NOW IN A LARGE HOUSE THERE ARE NOT ONLY GOLD
AND SILVER VESSELS BUT ALSO VESSELS OF WOOD AND OF EARTHENWARE: En megale de oikia
ouk estin monon skeue chrusa kai argura alla kai xulina kai ostrakina: (1Cor 3:9,16,17;
Eph 2:22-note;
1Ti 3:15;
Heb 3:2-6-notes;
1Pet 2:5-note) (Ex 27:3;
Ezra 1:6;
6:5;
Lam 4:2;
Da 5:2;
2Cor 4:7)
Now (de)
could also be translated but (KJV) although it does not appear
from the context Paul is drawing out a contrast but is expanding on the
firm foundation (most feel this is a description of the church) he says
is laid which includes those who abstain from wickedness.
Steven Cole
introduces his sermon on this passage with an pithy
illustration/application...
A man used to visit a tiny general
store in the country. The proprietor has a clerk named Jake, who seemed
to be the laziest man in the world. One day the man noticed that Jake
was gone.
He asked the proprietor, “Where’s Jake?” “Oh, he retired,” was the
answer. “Retired? Then what are you going to do to fill the vacancy?”
The owner replied, “Jake didn’t leave no vacancy.”
That leads me to ask, “What kind of vacancy would there be in this
church if you left?” It is God’s clear intention that every one of His
people be used in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given gifts to
each one to be used as good stewards. And yet for so many that name the
name of Christ, their faith is like football - an occasional Sunday
spectator sport. They are not serving Christ day by day. But if you
truly know Christ, you can’t be happy sitting on the bench or in the
stands. You want to be in the game. Our text reveals the kind of person
God uses. You may think that God uses people who have impressive
abilities and gifts. While spiritual gifts play a part, they are not the
main feature in being used by God. As we saw in the national news
recently, a man may be a gifted Christian leader and yet bring terrible
disgrace to the name of Christ. Or you may think that God uses a person
who has been to seminary and has a lot of training. While seminary has
its place, I know of many men who graduated from seminary, but they’re
not even in the stadium, let alone in the game!
Or you may think that God uses a person who has a great knowledge of the
Bible. While, as we saw last week, being careful students of the Bible
is very important, it is not the main thing. You may be a renowned Bible
scholar, and yet be detrimental to the cause of Jesus Christ.
The simple message of our text is that God uses cleansed people, who are
defined by two characteristics:
God uses cleansed people who flee sin and pursue
godliness
(2
Timothy 2:20-22 The Person God Uses)
A large (great) house - Spurgeon expands on this phrase
writing...
The apostle compares the church to a
great house. We feel sure he is not speaking of the world; it did
not occur to him to speak about the world, and it would have been
altogether superfluous to tell us that in the world there are all sorts
of people,-everybody knows that. The church is a great house belonging
to a great personage, for the church is the house of God, according to
the promise- "I will dwell in them, and walk in them." The church is the
temple in which the Lord is worshipped, the palace in which he rules; it
is his castle, and place of defense for his truth, the armoury out of
which he supplies his people with weapons. The church is God's mansion
house in which he abides- "This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell
for I have desired it." There it is that he rests in his love, and in
infinite condescension manifests himself as he doth not unto the world.
King Solomon built for himself a house in the forest of Lebanon, and
behold, the Lord hath of living stones builded for himself a far more
glorious house wherein he may abide. It is a great house because it is
the house of the great God. Who can be so great as he?
