Timothy- "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, [and] prepared unto every good work."
2 Cor - "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
These are good verses to put next to each other.
We hold power in earthen vessels, we want to be vessels for honorable use . . . I think that means here, in this lifetime.
Another question . . . my father in law.
He was raised by very abusive Morman parents, and became very angry and bitter against God throughout his lifetime. When he was 74, after 2 years of doctors saying, We don't know why he is still alive, since he has . . . Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Emphysema, Congestive Heart whatever that is, multiple strokes, I forget, there was more, oh, ongoing pneumonia, I don't remember. But my wife and I kept saying, Please God, don't let him leave this world without You!
He received Jesus, and 3 weeks later he was with Him.
Here's my question . . .
3 weeks a Christian. Over one of those weeks nearly completely non-responsive, just slightly. A squeeze of the hand when I asked him to forgive me for not having taken better care of him in years previous. That was a work performed in his faith. Not much, but there.
There couldn't have been much. He was almost entirely gone by then. Given that God knew all of that, and presuming that God would not require of him more that he could do, can we actually say that though we see little in his life, just the same, Jesus may say to him, Well done you good and faithful servant! You did everything I wanted you to do!
We can argue, he only came in at the last hour! But if it's God's pleasure to make those who labored only the last few minutes equal to those who bore the heat of the day, what shall I say against it? Don't be generous with what is Yours?
We can talk about, he wasted his whole life on himself! Or we could say, it took his whole life for the love of God to overcome the hatred and terror he was raised with.
We can argue that God knows those who belong closest, but I'd reply that Jesus died so we can all be close to Him.
Much love!