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.
2 TIMOTHY 2:20–21
What kind of dishes do you take when you go camping? It probably depends on what sort of camping you do. There are a lot more options out there than speckled blue enamel dishes and Coleman stoves!
There are a couple of ideas to consider. First, how much do you want to carry? Obviously, there’s a big difference in how much you might want to carry if you’re driving an RV with half a dozen people, or if you’re backpacking and each person carries his own kitchen gear. And second, how will you wash them? Are you hooking up to power and water in an RV park? Boiling a pot of water on a Coleman stove? Or mostly using paper plates that are burned in the campfire?
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul compared us to dishes. He suggested that if we cleanse ourselves, we will be ready and prepared for whatever the Lord asks us to do.
So how do we cleanse ourselves? Many passages in the Bible describe cleansing as something that the Lord does for us. In 1 John we read, “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. . . . If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:7, 9 NASB). We can yield to the Lord’s cleansing. He will do a wiser, gentler, more thorough job of it than we ever could!