It is a great house because planned and designed upon a great scale. I
fear that some who live in the house have no idea how great it is. They
have a very faint notion of its length and breadth. The great. thoughts
of God are far beyond their most elevated conception, so that he might
say to them as he has said to others, "My thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord." The palace of
the King of kings is "exceeding magnifical," and for spaciousness far
excelleth all the abodes of earthly princes. We read of the golden
palace of Nero, that it reached from hill to hill, and enclosed lakes
and stream and gardens beneath its wondrous roof; but behold, the Lord
has stretched the line of his electing grace over nations and kindreds
even to the ends of the earth: his house taketh in a mighty sweep of
humanity. Many are the rooms in the house, and there are dwellers in one
room who have never yet seen any part of the great house but the little
chamber in which they were born, never walked through the marvellous
corridors, or moved in the vast halls which God hath builded with cedar
pillars and cedar beams, and carved work of heavenly workmanship. Some
good men hardly care to see the long rows of polished columns, quarried
by grace from the rough mass of nature, which now shine resplendent as
monuments of divine love and wisdom. Colossal is the plan of' the
Eternal, the church of God is worthy of the infinite mind. Angels and
principalities delight to study the stupendous plan, and well they may:
as the great Architect unrolls his drawings piece by piece to let them
see the various sections of the complete design, they are struck with
admiration, and exclaim, "Oh the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God." The church is no narrow cottage wherein a few may luxuriate in
bigotry, but it is a great house, worthy of the infinite heart of
Jehovah, worthy of the blood of Jesus, the incarnate God, and worthy of
the power of the ever-blessed Spirit.
It is a great house because it has been erected at great cost, and with
great labor. The cost of this mansion who can tell? It is a price beyond
price, for God has given his only-begotten Son-he had but one, and
heaven could not match him-that he might redeem unto himself a people
who should be his dwelling-place for ever. Solomon's temple, now that
they have laid bare a part of the foundations, even though it be in
utter ruin, astonishes all beholders, as they mark the enormous size and
accurate adjustment of the stones; what must it have been in its glory?
What cost was lavished on that glorious house. But think of the labor
and the skill, the divine art and engineering with which Jehovah has
hewn out of the rock of sinful nature the stones with which he builds up
his spiritual house. What energy has the Holy Spirit displayed! What
resurrection power! Harder than any granite we were by nature, yet has
he cut us away from the rock of which we formed a part, and fashioned
and squared us, and made us to be builded together for an habitation of
God, through the Spirit. Tell it to the praise of the glory of his
grace, that the Lord's omnipotent power and boundless wealth of love are
revealed in his church. When our eyes shall see the church of God at
last in all her beauty descending out of heaven from God, having the
glory of God, and her light Like unto a stone most precious, even like
unto a jasper stone; when we shall see that the length and the breadth
and the height of it are equal; when we shall see its deep foundations
laid in the eternal purpose, and its walls upbuilt with lofty pinnacles
of glory, high as the divine person of her Lord; and when we shall mark
its wondrous compass, broad enough to hold the glory and honor of the
nations,-then shall we shout for joy as we behold the riches and the
power and the splendor of the great King of kings, who has builded for
himself this great house.
It is a great house, again, because its household arrangements are
conducted on a great scale. You know the country people, when there is
some rich lord living in the village, speak always of his mansion as
"the great house." It is the great house for which those bullocks are
being fattened, and those sheep and lambs will be consumed at the great
house, for there are many in the family, and none are allowed to want.
Solomon kept a great house. When you read the account of the daily
provision for his table you see that it was a great house indeed, a vast
and truly royal establishment. Ay, but neither for quality nor quantity
could Solomon's palace match with the great house of God in its plenty.
Speak of fine flour-behold, he has given us angels' food: speak of royal
dainties-behold, the Lord hath given us fat things full of marrow, wines
on the lees well refined. What a perpetual feast doth the Lord Jesus
keep up for all his followers. If any of them hunger it is not because
their rations are stinted; if there be any complaining it is not because
the Master's oxen and fatlings are not freely provided. Ah, no; to every
man there is a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine dealt out, even
as David dealt it out in the day when he removed the ark unto the hill
of Zion. Glory be to God, he hath said, "Eat, O friends; drink, yea,
drink abundantly, O beloved." In this mountain shall the hand of the
Lord rest, and he will make unto all nations a feast of fat things.
Behold, his oxen and fatlings are killed, all things are ready. It is a
great house, where great sinners are fed on great dainties, and filled
with the great goodness of the Lord.
It is a great house for the number of its inhabitants. How many have
lived beneath that roof-tree for ages. "Lord," say they like a great
host, "thou hast been our dwelling place throughout all generations."
