2 Timothy 2.21b-Paul Defines a Vessel of Honor
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 2, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 2:21b-Paul Defines a Vessel of Honor
Lesson # 53
2 Timothy 2:20 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. 21 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. (NASB95)
“Sanctified” is the verb hagiazō (ἁγιάζω), which means “to set apart exclusively for the Lord’s purpose” and speaks of the Christian experiencing sanctification by cleansing himself from the false teachings of the apostate pastors in Ephesus.
The perfect tense of this verb hagiazō is an intensive perfect which speaks of the Christian being sanctified as a result of the past action of obeying Paul’s command to reject the false doctrine.
The passive voice of this verb hagiazō is a causative passive which indicates that the Christian will cause himself to be sanctified if he cleanses himself from false doctrine by obeying Paul’s command which is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The participle form of this verb hagiazō is a result participle which would indicate that the Ephesian Christian will cause himself to be sanctified “as a result of” cleansing himself from the false teaching of the apostate teachers.
This participle form of the verb hagiazō is a nominative in simple apposition which indicates that the participle is identifying for the reader what Paul means specifically by a vessel of honor and sanctified.
“Useful to the Master” is composed of the following: (1) adjective euchrēstos (εὔχρηστος), “useful” (2) noun despotēs (δεσπότης), “to the Master.”
The noun despotēs is in the singular and means “Master” referring to the Father despite the fact that the word’s nearest antecedent is the noun kurios, “of the Lord” which appears in the command in Second Timothy 2:19.
The head of God’s household is the Father and not the Son and in this metaphor, the Father is the master of the large house which is the church.
The despotēs functions as a dative of advantage which indicates that when the Ephesian Christian cleanses himself from the false teaching of the apostate pastors he will be useful “for the benefit of” the Father.
The adjective euchrēstos means “useful, helpful, profitable, beneficial” pertaining to being of positive or good use and here in Second Timothy 2:21, this word speaks of being “useful” or “beneficial” to the Father.
It is functioning as a nominative of simple apposition meaning that it is further identifying for the reader what Paul means when he says that the Christian who cleanses himself from the false teaching will be a vessel of honor and is sanctified.
“Prepared for every good work” is composed of the following: (1) preposition eis (εἰς), “for” (2) adjective pas (πᾶς), “every” (3) noun ergon (ἒργον), “deed” (4) adjective agathos (ἀγαθός), “good” (5) verb hetoimazō (ἑτοιμάζω), “prepared.”
The verb hetoimazō is in the passive voice and indicates that the Ephesian Christian who cleanses himself from the false teachings of the apostate pastors will have been “prepared” for every good work.
The perfect tense of this verb hetoimazō is an intensive perfect which speaks of the present state of the Christian being prepared for every good work as a result of cleansing himself from the false teachings of the apostate pastors in Ephesus.
The passive voice of this verb hetoimazō is also a causative passive which indicates that the Ephesian Christian will cause himself to be prepared for every good work if he cleanses himself from the false teaching of the apostate pastors.
The participle form of this verb hetoimazō is also a result participle which would indicate that the Ephesian Christian will cause himself to be prepared for every good work “as a result of” cleansing himself from the false teaching.
This participle form of the verb hetoimazō is a nominative in simple apposition which indicates that the participle is identifying for the reader what Paul means specifically by a vessel of honor and sanctified.
In Second Timothy 2:21, the noun ergon is in the singular and means “work, action” since it pertains to actions performed by the Christian while in fellowship with God and are produced by the Holy Spirit through him when they exercise faith in the Word of God.
The noun ergon is modified by the adjective agathos which means “divine good in quality and character” and describes this work or action as good in the sense that it is divine in quality and character because it is in accordance with the Father’s will.
This word agathos describes this work or action as being intrinsically valuable, intrinsically good, inherently good in quality but with the idea of good which is also profitable, useful, benefiting others, benevolent because it is based upon and motivated by the teaching of the Spirit in the Word of God.
The adjective pas is used in a distributive sense since it denotes “every kind of” and emphasizes various types of acts that benefit others and are motivated by the Spirit and in obedience to the Spirit.
The noun ergon is the object of the preposition eis, which is a marker of purpose indicating that the Ephesian Christian who cleanses himself from the false teaching of the apostate pastors will cause himself to be prepared “for the purpose of” performing every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character.
Second Timothy 2:20 Indeed, in a large home, by no means does there exist only gold as well as silver vessels, but also wood as well as clay. In other words, on the one hand, some do exist in the state of being for honorable use while on the other hand, some do exist in the state of being for dishonorable use. 21 Therefore, if someone cleanses himself from these things, he will certainly exist in the state of being a vessel for honorable use. Consequently, he will specifically cause himself to be sanctified, useful for the Master, causing himself to be prepared for every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character. (My translation)
The apostle Paul states in Second Timothy 2:21 that the Ephesian Christian will cause himself to be sanctified as a result of cleansing himself from the false teaching of the apostate teachers.
He identifies specifically for Timothy what he means by a Christian becoming a vessel of honor by cleansing himself from false doctrine.
He identifies for him that by cleansing oneself from this false teaching, he will cause himself to be sanctified which speaks of the Christian experiencing being set apart to serve the Father exclusively.
He is teaching that the Ephesian Christian will cause himself to be sanctified if he cleanses himself from false doctrine by obeying Paul’s command which is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Paul then further identifies for Timothy what he means when he says that the Christian who cleanses himself from the false teaching will be a vessel of honor.
Not only will he cause himself to be sanctified but he will be useful to the Father who Paul describes as the Master.
Paul is also describing for Timothy what he means by sanctification.
To be a vessel of honor and sanctified means that one is useful for the Father.
He then defines for Timothy what it means to be useful for the Father which is that the Christian is prepared to perform every kind of work which is divine in quality and character.
“For every kind of work which is divine good in quality and character” pertains to actions performed by the Christian while in fellowship with God and are produced by the Holy Spirit through him when they exercise faith in the Word of God.
It speaks of the works or actions that the Holy Spirit performs through the Christian as a result of the Christian’s obedience to the commands and prohibitions in the Word of God, which are inspired by the Holy Spirit.
These actions are divine good in quality and character because they are intrinsically valuable, intrinsically good, inherently good in quality but with the idea of good which is also profitable, useful, benefiting others, benevolent because it is based upon and motivated by the teaching of the Spirit in the Word of God.
So these actions which are divine in quality and character benefit the Trinity, the body of Christ and all of mankind.
Paul is speaking of performing various types of acts that benefit the Trinity, the church and unsaved humanity and are motivated by the Spirit and in obedience to the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God.
So the purpose of sanctification is for the Christian to perform actions which are divine good in quality and character which benefit the Trinity, the church and unregenerate humanity.
“Sanctification” is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of conversion in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Perfective.
All three stages of sanctification refer to the process of conforming the believer into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the Father’s plan from eternity past (Romans 8:28-30).
