Vessels of Honour in a Great House (2 Timothy 2:20–21)

2 Tim. 2:19. Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

“Nevertheless,” μεντοι — however, for all that. For all that, however, the firm foundation of God stands, εστηκεν — has been established or is firmly established. Do not be troubled; it will not be shaken. Or thus: as regards deviations and waverings, know that what God has founded stands firm and will stand firm.

The words “the foundation of God” in themselves do not yield a definite meaning. They say only that, in general, the firm foundation laid by God stands, or what has been firmly founded by God is steadfast. But what exactly is this? Faith, planted by God in the heart of the believer, and the holy Church built upon such faith. Faith is formed in this way: God, having established the incarnate economy of salvation, calls to the receiving of salvation through this economy by means of the Gospel proclamation, through which—alongside the word—the gracious power of the Holy Spirit who governs the proclamation passes through the hearing of the ear to the heart, and awakens the dormant spiritual elements of life according to God that remain there after the Fall. If the one who has heard the Gospel inclines toward it and wills to follow it, God by the grace of the Holy Spirit assists him to receive faith, in proportion to his self-surrender to God. Whoever surrenders himself wholly to God’s guidance—in that person faith is established in all its force, not so much dogmatically complete as strong in its assurance in God. When this is built up in the heart, then faith by God’s grace restructures everything within, constituting the source and foundation of life according to God. This is the faith founded and planted by God in the heart—which serves as the foundation of life according to God. Not all faiths are faiths founded by God; but even God-founded faiths in the heart are not all equally strong and firm. The degree of firmness and strength of each person’s faith depends on the degree and force of his self-surrender to God. In one who surrenders himself wholly to God, God—encountering no obstacles from the side of man’s freedom—quickly builds up faith and the order of life according to faith, and establishes it deeply and firmly. But one who does not surrender himself wholly to God but reserves a portion of activity for himself, independent of God—in proportion as he reserves a larger portion for himself, in that same proportion he is deprived of God’s cooperation, for God does not intrude upon the sphere of independent activity and freedom. But in proportion as he is deprived of such cooperation, in that same proportion the formation of faith is slowed, and in that same proportion it proves weak and unsteady. Some of these, having been convinced by the trials of life how unreliable independent self-activity is in the matter of faith, in the end surrender themselves wholly to God—and then God quickly completes in them what was lacking, and faith appears in them in all its force, as wholly founded and planted by God. Others remain all their life with an admixture of self-made religion in their faith. Such are always unsteady in faith, each in his own measure. There are also those who hold to the faith externally, as a document or program, while building their whole life according to the faith by themselves. In such there is nothing of God—everything is self-made; and they do not belong to God’s own. — The Apostle in the present passage understands by the firmly God-founded faith the faith in the hearts of those who surrender themselves wholly to Him. Such faith stands firm and never falls. To it applies what the holy Paul said of love: “who shall separate us?” No one and nothing (Rom. 8:35–39). It is this faith that is that rock upon which the Lord promised to build His Church, and did build it (Mt. 16:18).

Ambrosiaster writes: “The foundation of God is the faith that firmly holds to what God has promised. Such faith cannot be shattered by the false reasonings of perfidious heretics.” As it was weak in some, they were shaken and drawn away after those who had erred concerning the truth. St. Chrysostom speaks of them: “Here (in the words: ‘the foundation stands’) it is shown that they were not yet firm even before they were shaken; otherwise they would not have been shaken by the very first assault. Those who are firm not only suffer nothing from deceivers but even merit admiration. — This is how we must be devoted to the faith.” Blessed Theophylact adds something to this: “Not all were led astray, but only those who were unsteady. For if they had not been so, they would not have fallen away either. Those who are thoroughly rooted in the faith stand firm and immovable. And observe—he says: ‘firm,’ and: ‘foundation.’ This is how we must hold to the faith.”

“Having this seal: the Lord knows those who are His. — The foundation of God” is the faith founded and planted by God in the heart wholly surrendered to Him—in all its force. This divine action within man restructures everything there and imparts its own character and its own imprint to everything—so that if someone from outside were to have his eyes opened and were to behold the inward countenance of a person who believes in this way, he could not hold back from exclaiming: this man is God’s. So brightly does God’s seal shine upon him. Since he surrenders himself wholly to God, by that very act he makes himself God’s own; and whoever makes himself God’s own, him God makes His own. For this was His intention in the creation of rational and free creatures—to have all of them as His own, on the condition of their free self-surrender to Him. Therefore, as soon as in a person this self-surrender to God is accomplished through wholehearted faith, God at once makes him His own. And a fellowship—living and strong—comes to be. It is sealed upon the inward countenance of the believer, and all rational creatures see it. In the Apostle’s words “those who are His”—reference is made to those who surrender themselves wholly to God in faith; for as soon as they surrender themselves to God, they at once essentially become God’s—truly His own. And the words “the Lord knows” mean that the Lord, as soon as such surrender to Him takes place in the soul of the believer, recognizes this. There is no need for anyone from outside to tell Him of it; He sees it Himself. He knows these ones better than anyone else. And as soon as He perceives this, He at once makes them His own, claims them as His, and begins to exercise particular care over them as His own.