God is the home of his people, and his church is the home of God; and
what multitudes are dwelling there now. Not only the companies that we
know of, with whom it is our delight to meet for solemn worship, but all
over the world the Lord hath a people who dwell in the midst of his
church; and, though men have disfigured their Master's house by chalking
up odd signs over some of the rooms, and calling them by other names
than those of the owner, yet the Lord's people are all one church, and
to whatever part or party they may seem to belong, if Christ is in them
they belong to him of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named, and they make up but one spiritual house. What a swarm there is
of the Lord's children, and yet not one of the family remains unfed. The
church is a great house wherein thousands dwell, yea, a number that no
man can number.
Once more, it is a great house, because of its importance. People speak
of "the great house" in our remoter counties because to the whole
neighborhood it bears a special relationship, being connected with some
of its most vital interests: county politics and police, dignity and
wealth find their center at "the great house." The church is a great
house because it is God's hospice, where he distributes bread and wine
to refresh the weary, and entertains wayfarers that else had been lost
in the storm. It is God's hospital, into which he takes the sick, and
there he nourishes them till they renew their youth like the eagle's. It
is God's great pharos with its lantern flashing forth a directing ray so
that wanderers far away may be directed to the haven of peace. "Out of
Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." It is the seat of
God's magistracy, for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of
the house of David. Behold, the Lord hath set his King upon his holy
hill of Zion, and thence shall the power of his scepter go forth to the
ends of the earth. The great house of the church is the university for
teaching all nations, the library wherein the sacred oracles are
preserved, the treasury wherein the truth is deposited, and the registry
of new-born heirs of heaven. It is important to heaven as well as to
earth, for its topmost towers reach into glory, and there is in it a
ladder the foot whereof doth rest on earth, but the top thereof doth
reach to heaven, up and down which the angels come and go continually.
Said I not well that the apostle had wisely chosen the figure when he
called the church a great house?
House (3614)
(oikia) is one's residence, home or abode and in context is
a word picture (metaphor) Paul
uses to describe the body of Christ, the Church, an interpretation with
which most observers are in agreement.
The NT has other
passages that picture the church as a house, dwelling or
building...
1Co 3:9 — For we are God's
fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
1Co 3:16 — Do you not know that you (plural - so he is
speaking not so much of individual believers but of believers as a whole
- the church) are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you (plural)?
Eph 2:22 (note)
— in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling
(katoiketerion) of God in the Spirit.
1Ti 3:15 — but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know
how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
1 Pe 2:5 (note)
— you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual
house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Gold and silver
vessels...vessels of wood and of earthenware - The interpretation of
these two general groups lacks a clear consensus.
(1) Some believe Paul refers to
true and false believers (professors)...
The Holman NT Commentary
explains "a large house"...
Paul drew another word picture to
illustrate the distinctions between the true believer and the
false follower. He took his imagery from his readers' understanding
of an ordinary house. Such a house would have a variety of utensils and
wares, some of gold and silver, and others of wood and
clay.
Correspondingly, the gold and silver are for noble purposes, while the
wood and clay are reserved for ignoble use. Basically, a person does not
use china cups to feed the dog. Jesus foretold the same truth. The
church is a mixed group, some true to their Lord, others impostors (Mt
13:24-30). Though God knows who belongs to Him and though true disciples
demonstrate a life reflective of His holiness, scattered among them are
unbelievers who deny the truth by their doctrine and their lives. These
are the wood and clay within God's earthly house. Their presence should
not disturb or discourage those who are faithful. (Holman New Testament
Commentary)
Steven Cole on agrees writing that...
Paul uses the illustration of a large
house that has different kinds of vessels. The gold and silver vessels
are kept clean so that they may be used for honorable purposes, such as
dinner parties. The wood and earthenware vessels are used for
dishonorable purposes, perhaps in the kitchen or to carry out garbage or
human waste. They often get broken and are cheaply replaced.
It would be easy to misapply Paul’s point here. If you took his
illustration to its logical conclusion, you could say that the
dishonorable vessels serve a legitimate function and thus are just as
necessary as the gold vessels. But that’s not his point. Rather, the
large house represents the professing or visible church. Some who
associate with the church are truly born again. Others, such as the
false teachers Hymenaeus and Philetus, are probably not born again. They
are the vessels for dishonor. Paul is saying that no one should be a
vessel for dishonor.
