Articles and Vessels

             In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. (II Timothy 2:20-21)

If you know a quilter or sewer, you’re likely to have encountered those sheers. You know, the ones that if you touch them, you’ll get something ranging from the stink-eye to an assault. Those sheers are only for cutting cloth, and maybe only for their use in cutting cloth. They’re lovely, wonderful people, until you touch those sheers.

As a gardener, I have some of the same issue. There are containers that are only for use for herbicides, and others that may not be used for that purpose. I certainly wouldn’t want to use one of my cooking pans to make soap (one of the ingredients is lye) or even a salve (which involves beeswax.) Every house has things like this. And in some cultures (many ancient) there were more. The Jews had to make sure that there was no leaven in their house, and that they only used .containers that were contaminated by leaven. I have mugs that I only use for coffee, and others that I only use for tea. There’s no real reason for this, other than, perhaps, the tea mugs tend to be bigger.

In the same way, we need to keep in mind that we are articles or vessels. If you donate blood, they test it each time to make sure there’s nothing harmful in it. If you donate an organ, they do the same, and also make sure that the organ involved is both healthy and compatible with the recipient so it’s not wasted or the recipient harmed by the foreign tissue. It should be no surprise, then, then those who follow Christ should make the effort to keep their lives clean of the things that might contaminate them. There’s a list of the big stuff we think of immediately – not taking God’s name in vain, not having other gods before Him, not murdering, stealing, lusting, committing adultery, bearing false witness, disrespecting one’s parents, not coveting. In some circles, they add no drinking, no swearing, no dancing, no going to movies, no smoking (even the legal stuff). No doubt, you and I have lists that may correspond in some points and not others.

One problem is that we’re not always as good about the “little stuff.” There may be no “Thou Shalt Not”s to tell us that they’re bad, but they get in the way. They’re not things that should really be put in a container fit for the Master’s use. The thing is, we’re likely to not consider the little things as being important. After all, we haven’t murdered anyone, so what if we gossip, laugh at “inappropriate” jokes, watch that show, eat a little too much, or ____? Leaven is small. It doesn’t take much. As I Corinthians 5:6 says, “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of doug?”

In C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Uncle Screwtape advises young tempter Wormwood against tempting his patient to the really big sins. All that matters is that the patient is separated from God. If playing card will do that, get him to play cards. If taking the kids to soccer matches on Sunday will keep the whole family away from Church, then get the kids involved in soccer.

The little things we don’t notice are the most dangerous because we notice them. The big things don’t necessarily tempt us as often. The thing is, if we don’t learn how to counter temptation with the small things, we’re likely to move on to bigger things. If we can’t set forth the goal to cleans ourselves from something that doesn’t cost us a lot, we’re not likely to have the fortitude to turn away from something that costs us more. True, we may never get to the point of being serial killers, but how about serial watchers of serial killers as portrayed on TV? Or serial gossips? Or, as the women who were caught pulling leaves off houseplants in a grocery, who proudly proclaimed that they had never paid for their collection of that houseplant – serial thieves? And if these aren’t your version of “small stuff,” something else is.

The solution isn’t to gather your strength and stop doing it. The solution is to take it to God and let Him work in your life so that you stop being the sort of person who does it.