Serving Dish or Cat Litter

We have been working our way through 2 Timothy and the second half of chapter 2 reads like a list of advice. It is almost like something out of proverbs.

We begin with a warning about living right, behaving right and especially about watching what you say and what you teach.

2 Timothy 2:14–19 NASB95

Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”

Paul is an author and a public speaker, words are the tools of his trade, he has trained Timothy to use words and he often reminds Timothy that he is a teacher and to be careful of what he says and what he teaches. Paul also warns Timothy that words can do a lot of damage. Words can hurt and words can heal, words can guide your mind into a deeper and clearer understanding of truth but words can also deceive you and lead you astray. Be careful what you say and what you listen to. Words can change the way you think, the way you see the world and therefore change the way you act and eventually change your character, the very nature of who you are.

Paul says that some types of talk can spread like gangrene. What an interesting, and disgusting word picture. Did you know that if you have a wound that develops gangrene it is like you are rotting away. It stinks, after a while you don’t even want to be in the room where someone is who has gangrene because of the smell. It is kind of like gossip, it stinks and it affects everyone around it. Gangrene usually takes surgery to treat. Years ago the only known treatment was amputation but it is much rarer today. Even so I watched Tina’s great grandfather lose his foot, then his lower leg and then more leg before they decided to just give him pain medication and let him go. Even after the original wound was cut off the infection spread throughout the body until it killed him. Gossip can be like that. Even after the original statement is long gone the hurt and the bitterness can remain. Don’t let gossip destroy you, your family or your church.

Next Paul almost seems to leave his topic to cover something else but I think it is the same train of thought. In the previous verses Paul urged Timothy to

2 Timothy 2:15 NASB95

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

He sandwiched that between two thoughts about watching your words. Since he was talking to Timothy whose work was teaching and preaching it makes sense that he would urge him to be a good workman while urging him to watch his words. In the next three verses he also talks about being approved and being appropriate.

2 Timothy 2:20–22 NASB95

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. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

I thought about bringing a wine goblet and a bedpan to illustrate the difference but I settled on these two items. One of these is designed to be brought out when company comes or at a church dinner or when you want to present something as being pleasant or good. The other is used to carry cat litter. Now when our renters moved out of our house in Conway I noticed that they had developed a habit that never occured to me. They would buy cat litter in these pails and then, once the cat litter was used, they would take the used cat litter and put it back in the empty container. For some reason they would then take this container out to the side of the house and line them up along the side of the house. They left these presents for me when they moved out. There were 5 or 6 full containers of used cat litter lined up beside the house, some of which had not had the lids on good and it had rained in them, this is not a good memory for me.

But isn’t it true that when we have sin in our lives, especially sin that has been ongoing for a long time the same thing tends to happen inside us. We collect that sin and the results of that sin and store it in the dark corners of our soul, someplace where we don’t have to look at it or trip over it but we know it is there. Kind of like putting used cat litter beside the house, it was on the opposite side from the door and the driveway so most of the time you could forget about it and only occasionally would you have a reason to go to that side of the house and be reminded of what was there. Of course if you ignored it long enough you could probably just walk by it without even noticing it anymore, kind of like a pet sin that you have lived with for a long time and you can almost forget that it is a problem.

Of course it is there and that fact that it is there is a problem. No one wants to have years worth of poopy cat litter stacking up beside their house. It stinks, it’s nasty, it is heavy, it needs to be disposed of. Sin can be the same way it stinks, it is nasty, it is not healthy and it needs to be taken care of. Of course you can do what my renters did and just leave it alone for someone else to take care of. Many people do that with their sin. They ignore it, pretend it is not there or they hide it or occasionally they just get used to it. But like gangrene it eventually starts to corrupt everything around it and spoil even the unspoiled parts of your life.