To put it another way, he is saying that God isn’t going to use a
garbage pail life to serve the pure gospel to a hungry world. Can you
imagine being a guest at a wealthy home, where you’re seated around a
magnificent table? The kitchen door swings open and the cook comes out
with a garbage pail and starts dishing the food out of the pail. Even
so, God isn’t going to use dirty lives to serve the good news of Christ
to the world. (2
Timothy 2:20-22 The Person God Uses)
Wiersbe
takes it not so much as referring to the individual members of the
Church but of teachers writing that Paul
is not distinguishing between kinds of Christians, but rather is making
a distinction between true teachers of the Word and the false teachers
he described
Wuest writes...
Paul has been speaking of the true
Church, the Mystical Body of Christ made up of believers only. In this
verse he is referring to the visible organized Church on earth, made up
of saved and unsaved.
Spurgeon writes...
it is not such a very great wonder
that there should be persons in the church who are not of the sterling
metal of sincerity, nor of the gold and silver of truth, which endures
the fire. You must not look at Hymenaeus and Philetus as
if they were prodigies, there have been many like them and there will be
many more; these ill weeds grow apace, in all ages they multiply and
increase."
Where, dear brethren, beneath the
skies shall we find absolute purity in any community?
The very first family had a Cain in
it, and there was a wicked Ham even in the select few within the ark. In
the household of the father of the faithful there was an Ishmael; Isaac,
with all his quiet walk with God, must be troubled with an Esau, and ye
know how in the house of Jacob there were many sons that walked not as
they should. When the church of God was in the wilderness and had a
barrier of desert between it and the outer world, yet ye know how Korah,
Dathan, and Abirain were there, beside many other troublers in Israel;
yea, even amidst the most select part of the visible church of God, in
the priesthood, there were found those that dishonored it. Nadab and
Abihu were slain with fire before the Lord; and Hophni and Phinehas died
in battle, because they had made themselves vile, though God's anointed
priests. Even when our divine Master had formed for himself
A little garden, walled around,
Chosen, and made peculiar ground
in which there were but twelve choice
trees, yet one of them bore evil fruit.
"I have chosen you twelve, and one of
you is a devil." In the great field which Christ has sown, tares will
spring up among the wheat, for the enemy takes pains to sow them;
neither is it possible for us to root them up. In the king's garden
briars will wow, thorns also and thistles will the most sacred soil
yield to us. Even the lilies of Christ grow among thorns. You cannot
keep the best of churches altogether pure, for though the Lord himself
has prepared a vineyard, and make a winepress and built a wall about it,
yet the foxes come and spoil the vines; and though our great Lord has an
orchard which yieldeth rare fruit, yet when he cometh to visit it he
finds a barren fig tree, digged about and dunged it is true, but barren
still.
Look to Christ's fold on earth and
behold there are wolves in sheep's clothing there; look to the net which
his servants draw to shore, and there are both good and bad fish
therein. Yea, lift your eyes even to the skies, and though there be
myriads of stars, yet ye shall mark wandering stars among them, and
meteors which are and are not, and are quenched in the blackness of
darkness for ever. Until we shall come to the heaven of the Most High we
must expect to find chaff mixed with the wheat, dross with the gold,
goats with the sheep, and dead flies with the ointment; only let us see
to it that we be not of that ill character, but be precious in the sight
of the Lord. (from
2 Timothy 2:20,21 The Great House and the Vessels)
(2) Others believe that Paul is
referring to two classes of believers...
Nelson's Study Bible interprets Paul's metaphor of a
large house...
to describe two categories of believers. Gold and
silver represent believers who are faithful and useful in serving
Christ. Wood and clay represent believers who fail to
honor the Lord (1Co 3:12-15). (Bolding added)
MacArthur says that...
Articles made of
gold or silver are more
valuable and presentable than those of wood or earthenware. The former
would be prominently displayed as decorations or used for serving
important guests as a gesture of honor. The inferior articles, on the
other hand, were strictly utilitarian. They were common, plain,
replaceable, and some were used for garbage and human waste of the house. They were
used for those duties that were never seen and were kept out of sight as
much as possible.
Honor and dishonor do
not refer to true and false Christians, respectively. Jesus makes clear
in the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt. 13:24-30) and in His
teaching about the sheep and goats judgment of the nations (Matt.
