Ignoble, that’s catfood in the china.
Not a word we use much today– ignoble. Among several meanings, ignoble refers to something that represents low aims, low quality or that which is simply not noble—of low rank. Shooting low and living below our calling—ignoble. If we have personal relationship with God through Jesus, we haven’t been called to live there, instead we are called to the character of highest nobility, to have life aims that are high—to aim high in response to high calling. This idea of nobility in our culture has come to be something of a sarcasm. We identify efforts that are lofty, but ill advised as “that was noble, but…” In other words, if we say you are noble, we are thinking Don Quixote– jousting at windmills– efforts that weren’t really achievable after all.
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy (chapter 2:20-21), he talks about this idea of noble and ignoble—: “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
To put this in more modern terms we can read the same passage from The Message: “In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets-some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.”
The difference between the really prized dishes and those that are used for recycling and waste is the use to which they are dedicated. You can use your wedding china for cat food if you want to—and you can serve thanksgiving dinner on paper plates, but the vessel just doesn’t fit the use.
This passage tells us two things that are very important about nobility and honor. First, we are called to be the fine china and silver goblet type of vessel. This is not a commentary on personal taste, but a metaphor for the quality and elevation of our aim in life. Our association with Christ has resulted in an opportunity for usefulness that far surpasses any previous purpose, and rests not on our own identity, but on the identity of the Master. He chose us to serve his high and truly noble purposes. The second important point of this passage is that honor and dishonor, nobility and ignobility is our choice. We choose to cleanse ourselves of purposes and uses for our lives that fall beneath God’s standard and purpose. “If a man” cleanses himself from a lower purpose, he will be fit for use by the Master. In our information overload, recreation crazed, self-centered society, it is really easy to get attached to lots of good things, and some really bad ones. We have to continually ask if we are full of items of his choosing, or simply full of something that falls short of his purpose. Life purpose is lived out in a series of choices about the small things, resulting in a pattern that we fill our whole person with– heart, soul, mind and strength.
What is the highest purpose for your life? Are you setting aside your time, your energy and focusing your life on its highest purpose? Is the aim of your life something that the Highest Noble can use to sip tea? Have you been called a Don Quixote, and been badgered into accepting lower goals? Or are you pressing on to fulfill your calling? Even in the radical world of church planting, we can sometimes settle for what is easiest. A new church is never easy, but sometimes we choose the easy way.
Compassion by Design is set aside to serve those leaders who want to win neighborhoods through community service, building churches that are truly missional at their core, resulting in community transformation. We want to change peoples’ mind about who Jesus is, and who His people are. Since evangelicals haven’t really been doing that on a large scale domestically for fifty years or more, maybe it’s a harder way, or at least a way that we have to relearn. To us, and we hope to God, it’s fine china.