Many think that once one has believed fully, this is everything accomplished, salvation is achieved, and paradise is to be claimed. In reality, however, faith—even at the degree of its force as described above—only sets the beginning of salvation or deepens its foundation; the actual working out of salvation follows upon this, amid the labors of doing good and the struggles of self-denial—which the Apostle immediately appends: “and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” Such is the task of the life of the believer who, through faith and self-surrender to God, has received the seal of belonging to God. This seal alone does not accomplish everything and does not dispose the one who has received it toward rest, but toward the labor of departing from unrighteousness and walking the path of righteousness. Walking the path of righteousness is accomplished not only by rendering to everyone what is due, but also by doing every possible good to them; and departing from unrighteousness is accomplished not only by removing oneself from unrighteous deeds and words, but also by suppressing all unrighteous thoughts and feelings—which is fulfilled by the struggle of self-opposition and self-compulsion, with the addition of external self-restraints as well. All this is required of one who has received the seal of belonging to the Lord.

St. Chrysostom says: “Firm souls stand firm and unshaken. Upon their deeds such words are inscribed that God knows them; just as an inscription is made upon a stone so that it may serve as its identifying mark—in them this inscription is expressed in their deeds. The mark of this seal is: to do no unrighteousness. Therefore let us not deprive ourselves of this royal seal and mark, so that we may not remain unsealed and unsteady, but stand upon foundations—firm foundations—and not be swept away. Here is the mark of people who belong to God—to depart from unrighteousness! For how can one who does unrighteousness, who resists God by his deeds and offends Him by his conduct, belong to God, who is righteous?”

The two halves of this verse point to moments of spiritual life that stand in relation to each other as cause and effect and are inseparably bound together. The foundation—divinely-given faith, which receives in the spirit the seal of belonging to God—carries within itself a jealous resolve to stand in the righteousness of God and, having received the powers of grace, proves itself in action the co-worker of every righteousness, with departure from every unrighteousness. But one must remember that, since in the spirit all things are accomplished according to the laws of free will, the latter is not a mechanical consequence of the former, apart from freedom; rather, free will, drawing from faith the impulses toward every righteousness and the obligation to fulfill it, and through faith also receiving the gracious power for doing so, by free resolve determines itself toward the doing of every righteousness and accomplishes it in the sense of strength in the Lord. In whomever both are united, he will never waver. And this is the firm foundation of the Church!

The Apostle speaks here in the words of the Prophets. The first saying—“God knows those who are His”—is taken from the Book of Numbers, where, on the occasion of the uprising of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who said to Moses and Aaron: “Why do you rule over us? We are the congregation of God, all are holy”—the holy Moses said to them: “We do not act thus of ourselves, but God ‘has known those who are His’ and has drawn them near to Himself”—that is, God chose us, knowing that we would remain faithful to Him (Num. 16:5). The second is taken either from the words of holy Moses, spoken on the same occasion to the people, when the punishment of God was about to fall upon these instigators together with all their household: “Depart from the tents of these hard-hearted men” (Num. 16:26), or from the words of holy Isaiah, where—foretelling the coming of the Lord, the deliverance of the people from the bondage of sin, and the preaching of the Gospel—he addresses from afar those who are about to believe, calling them to depart boldly from those who persist in unbelief: “Depart, go out from their midst, and touch not their uncleanness” (Is. 52:11). How all this applies to the Apostle’s words is evident in itself.

2 Tim. 2:20. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; and some are for honor, and some for dishonor.

The second perplexity is resolved: why are there those who are weak in faith and in the life of faith? The answer given in the present verse is this: it is so by necessity, according to the course of affairs in the present period of the world’s and humanity’s existence. It is explained by comparing the state of affairs in the Church with the practices of household management. Just as in a large house there are vessels of gold and silver, and also of wood and clay—and some of them are used for honorable purposes, others for dishonorable ones—so also in the Church, this great and glorious house of God, there are persons whose worthiness answers to gold and silver, and there are persons who answer to wood and clay; and of these, some are held in honor while others have no value at all. The latter half of the comparison is left unspoken by the Apostle. We must supply it ourselves—and we supply it as shown. Nor is the reason why it is so indicated; only understanding is given that, just as in a house there is both the good and the bad, so too in the Church or among the faithful. There is a kind of hint: be content with this explanation, and do not seek what is more remote and more profound. It is not your concern—as was also said from above to holy Anthony the Great in answer to his searching inquiry why there are good and evil persons. And the Saviour Himself, when speaking of His Kingdom—in the parables of the field sown with good seed, on which, however, weeds afterward appeared, and of the net that caught both good and bad fish—showed only that in His Church things will be so until the harvest of judgment and the final sorting out of all things; but why it will be so, He did not say. Surely He also did this to teach us not to take up what is not our business, but to trust that the Lord arranges all things for the best.

