But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 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.
Last week, we looked at the opening of 2 Corinthians 4 where Paul talked about four different groups of people and how to keep from losing heart in life. Paul continues that same theme in the rest of this chapter…
The Paradox
In verses 7 through 12, Paul introduces a paradox. Remembering this paradox in life is another way we keep from losing heart. In a way, if we hold to only one side of the paradox or the other, we end up losing heart. But it is in the tension that we keep our hearts together.
What do I mean by that? Well, let’s look at the paradox Paul talks about to see how this works.
Paul says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
What is the treasure Paul is talking about? The treasure is Christ whom Paul has just mentioned in verse 6.
What are the jars of clay that Paul is talking about? He makes clear in verse 10 that “jars of clay” is a metaphorical reference to our human bodies.
Some well-meaning Christians try to get us to focus solely on Christ. And of course, it is right to focus our attention on Christ. But if we fail to acknowledge that we hold the treasure of Christ in jars of clay we will be led to despair.
When I was younger, I was very much attracted to the teaching of victorious Christian living. But the problem with so much of this teaching is that it fails to recognize that we all live in human bodies. We are weak. We do not walk in victory all the time.
Paul recognized this. He says, “Yes, we have a treasure, but we hold that treasure in jars of clay.” That is the perfect balance.
If you have accepted Christ into your life, then he truly lives in you by his spirit. You have a great treasure, but you hold that treasure in a jar of clay, in a human body.
There are other people in this world who do not recognize the spiritual realm at all. They say that the material universe is all there is. Human beings are merely bodies. Such people tend to think that science can explain everything, or that science, once perfected, will explain everything.
This belief also leads to despair. Why? Because we long for something more. We have a desire for something, or for someone really, a desire that cannot be satisfied in this material realm.
So, Christian triumphalism leads to despair because we do not and cannot live up to it. Materialism also leads to despair because we long for something more. But Paul gives us the answer. The answer is seen in the “now but not yet” of the kingdom. We have the treasure of Christ now, but we have that treasure in jars of clay, earthly bodies, that are weak, decaying and dying. The kingdom of Christ is not yet fully realized, but it will be some day.
The rest of what Paul says in verses 8 through 12 is simply an elaboration on this fundamental paradox. I think Paul was deeply influenced by Hebrew parallelism. It is the most fundamental feature of Hebrew poetry. And it is a lovely feature because it does not utilize rhyme; and because it does not use rhyme it can easily be translated from one language to another.
We find examples of parallelism throughout the Psalms. For example, we have in Psalm 2:4…
He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn:
the Lord shall have them in derision’
And in Psalm 37:6 we read…
He shall make thy righteousness as clear as the light;
and thy just dealing as the noon-day.
The second line adds nothing, logically, to the first; the same idea is repeated for emphasis using different words.
Paul does this often and these verses in 2 Corinthians 4 are an example. In verses 8 to 12 he repeats the essential paradox he has already enunciated, but he uses different words to describe the same thing. This is like parallelism, but instead of repeating the same idea twice, Paul, in these verses, repeats the idea 8 times.
Paul’s expression of this paradox raises a question for me. Given that we have this treasure, Christ, in jars of clay, what happens in everyday life when your jar gets jostled? What spills out?
For example, one day many years ago I was driving along with a teenage friend of mine. We got where we were going. I parked the car. And then I pressed the button to close the passenger side car window. Somehow it all happened so quickly that unintentionally I squashed my friend’s fingers in between the window and the frame of the window. Understandably, he uttered numerous expletives, until I lowered the window again. Even then, of course, it took him a while to recover. Eventually, his fingers returned to normal.
But here’s the thing… I had never heard my friend utter any coarse words before, and yet he did on that occasion.
So, I ask, “What comes out of you when your jar of clay gets jostled?” I think those are the times that reveal whether we really have Jesus living in us or not.
Perhaps I have given an unfair example. But I can think of many Christians I have known who have gone through physical suffering and, in those times, Jesus has shined forth more brilliantly from their lives than when they were walking across a plain of ease.
Why is that? Well, Paul tells us in verses 13 through 15 about three secrets that allowed Christ to shine forth more brilliantly from his own life in times of suffering.
Three Secrets
Paul’s first secret is faith. It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.”
Paul quotes Psalm 116:10 from the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. In the NIV it reads, “I trusted in the Lord when I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted’.”
That’s the real challenge: trusting in the Lord in the middle of suffering, even when deliverance seems nowhere to be found.
Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.”
