Tuesday, September 20, 2011

2 Timothy 2:21


Copyright Ó 2011 J. Neely
2 Timothy 2:21

21 If [ean] a man [tis] therefore [oun] purge [ekkathairo] himself [heautou] from [apo] these, [touton] he shall be [esomai] a vessel [skeuos] unto [eis] honour, [time] sanctified, [hagiazo] and [kai] meet [euchrestos] for the master's use, [despotes] and prepared [hetoimazo] unto [eis] every [pas] good [agathos] work. [ergon] KJV-Interlinear

21 Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. NASB

Cleanse is an intensified form, meaning to clean out thoroughly, to purge.

And the things that we are to purge ourselves of, comes from the vessels of dishonor discussed in the previous verse.  In other words sin and wickedness, in all of its forms.

Arrogance in the cornerstone of evil.  Wickedness is the activity of evil.  All evil runs the gamut from petty self righteousness, to immoral criminal behavior.

Sin is contagious. Sin exists in every corner of the world.  When or if you flirt with sin in any manner, sooner or later that flirtation will trap you into an active sin and then it is downhill from there.

No one is above sin.  Everyone is subject to the traps of sin.  And this is not restricted to crimes but includes all manner of social behaviors and thoughts, and intentions and attitudes.

Each person is born with a sin nature ingrained within their physical body (not in the soul).  But since your soul resides in the physical body it is influenced by sin and all of the enticements and entrapments of sin.

When sin is active in your life, then your soul chokes and cannot breathe, so to speak.  A long exposure to sin (decades) without any protection or cleansing will eventually choke the soul completely and death usually occurs, causing the person to leave this world.

But there is a solution to sin and to its filth, and that begins with salvation, naturally.  But after salvation, we all still sin and then we all need an occasional bath to clean up.

Most people in their daily lives, take showers or baths to clean themselves up from time to time.  For those who do not wash daily, the odor and filth tends to build, and the result is obvious and unpleasant.

We wash our hands for the little things and our whole body for the big things of filth.

In the spiritual life the same principle exists.  The soul needs to be cleansed. But instead of soap and water, we use confession. The result is the same as in a shower.  You are cleansed, and the filth and odors are removed, but in a spiritual sense.

So, when you are clean, you become a vessel of honor.  But when you are filthy, you are a vessel of dishonor.

This applies in the spiritual realm, not in the physical world.  Of course it is nice to be around clean people but cleanliness is next to Godliness, is a reference not to the use of soap and water, but the use of confession. 

Confession is the shower of the spiritual life.

This, confession, places you back into fellowship and thus makes you clean and sanctified and available for spiritual activities.

By the way, when you are in fellowship, everything you do is spiritual activity, spiritual worship, spiritual production and so forth.

When you sin and are out of fellowship, then your spiritual life does not function.  1, 2, 3rd Jn is a detailed study of this whole process.  There are also a couple of special studies on fellowship, located in the online study library.

Sin is a non-tangible concept in its effect on the soul.  Sin is an obscure anomaly that separates you from a relationship with God. The real you is in your soul.  Sin is non-physical, and thus requires a non-physical solution.  And God has given us the perfect solution, which is confession, or the self recognition of a fault that we have within us, and are willing to acknowledge (confess) to God.

Therefore, in order to have a relationship with God, we need to be clean, spiritually.  In order to be clean spiritually we need to confess our sins on a regular basis.  That in turn places you in a spiritually sound position whereby your relationship with God functions as it should.

Functioning in fellowship, your are sanctified (set apart), honorable (sin free, spiritually speaking), and therefore useful as opposed to being useless, and your use is for every good work, all that you do while in fellowship, especially your spiritual growth (daily study), especially in reference to your spiritual production due to the application of your spiritual knowledge to your daily life.

Your life functions as it should when your spiritual life operates as it should.

Your meaning and purpose are fulfilled as they should be, when your spiritual life operates as it should.

You become complete as you should be, when you pursue your life in accordance with Gods mandates as a believer in Christ, namely confession, study, learning, understanding, application, and wisdom.  These then are the principle ingredients that serve to complete you into a total and comprehensive you.

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