 |  |
"dishonour" is too strong. Simple lack of honour is the meaning. Some vessels will be
specially delightful to the Master. These will be at His hand on the table. Others will
never have the honour of His smile, they never leave the kitchen or the scullery. The
Apostle now applies his figure--
"If a man therefore will thoroughly purify himself from these things (of verses 16-18,
22, 23), he shall be a vessel unto honour, having been sanctified and meet for the
Master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (21).
The "profane and vain babblings" (2: 16), and the "foolish and unlearned questions"
(2: 23), must be "shunned", and avoided. Equally emphatic is the first epistle to Timothy.
"Refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness"
(I Tim. 4: 7). The reason for this care is revealed in the two remaining quotations:--
"Neither give heed to fables and interminable genealogies, which minister questions,
rather than a DISPENSATION OF GOD (see texts) that is by faith" (I Tim. 1: 4).
This passage by giving the later reading shows the seriousness of the charge, the next
particularizes what that dispensation of God is:--
"O, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of that falsely named gnősis (knowledge)" (I Tim. 6: 20).
What that is that was committed to Timothy we must look into later. One more word
is needed here. In II Tim. 2: 14 there is a reference to striving about words and
subverting the hearers. In verse 16 there is the command to shun the profane and vain
babblings. These, as we have seen, are a special snare set for the believer who seeks to
maintain the truth of the mystery. Verses 14 and 16 speak of the danger to be avoided;
what does verse 15 say? Here we read the positive and contrastive statement:--
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Not a FELLOW-workman, as in Phil. 4: 3, just as there is no fellow-soldier, or
fellow-wrestler. All is individual. If we would be "approved" (the positive of the word
used by Paul and translated "castaway" in I Cor. 9:), if we would be "unashamed", if
we would be "unto honour", if we would "strive lawfully" and so be "crowned", then
here is the great separating principle. Rightly to divide the word of truth. This will mean
conflict. It will rouse opposition. It will call for patient endurance, but it leads to
salvation WITH AIONIAN GLORY.