I saw a picture of a lychgate in England recently with that quote from Job emblazoned on it. A lychgate is a little entrance gate to a churchyard with a roof over it—a sort of place to seek shelter in the rain. I imagine some people seeing that quote from Job might not want to explore any further, any deeper, into the church.
I still remember a sermon I heard many years ago. It was by the Rev. E. V. Hill, a black pastor from Los Angeles. The sermon was delivered at the funeral of his wife. He said he was preaching her funeral because he was not only her husband but her pastor as well.
I have forgotten most of the sermon, except for two words: “Trust me.” Those are the two words God gave E. V. Hill when his wife died… “Trust me.” Rev. Hill repeated those two words throughout the sermon, until he was screaming them by the end.
I remember that sermon and those two words not simply because E. V. Hill was a great orator. I remember that sermon and those two words because Rev. Hill was the embodiment of his sermon. He was trusting God even when it hurt to do so. Paul did the same.
The second secret that caused Christ to shine forth from Paul’s life even amidst suffering was the resurrection. Paul says, “we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.”
Paul had been a persecutor of Christians because he was convinced that Jesus was a blasphemer. He was convinced that Jesus could not have possibly been divine.
But then Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And once he met him, he was convinced of Jesus’ resurrection and his divinity. And he never lost that confidence.
Not only that, but Paul was certain, that because God raised his Son Jesus from the dead, suffering would not have the last word. He was convinced that because Jesus rose, he too would rise.
Do you have that same hope? If you do, then you will have the strength to persevere no matter what this life throws at you.
The third and final secret of Paul’s life was grace. Paul talks about the grace of God “that is reaching more and more people”.
There is something expansive about grace. It is always reaching out to touch and to change new lives. Paul experienced the grace of God, his unmerited favor, God’s forgiveness of his sins. And having experienced that grace, he felt compelled to take the message of grace to as many people as he could.
As I mentioned in a previous sermon, there are people for whom sin is bigger than grace and then there are people for whom grace is always greater than sin. Paul was in the latter category.
I want to be one of those people for whom grace is always greater. I want our church to be like that. And I would urge you, as someone urged me many years ago: “Go where you can give and receive grace.” Spend your life in that place.
Three Realizations
Finally, based upon all that he has said before, Paul shares with us his readers three realizations in verses 16 to 18.
The first realization is this: “Outwardly we are wasting away, but inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” The first part of that sentence is not hard to realize. All one has to do is examine one’s own life and look at the lives of others around to know that our physical bodies are wasting away. Physically speaking, life seems to move toward entropy, physical disintegration and death. No matter what we human beings have tried in our millions of years of existence on this planet, we have not been able to change this fact. Scientists say that the moment our bodies stop growing, we start dying. It just takes a while to complete the process. So the first part of Paul’s statement is obvious: outwardly we are wasting away.
The second part of Paul’s statement is not so obvious. He says, “Inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” That is not obvious to the human eye. We cannot see people’s souls with our physical eyes. Paul’s conviction in this regard is a matter of faith. But Paul’s faith is not blind. It is based upon the historical fact of the resurrection. Because he met the risen Lord Jesus Christ he believed, and we also can believe, that we are being renewed inwardly day by day.
Paul’s second realization is this: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory.”
Wow! Isn’t that an amazing statement? How can Paul refer to all of his physical sufferings as light and momentary? In chapter 11 of this same letter Paul gives us this summary of his suffering…
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
How can Paul call all of this suffering “light and momentary”? Well, perhaps he was comparing his suffering to that of Jesus on the cross. In comparison to that of Jesus, Paul’s suffering was light, and so is ours.
But Paul also knew that his suffering was momentary. No suffering, however great, lasts forever. We can all be comforted by that thought.
But Paul believed in something even greater than this. He believed that his light and momentary troubles were, through Christ, achieving an eternal weight of glory. That is something that we must, as Christians, always weigh in the balance against the suffering of this life. We must realize, as Paul did, that the suffering we are going through now cannot compare to the eternal weight of glory that will come to us on the day we see Christ face to face.
I found it striking, that when I visited Corinth in 1984, as we stood amidst the ruins, the words of this verse from Paul’s letter were carved there in stone. It was a good reminder that all the things of this world will one day be in ruins, but God’s word stands forever.
Paul’s third and final realization follows from this thought. He says, “What is seen is temporary; what is unseen is eternal.”
The things of this life that we see with our physical eyes are only temporary, including the suffering of this life. But the things we cannot see, like faith, hope, and love, like God himself—these are the eternal verities. The person who has something beyond need never lose heart.
Comments