Dross is waste materials that are separated when metals are purified by smelting. Smelting involves the heating and melting of ores. Intense heat causes the dross to separate from the ore and rise to the top where it forms a scum and can be extracted, leaving a pure metal base.
In the Bible, dross is often used as a metaphor for a spiritual contaminant in God’s people.
The Bible says God judges wicked people who corrupt the whole of society and removes them like dross is removed from molten metal:
“All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross; therefore, I love your statutes” [1]
“Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel; take away the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.” [2]
Dross describes what is base or worthless.
God purges worthless dross from His people by a spiritual refining process of discipline.
“I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.” [3]
“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.” [4]
“Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.” [5]
“Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.” [6]
We all have spiritual dross in our lives—unhealthy and unwelcome practices and ideas that need to be removed. Believers undergo a refining process that proves the authenticity of our faith: “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” [7]
When a metal refiner works with gold and silver, he repeats the smelting process over and over. Each time he raises the heat, he skims away more dross and increases the quality and purity of the refined metals. When God turns up the heat in our lives, and we experience a particularly fiery trial, we can take comfort in knowing that God’s refining fire is removing the dross in our lives for a good purpose. The Lord is refining us according to His holy will, and His goal is purity: “This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” [8]
“He [God] knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” [9]
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” [10]
“Because they do not regard the works of the Lord nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up.” [11]
“How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!” [12]
“That when the wicked sprouted up like grass and all who did iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.” [13]
[1] Psalm 119:119
[2] Proverbs 25:4-5
[3] Isaiah 1:25–26
[4] Isaiah 48:10
[5] Daniel 12:10
[6] Malachi 3:2–3
[7] 1 Peter 1:6–7
[8] Zechariah 13:9
[9] Job 23:10
[10] 1 Peter 5:10
[11] Psalm 28:5
[12] Psalm 73:19
[13] Psalm 92:7
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