Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver implements, but also implements of wood and of earthenware, and some are for honor while others are for dishonor.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay. Some are for honor, and some for dishonor.
- KJV But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.
- NLT In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In a great house there are vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable and some for dishonorable use. The visible church contains both noble and ignoble members.
Overview
Paul uses a household analogy to explain the mixed condition of the visible church, where faithful and false coexist. The differing vessels picture differing uses and worth before God. The image sets up the call in the next verse to be a vessel fit for honorable purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Rom 9:21–23Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
- 1 Tim 3:15but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
- 1 Pet 2:5You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Cor 3:9For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
- Eph 2:22in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
- Ezra 1:6All those who were around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.
- Ezra 6:5Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house.
- 2 Cor 4:7But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
- 1 Cor 3:16–17Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
- Lam 4:2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
- Heb 3:2–6who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house.
- Dan 5:2Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them.
- Exod 27:3You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its meat hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass.
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Christ at the center
Christ Jesus 'abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel' — the risen Lord whose word and kingdom endure to the end.
How 2 Timothy 2:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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