It seems that the words “golden and silver,” “wooden and clay,” as well as “in honor and not in honor”—the Apostle used only for the clearest showing of the difference among things found in a house, and did not intend to signify allegorically such-and-such specific different persons found among believers in the Church. For this reason one may leave them without an allegorical interpretation. Nevertheless, blessed Theodoret did not consider it superfluous to give them an interpretation, and writes: “The Apostle likened to vessels of gold those shining with piety and virtue (those who have renounced all things and have dedicated their whole life to God); to silver vessels those who, together with faith and righteousness, have chosen the civic life (pious laymen); and to wooden and clay vessels those who live in impiety and wickedness.”

By “house,” our Eastern commentators—holy Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact—understand the world, while the Western commentators—Ambrosiaster and, they say, Cyprian and blessed Augustine—understand the Church. Although the latter interpretation fits the flow of the text more closely, the former should not be excluded either. For the question of the mingling of the good and the evil is also raised by the condition of the entire world; therefore, in answering it, one cannot but take this into account as well. Moreover, the world is also a house of God.

2 Tim. 2:21. If anyone therefore cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work.

Here too the reason is given by which the goodness of God graciously tolerates the wicked together with the good—both in the Church and in the whole world—like a householder who tolerates both the good and the bad in his house. The householder tolerates the bad because it is for the time being useful for something, having no hope that it will become good; but the Lord tolerates it not for this reason alone, but especially because the free creature, unbelieving and living badly, can come to itself, recover, and change for the better. “Vessels,” writes Theodoret, “are condemned by their very nature (if they are not for honor), but people are made honorable or dishonorable by the will.” But this will, currently corrupt, can at any moment change to what is corrected. “The choice of what is better depends on our resolve” (blessed Theodoret). Let one who is bad resolve with God’s help—and he will begin to be good. Awaiting this very moment, the goodness of God spares the unbelieving and the wicked and holds back the righteous judgment of God that is ready to punish them. This is what the Apostle means, saying: “if anyone cleanses himself from these—From these”—from what makes him like a vessel not for honor, from passions and sins. To cleanse oneself means: to recognize the baseness of what is base within oneself, to turn away from it, to resolve firmly not to do it again, and, having confessed this to a spiritual father, to receive absolution and thereafter not allow oneself to fall into the same fault. One who has become established in this manner of life—clean from all that is bad, both outwardly and inwardly—will no longer resemble a vessel in the house that is not for honor, but will become a vessel for honor, well-suited and fit for every good work and, beyond that, sanctified—he will become in some sense a sacred thing—as indeed he is: for he will then not be ordinary, but filled with grace and bearing God within himself. It is for the sake of this change and transition, from dishonor into such a radiant state, that the wicked are tolerated. Holy Chrysostom says: “Do you see that to be of gold or of clay depends not on nature or material necessity, but on our will? In nature a clay vessel cannot become golden, and a golden vessel cannot become as base as a clay one; but here (in human souls) there is great change and transformation. Paul was a clay vessel but became golden; Judas was a golden vessel but became clay. Thus, impurity makes people clay: the adulterer, the covetous man are clay vessels.”

What the words “a vessel sanctified, well-suited, prepared for every good work” signify in application need not be determined in particular detail. In general they mean that one who has been cleansed through faith and grace from all that is bad, impure, and passionate, and who has surrendered himself to the all-working of God, is made in the hands of God an instrument well-suited for the fulfillment of His providential actions toward the world and humanity. Such a one knows how to attend and to hear with sound understanding in his heart the commandments of God, and then, sparing not his life, to fulfill them. Therefore in his actions he always falls upon the trail of God’s will—which is the most precious thing of all for every Christian, and all the more so for an archpastor.

Since a state of this kind makes one who has attained it supremely prudent, it may be said that the Apostle’s discourse from verse 19 onward indicates the path to attaining the prudence about which he began to give lessons to the archpastor from verse 14. After this, the following, the twenty-second, verse will have the significance of a concluding warning against what can cause one to lose this gift, and of an indication of what secures and roots it.