25:31-46) that the visible church on earth will contain both
unbelievers and believers until He returns and orders the final
separation. But Paul is not speaking about that distinction. (see notes
Romans 12:3;
12:6,
1Co 12:17,18)... Honor and dishonor therefore refer to the
ways in which genuine believers are found useful to the Lord in
fulfilling the work to which He has called them. In this sense, all
believers should be, but are not always, vessels of honor. (MacArthur,
J. 2 Timothy. Chicago: Moody Press
or
Logos)
Alexander Maclaren expands on and qualifies the idea of two
classes of believers...
‘In a great house there are
vessels of gold and silver.’ There they stand, ranged on some
buffet, precious and sparkling, and taken care of; and away down in
kitchens or sculleries there are vessels of wood, or of cheap
common crockery and pottery. Now, says Paul, that is like the Church as
we have to see it in the world.
What is the principle of the
distinction here?
At first sight one might suppose that
it refers to the obvious inequality of intellectual and spiritual and
other gifts or graces bestowed upon men; that the gold and silver are
the more brilliantly endowed in the Christian community, and the wood
and the earth are humbler members who have less conspicuous and less
useful service to perform.
But that is not so. The Bible never
recognizes that distinction which the world makes so much of, between
the largely and slenderly endowed, between the men who do what are
supposed to be great things, and those who have to be content with
humbler service. Its principle is, ‘small service is true service whilst
it lasts,’ and although there are-diversities of operation, the man who
has the largest share of gifts stands, in Heaven’s estimate, no whit
above the man who has the smallest. All are on the one level; in God’s
great army the praise and the honours do not get monopolized by the
general officers, but they come down to the privates just as abundantly,
if they are equally faithful.
And then another consideration which shows us that it will not do to
take gold and silver on the one hand, and wood and earth
on the other, as marking the cleavage between the largely and the
slenderly endowed members of the Church, is the fact that the way to get
out of the one class and into the other, as we shall have to see
presently, is by moral purity and not by the increase of intellectual or
other endowments.
The man that cleanses himself comes
out of the category of ‘wood’ and ‘earth,’ and passes into that of ‘gold
and silver.’ Thus the basis of the distinction, the ground of
classification, lies altogether in goodness or badness, purity or
impurity, worthiness or unworthiness. They who are in the highest degree
pure are the ‘gold and silver.’ They who are less so, or not at all so,
are the ‘wooden’ and the ‘earthen’ vessels.
The same line of demarcation is
suggested in another passage which employs several of the same phrases
and ideas that are found in my text. We read in it about the foundation
which is laid, and about the teachers building upon it various elements.
Now these elements, on the one hand ‘gold, silver, and precious stones,’
and on the other hand ‘wool, hay, and stubble,’ may be the doctrines
that these teachers proclaimed, or perhaps they may be the converts that
they brought in. But in any case notice the parallelism, not only in
regard to the foundation, but in regard to the distinction of the
component parts of the structure — ‘gold and silver,’ as here,
and the less valuable list headed, as here, by ‘wood; and then,
by reason of the divergence of the metaphor, ‘hay and stubble,’
in the one case, and ‘earthenware’ in the other. But the suggestion of
both passages is that the Church, the visible institution, has in it,
and will always have in it, those who, by their purity and consistency
of Christian life, answer to the designation of the gold and
the silver, and those who, by their lack of that, fail into the
other class, of wooden and earthen vessels. (2
Timothy 2:20, 21 The Great House and Its Vessels)
Harry Ironside feels that this
refers to two classes of Christians writing that...
Christians are like those vessels.
There is a sad mixed condition in Christendom today, saved and unsaved,
often united in the same church-fellowship. There are those who profess
to know the Lord, and those who have never confessed Him; and people
wonder why there is so little power and blessing. If you want to please
the Lord who has made you His own, you must separate yourself from all
that is unclean. Then you will be "a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and
meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work."
Regardless of one's interpretation, in
the following verses it is clear that God's desire for all believers is
that they should be vessels of honor.
