Jars of Clay {2 Corinthians 4}
8:00 AM
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
I
could hardly contain myself when I realized I was writing on 2 Corinthians 4! The end of this chapter has been my favorite
for a long time.
“But
we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is
from God and not from us.” Clay jars
were containers created by potters who took raw clay, shaped and molded it and
made it into the desired jar. Then it
was baked until it was hard. Then they
were decorated for whatever purpose the maker had in mind. I learned that in ancient times, sacred
scrolls or valuable documents were rolled up and placed inside. In fact, the
dead sea scrolls were found in clay jars. Clay
jars may have been beautiful, and they contained some pretty important items, but
had one thing in common – they were breakable.
The contents could not be forever housed in jars of clay – they were
temporary holding places.
According
to 2 Corinthians 4:7, we are like “jars of clay” with a “treasure” inside. This means that our physical bodies are like
those jars. We are made from clay (Genesis
2:7; Psalm 103:14). Our bodies come in
all shapes and sizes, each designed by God for whatever purpose He desires
(Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:21). Our bodies
are beautiful, functional, and breakable. Our bodies are temporary holding places
for the treasure God has given us, namely “the light of the gospel that
displays the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). The knowledge of the gospel is rich in truth!
God
entrusts each of us with this treasure that will last forever (2 Peter
1:3). 2 Corinthians 4:6 defines that
treasure as “the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of
Christ.” The treasure that we are
privileged to hold, is the knowledge of our Creator through His Son, Jesus
Christ (John 14:26). We were dead in our
sin and destined for destruction, God made a way for us to be made new (2
Corinthians 5:17). Our physical “jars of
clay” will be resurrected one day to be glorified, eternal bodies (1
Corinthians 15:20-23). God extends an
invitation for “whosoever will” to come to Him while still in these earthly
bodies. This knowledge and resulting
relationship with God are the greatest treasurers any earthly vessel can hold!
I
don’t know about you, but my eyesight isn’t what it used to be. I can’t see the way I used to. Paul is old now as he writes to the
Corinthians. He’s been imprisoned and
beaten. His body has endured quite a
bit. His strength doesn’t hold up the
way it used to, and he is much older. He
admits that this is a threat to his faith and joy and courage.
But
he doesn’t lose heart! Why?
The
renewing of his heart comes from looking at something he cannot see. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but
on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is
eternal.”
We
“look” at these unseen things through the gospel. We strengthen our hearts and we renew our
courage, by fixing our gaze on the invisible, objective truth that we see in
the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face.
“For
God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our
hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the
face of Christ.”
We see this as it shines in our hearts through the gospel. Whether we understood this or not, we became Christians when this happened. And as with Paul, we need to go on seeing with the eyes of the heart, so that we do not lose heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ypK7r4h-o
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