And I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin. Isaiah 1:25
Did you know you have dross? You do. So do I. But God wants us to get rid of it… in fact He wants to get rid of it for us. We will be far better off without dross. So what is dross? It’s not a word that we use in everyday office conversation, but it is a perfectly good word, even if it names a perfectly bad subject.
Let’s take a look at some of the dictionary meanings for the word ‘dross’, to see if we can learn why we should be purged of our dross. The first dictionary meaning is waste or foreign matter, or an impurity. No wonder God wants us purged of dross… a Christian should have nothing to do with impure things. The world hardly notices the filth that it wallows in, but the Christian should shun it. Those things that are foreign to godliness should have no place in our lives.
Another definition of dross is something that is base, trivial, or inferior. That describes the world very well, doesn’t it? All of the wisdom, literature, and information of the world is dross compared to the Bible. The Word of God must have highest priority, relegate everything else to the trivial position that God recognizes.
The third definition of dross helps us to see how God purges us. Dross is the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal. When the metal, gold for example, is heated to its melting point, the impurities rise to the surface where they can be easily skimmed away, leaving the metal a little closer to a pure state. The trials, tribulations, pains, and sorrows that come along our way are the crucible in which God heats us to the melting point, where the worthless things that we get mixed up in are discarded.
Is God working on your dross today? You will be the purer and better for it. -Jim MacIntosh