2 Corinthians 4:7-9 -Treasure in jars of clay

4:7

2 Corinthians is such a vital book in giving us understanding in to how the power of God works in and through us. We so easily seek to interpret this in a worldly way. There are some parts of the church which either seem to have no concept of the power of God, or have given up on it. Then there are others who do believe God has power, and that this works through believers, but then interpret it in a worldly way, so it ends up being about man and about worldly prosperity. We need to believe in the power of God and we need to to know how it operates. Our society in the West is in a mess in so many ways. We could give up, or we could believe that God has power, and that the gospel is the power of God to change lives and to change society. This verse sums up a key aspect of how things work. We have a treasure, in fact we have an “all surpassing power”. But it is contained in jars of clay. Jars of clay were fragile and disposable, and Corinth produced these, so the readers would be familiar with the analogy. We are fragile and disposable, and we have an all surpassing power, but the power comes from God, it is not of ourselves. We need to grasp both the all surpassing power part (a power that can rescue individuals and change the world) and our weakness. The strength comes from God.

4:8,9

Paul then outlines the weakness and the strength. Following Christ involves endurance and dealing with things that in our own strength we cannot deal with. They were hard pressed, ie events and circumstances seemed to be bearing in on them, yet they were not crushed by the pressure. They were perplexed, ie situations were beyond their comprehension, they could not fully understand what was happening, nor why it was happening. Yet they did not despair, because their hope was not in themselves, but in God. They were persecuted, ie the authorities and even the people were actively against them, but they were not abandoned, God was still with them and for them. They were even struck down, but they were not destroyed. Our hope is founded in God alone.