful to God, like a vessel that is used for honorable purposes in God's house. Undoubtedly there are vessels in God's house that are more useful than others; and some are downright useless, like Hymenaes and Philetus.

Then we examined a key piece of wisdom from the Bible on how exactly to be such a useful person for God. What that involves is cleansing yourself from dishonorable vessels, which means to disassociate from sin and from the people who are like the dishonorable vessels. In other words, if you want to fly like an eagle, you don't hang around with a bunch of turkeys! (That's a sort of paraphrase of Proverbs 13:20!) Avoid contamination by bad fellowship, by bad input, by bad company, whether inside or outside of the church.

When you actively take this step of cleansing yourself, God will see to it that you will be sanctified, useful, and prepared for His service (v. 21).

The text carries forward with more sound counsel on how to be useful to God. This applies especially to pastors. But since pastors are supposed to be mature Christians, and all Christians want to be mature Christians, this applies to the Christian reader as well. Paul's words concern the pastor's holiness, his wisdom, and his manner of life.