Empty Pans Still Need Cleaning

2 Timothy 2-Part 11
Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22


LET IT GLOW

Paul is direct and to the point with his advice to Timothy and us. He doesn't beat around the bush, but comes right out and gives directions to his son in the faith. What does he say? Flee youthful lusts. What are youthful lusts?
David Guzik describes them as "the sort of desires and temptations that are especially prominent when someone is an adolescent or young adult. Sexual temptation, illicit pleasure of the flesh, and a longing for fame and glory often mark one's youth."

Charles Swindoll describes youthful lusts as "those things that rob a mature person of his or her contentment-lust for money, power or control, admiration, achievement. People consumed by these lusts become impatient, dogmatic, competitive, argumentative, harsh, self-imposing, and stubborn."

Jerry Falwell said, "The youthful desires for fame, fortune and fun are to be run from."

Paul is telling Timothy how to cleanse himself.
Guzik said, "Cleansing must first cut off the 'supply' of 'dirt'! You can wash yourself five times a day, but if you keep going back to the mud puddle, you will stay dirty!"

The first thing mentioned here is flee youthful lusts. Don't entertain them. Don't challenge them. Don't try and endure them. This good advice comes from Guzik.
I certainly don't want to fall into sin and ruin my testimony for the Lord. (My sins will find me out eventually.)

Philippians 1:27a in the NIV says: Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.


LET IT GROW

When I was a child growing up on the farm and with five people in my family, we always saved our food scraps. I would take them outside after dinner and give them to our dog, Buster. (We didn't buy dog food.) I recall one particular time that I put the pan down and let him lick it clean. I never told Mom, though. (I'd have a fit if my children had done that.) Although the pan was an empty vessel and licked clean, it definitely was not sanitary for human use. That empty pan need cleaning, a good scouring,  before it could be used. (I don't recall if Mom caught onto what I did or not. Probably so.) I'm the same as that dirty pan, I need cleaning, too.

Swindoll's New Testament Insights on 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus states Paul's four cleansing agents:

• righteousness that reaches outward to do what is right by others; 
• faith that reaches upward to place trust in God;
• love that extends grace to others by seeking their highest, greatest good;  
• peace that is experienced within by resting in the friendship we share with God.  

We are never meant to walk the path of righteousness alone. Paul encouraged those who wished to cleanse themselves to find others of like mind.

Follow means to pursue, to seek after eagerly, earnestly endeavor to acquire. (Thayer's Lexicon)
How eargerly do I seek after righteousness, faith, love, and peace?

"For God to be able to use us as vessels, we must be empty, clean, and available. He will take us and fill us and use us for His glory. But if we are filled with sin or defiled by disobedience, He will first have to purge us, and that might not be an enjoyable experience," stated Warren Wiresbe.


LET IT GO

Let go of youthful lusts and flee from them.

 Persue after righteousness, faith, love, and peace toward God and others.