II Timothy 2:20
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A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
in a great house--that is, the visible professing Christian Church (Ti1 3:15). Paul is speaking, not of those without, but of the [visible] family of God [CALVIN]. So the parable of the sweep-net (Mat 13:47-49) gathering together of every kind, good and bad: as the good and bad cannot be distinguished while under the waves, but only when brought to shore, so believers and unbelievers continue in the same Church, until the judgment makes the everlasting distinction. "The ark of Noah is a type of the Church; as in the former there were together the leopard and the kid, the wolf and the lamb; so in the latter, the righteous and sinners, vessels of gold and silver, with vessels of wood and earth" [JEROME, Dialogue against the Luciferians, 302] (compare Mat 20:16). vessels of gold . . . silver--precious and able to endure fire. of wood and earth--worthless, fragile, and soon burnt (Co1 3:12-15; Co1 15:47). some . . . some--the former . . . the latter. to dishonour-- (Pro 16:4; Rom 9:17-23).
Open source ↗2:20-21 Building on 2:19, Paul uses imagery about the utensils in a wealthy home (see Rom 9:21). Within God’s household one should endeavor to be like a utensil that is cherished rather than one that is treated with contempt.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.
And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.
Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!
Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.