“In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” 2 Timothy 2:20-21
When we study the Bible it teaches us principles that can be applied and appropriated in more than one way. For example, the illustration of the house in this passage can refer to the church or the individual. The principle of “cleaning house” is good for the church and the individual. When we “clean house”, which we need to do regularly and also do deep cleaning when it is necessary, the good stuff will remain and the bad stuff has to go. The house, when it is cleansed of all the ignoble stuff, can be more useful for God’s purposes. God sometimes uses us even when we are not completely clean, but He uses the instrument, whether it is an individual or a church, most effectively when it is clean.
We all have cleaning to do. I sometimes think of ministry as being a dishrag for God. When I was growing up we always had a dishrag near the sink. It was used for whatever was needed. But, it needed to be rinsed out, washed, disinfected and cleaned repeatedly throughout the day. It wiped anything and everything it was needed for. Really kind of gross if you think about it. As a matter of fact, I remember as I got older that I would wince at the idea of my mom slowing me down as I passed by wiping my face with that disgusting thing. After all I didn’t know what all it had wiped recently. Granted it was cleaner than my face, but nonetheless I was more aware of the dirtiness of everything else than I was of my own dirtiness. My mom had my best interest in mind though.
My encouragement to us today is to clean our own houses more often, and more deeply more often. I am in a season of doing this in my own life. If I desire to be used of God, I must subject myself to regular rinsing, cleaning, disinfecting and washing. In our church we must also keep not only the facilities, but the members regularly cleaned. This may sound odd, but it is true. Accountability in the Body of Christ has been under-emphasized for decades. Picture this. If more individuals were more conscientious of cleanliness more often, the job of the church being clean would be easier. If each of us were more committed to holiness our corporate holiness would improve. I know the words ‘holy’ and ‘clean’ are rarely used, but perhaps we should accept a little admonishment from Paul here and clean house. You know and I know how much easier it is to keep a house clean if we keep it up and don’t let it get away from us. All legalists or clean freaks please beware. It is the Lord and the Spirit that does the cleaning and we do better setting an example than we do criticizing others. I have more housecleaning to do. You?
In Him,
Pastor Fred
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