24 KARAT CHRISTIANS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.

Proverbs 27:21

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever shopped for gold?

If so, you know about the word “karat” as in 24 karat gold.

A karat is an indicator of purity in the gold you buy and it is based off a maximum scale of 24 karats. Thus, 24 karat gold would be pure gold, gold free from any impurity. This gold has the highest value. Anything less than 24 karats and you would be buying gold that contained other alloys within it and thus less valuable. For example, 18 karat gold would be 75 percent gold; 12 karat gold would only be 50 percent.

Any study in refining gold would show that it needs liquefied by heating in a furnace in order to start to remove impurities. Once in a molten state, borax and soda ash are added to the metal to separate the gold from other metals that may be within it. A sample is then taken into a lab where it is tested for purity.

A similar process is used to purify silver but a crucible is used instead of a furnace. The silver is placed in the crucible and heated until it liquefies. Since it is a heavier element, silver will sink to the bottom of the liquefied metal and can be drained and separated from the impurities within it.   

Solomon touched on this matter of metal purification in today’s proverb and I believe God’s word is sending us a deeper message regarding His desire for all of us to become refined and purified as well. Look at this verse:

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise. Proverbs 27:21

Gold and silver are only purified when they are placed under heat and melted down. Then once free from impurities, they can be molded into something of value. As mentioned earlier, that might mean 24 karat gold or gold free from any contamination.

The Lord wants to refine us and purify us like the precious metals that Solomon mentioned but instead of throwing us in a furnace or a crucible, He uses His holy fire to melt us via His Spirit. The heat of the Spirit’s flame separates the impurities (sin and wickedness) from us and allows the Lord to reshape and mold us to be the kind of people He longs for us to be, let’s call it 24 karat Christians.

Of course, the big difference between us and precious metals is that metals have no choice when it comes to whether or not they are purified. They are at the mercy of the people who own them. Conversely, the Lord, the Creator and Master of all mankind, places the choice to be purified in the hands of each and every person. Thus, we are only purified when we allow the Lord to remove the impurities from our lives. When we do submit, the Holy Spirit works to refine us through the searing heat of a holy fire that only comes from the Lord so that our sin and wickedness, like the self-centered praise Solomon talks about, can be melted and separated from us, and we can be remolded and shaped to be the pure and righteous people He wants us to be.

It’s as simple as that.

Now, before I close, I need to tell you that there’s bad news and good news in the matter of our purification.

First, the bad news. For we will never be 24 karat Christians. This is because we will never be perfect in this life on earth. We are destined to always be works in progress, continuously subjected to the Lord’s refining and purifying.

That leads me to the good news. For there is always room for us to grow and become better people in the Lord than we were before. Each day offers us an opportunity to be further refined and conformed to be more in the image of the Lord who made us and saved us. This truth keeps any one day from being mundane and boring. Rather, each day offers us amazingly exciting opportunities to live and love and learn, led and guided, and yes, refined and purified by the Holy Spirit.

Today and every day, let us rejoice and be glad in this as we subject ourselves to the Refiner’s holy fire and strive to be more like 24 karat Christians in all we do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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