2 Timothy 2:20

The connexion is; -False teachers may do great damage; but the real truth, the strong main structure, is uninjured and stable, while at the same time there may be some bad work in it as well. And to turn from the structure to the furniture, we must distinguish similarly between the good and the bad portions, the valuable and the worthless.

But in a great house Though is better than either -but" A.V. or -now" R.V. Wordsworth explains well of the -imperfections and blemishes which exist in the Visible Church on earth," and quotes Augustine -in congregatione Christiana," Serm. 15; where -congregatio" is in the large sense in which St Jerome for example uses it -Ecclesia enim congregatio vocatur" (inProverb. c. 30), and in which -congregation" is used in our English version of the XXXIX. Articles -Ecclesia Christi visibilis est coetus fidelium." Our Lord's parable of the Drag-net is the best parallel to this description of the -mixed and imperfect condition of the Church on earth," Matthew 13:47.