When Tina’s grandfather had gangrene it started in his food, just a toe if I remember right, but it spread and spread, it did more and more damage until it killed him. I was there when they cut pieces off of him and I was there wen the doctor came in and said that it was unlikely that they could stop the gangrene. He asked if they wanted to try another amputation or if they just wanted to make him comfortable until he died. I saw the fear and the horror on the faces of his relatives. Most of them went into brain lock, they could not decide, they could not force themselves to say one way or the other. Tina made the decision and signed the paper. It hurt her too. Sin is like that, it is hurtful and damaging to us and everyone around us, if we let it grow in us it will eventually destroy us, but that is not all, it may also hurt or destroy the people around us, the ones we care about and the ones we want most not to hurt.

On the other hand there are vessels made for honor. When someone gets out the good china you know that something important is happening. When someone who you admire, someone who is good and true and faithful takes the time to recognize you or spend time with you it makes you feel good. When you are around someone you respect and admire it makes you want to be a better person and live up to their example. Our sin affects those around us but so does our righteousness. By doing the right thing and saying the right thing and behaving the right way, by living a godly life and welcoming others into that godly life we can affect the people around us for the better.

Some people try to hide their sin by putting a good face on it. That is kind of like dressing up in a suit and tie without taking a shower. Even if you are in the best and most expensive clothes you can find you still don’t look good if your hair is oily and greasy and your body stinks. But that is very rare to see. Most people who dress in their best also clean themselves up. There is something about dressing your best that also makes you want to do the rest of it, wash and comb your hair, brush your teeth and clean your fingernails. Often taking the effort to look your best makes you want to behave better.

It works the same way with serving dishes. When you put together a big meal or a fancy dinner you tend to want things to look good as well as taste good, that is why we have Chrystal serving dishes and fancy bowls and sometimes special silverware for fancy dinners. I have been to big church or family dinners where everything looked great and we had themed napkins and decorations and the food was wonderful. I have also eaten the leftovers from these dinners several times and we often microwaved them on a paper plate. The food tasted good and it was satisfying and filling but it was not the same as the initial dinner. I have seen ladies who baked a cake or made their favorite dish refuse to take it to the dinner because of some minor imperfection, they wanted everything to be just right. Being around someone or something that is done well, done with quality in mind makes you want to join in. I don’t think that God expects us to get out the fine china for every meal but he does expect us to work hard at being godly people, doing the right thing in the right way and inspiring others to do so as well.

Of course if some are doing what they are supposed to do and keeping short accounts with God and others are piling up used cat litter all over the place there is going to be a clash. The scripture does not say there will never be conflict or that we should avoid conflict but it does tell us how to handle conflict when it comes.

2 Timothy 2:23–26 NASB95

But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Don’t seek out arguments and spend your time fault finding. I admit this is hard for me to do. I find it easy to find fault in others and I don’t find it too hard to point it out. Of course recognizing sin and dealing with sin is not bad, it is a good thing. The question is how do we deal with it.

Don’t try to get into an argument, be kind, even when others are not kind to you, be patient even when someone does you wrong. When you do have to address a problem do it gently, not with anger or bitterness but with a loving heart sincerely caring for the other person and trying your best to restore them rather than to beat them up. Of course this is difficult for us. When someone has hurt us we want to hurt them back, when someone mistreats us we want to make them feel the same pain that we feel. It really is a question of motivation. Why are you confronting this problem. Are you doing so because you are in pain and you want to lash out, are you doing it because you want to make them stop hurting you or making your life more difficult, or are you doing it because you love them and you are concerned for them.

According to God the reason for confronting someone who is stuck in sin is not so that you can get even or so that they will stop making your life complicated. It is because they are stuck in a trap, they have been trapped by the father of lies and they are being held hostage. It implies that they are unable to get out of this situation on their own. Now a hostage might be a hostage because they were somewhere they should not have been anyway, someone might step in a trap because they were trespassing where they should not have been but scripture does not address how they got that way, it merely says that as of now they are trapped, they without escape and they need help. Our attitude should be one of freeing someone from a trap or rescuing a hostage not punishing a criminal or getting even with a bully.

How do you resolve conflict, what is your attitude? Before you answer remember that we all have some used cat litter stacking up beside the house. I don’t want mine exposed any more than you want your’s exposed, but we could all use a little help cleaning up the mess.