AND SOME TO HONOR SOME TO DISHONOR: Kai a men eis timen a de eis
atimian: (Ro 9:21-23
notes)
To reiterate, there are primarily two ways one could interpret this passage. (1)
There is a large house, the church, in which there are some believers
who are honorable and useful and some who are dishonorable and useless
to the Lord. Although this is a possibility, I favor the second
possibility. (2) The distinction is not between believers but
between believers and unbelievers. Both can be present in a large house.
The context shows that some who had been exposed to the truth, strayed
from the truth and perpetrated false teachings.
The Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary
has an interesting analysis writing...
Having drawn at some length the
contrast between true and false teachers (vv. 14-19), Paul now points up
a second contrast--that between noble and ignoble vessels. Both will be
found in the church. In a large house where a wealthy man lives,
there are not only articles of gold and silver, but also of wood and
clay. Those that are gold certainly receive honor by the
owner. Some less eminent articles are of silver. But others are
of wood (e.g., wooden bowls for holding flour) or clay
(e.g., pottery). The latter two have a more mundane use.
We find the same two expressions in
Romans 9:21 (note).
In the verses that follow there we find that the former vessels are
"objects of [God's] mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory" (v.23),
whereas the latter are "objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction"
(v.22).
On the basis of this, as well as the context here in 2 Timothy, some
scholars feel that the articles for ignoble purposes are the false
teachers in the church (v16,
17,
18),
who are destined for eternal destruction. In that case, "if a man
cleanses himself from the latter" (v.21)
means that Timothy must expel from the church the ignoble members.
Another interpretation is less
drastic. It holds that in the local congregation are members who are
prepared for "noble purposes" and others who are fitted for more menial
tasks. Both have their place and function in the church. Verse 21 would
then mean that the individual who cleanses himself from "the latter"
(perhaps false teachings) will be "an instrument for noble purposes." He
will be "made holy", will be "useful to the Master," and will
be "prepared to do any good work."
Both of these interpretations seem
valid. Since we cannot be sure which one Paul had in mind, we can make
both applications.
To amplify the differences of interpretation on this passage let me
quote from two well known and highly respected expositors both of which
make fairly dogmatic statements!
Warren Wiersbe flatly states
that Paul ...
He is not distinguishing between
kinds of Christians, but rather is making a distinction between true
teachers of the Word and the false teachers he described (2 Tim.
2:16-18). (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor
or
Logos)
John MacArthur with just as
much assurance writes...
Honor and dishonor do not refer to
true and false Christians, respectively...Honor and dishonor therefore
refer to the ways in which genuine believers are found useful to the
Lord in fulfilling the work to which He has called them. (MacArthur,
J. 2 Timothy. Chicago: Moody Press
or
Logos)
The New Geneva Study Bible
explains that verses 20-21
"provide an example from everyday
life of the importance of holiness—being set apart for a noble (godly)
task." (New Geneva study Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Knight reasons...
That some have gone astray from the
truth (v18) provides the setting for referring to vessels "unto
dishonor". Therefore, the large house is to be understood as the
Christian community in its broadest sense, within which are false
teachers.... The analogy could represent society in general
(Chrysostom), but that the imagery of the house has been used of the
Christian community in 1 Tim. 3:15 favors that understanding here
(Alford, Calvin)....Therefore, gold and silver vessels are
esteemed as honorable because they are used for honorable functions.
Similarly, wood and earthenware vessels are regarded as
dishonorable because they are used for garbage or excrement and are
sometimes thrown out with their contents. The implication is that there
may indeed be vessels like the false teachers in the professing
Christian community, but their activity indicates that they are
dishonorable. (Knight, G. W. The Pastoral Epistles : A Commentary
on the Greek text Page 417. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Carlisle, England:
Eerdmans)
The Preacher's Commentary
cautions us to...
be careful not to press this
metaphor too far. The picture is of the utensils in a home of affluence.
Some are used for special occasions (“honor”); some are used for menial
tasks (“dishonor”). The contrast between the silver goblet used for a
toast and the garbage bucket comes to mind. The context would indicate
that Paul is still dealing with the contrast between true and false
teachers, with Hymenaeus and Philetus still in mind. (Briscoe,
D. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. The Preacher's Commentary Series. New
Testament. 2003. Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
