Treasure in Jars of Clay

II Corinthians is an interesting letter by Paul. It does not flow as smoothly as most of his other epistles, and we see a very emotional side of Paul throughout the book, particularly in chapter 2. He continually returns to the concepts of glory, of mercy, and of his own efforts as a minister in Christ. He spends much of the book defending his efforts, his motives, and his authority. In II Corinthians 2:17, he reminds his audience of his sincerity in teaching them.

Paul’s Defense

We can see many discouraging things in Paul’s letter – opposition from the world, our family, and even brethren, those who would seek profit from Christianity, those who would challenge him at every turn. In chapter 4:1, however, Paul asserts he will not lose hope in his ministry from God. He contrasts himself with those who would tamper with, dilute, or peddle God’s word. He sees opposition all around, but he remains sincere.

When we dilute God’s word, we dim the glory of God. As Paul, we should so internalize the glory and joy of God’s word that we feel a personal attachment to it. Think of Paul’s use of “our gospel” and “my gospel,” not claiming ownership but demonstrating the personal attachment he has to that word.

Paul writes about the god of this world, in verse 4, blinding us to God’s word and crowding it out of our lives. The sins of this world, our physical desires and pursuits, can appear less bad than they are on the surface. Sin can look brighter than it really is, and this leads us to being blinded by that false light. Paul reminds us, though, in verse 6, that God’s light can bring us from that blindness.

Paul’s Treasure

Then, in verse 7, Paul refers to a treasure stored in jars of clay. In contrast to those Pharisees of Matthew 23, who Jesus described as being whitewashed tombs filled with death and bones, Paul says we may be clay pots, but the gospel stored within us is priceless treasure. We may be imperfect and fragile as those earthen vessels, but what is contained in our hearts is beyond value.

In verse 8-9 he speaks in generalities about the persecution that comes from carrying that treasure within him, but II Corinthians 6:4-10 and 11:23-33 go into more specific details. Any of us might lose heart at those obstacles, but Paul does not. Instead in II Corinthians 4:11, Paul says he endures so Jesus may be seen in him. Once, the Word became flesh and dwelt among man. Now, others should see Him in us by the way we reflect his glory in our lives.

In verse 13, Paul quotes from Psalm 116:10 about believing and speaking God’s word, about maintaining hope among discouragement and trials. He reassures them of the hope of resurrection, reminding them the more they reflect the treasure of Christ’s gospel, the more souls that will turn to Christ, the more God will be glorified in our earthen vessels.

Do Not Lose Heart

As in chapter 4:1, Paul repeats the refrain, “We do not lose heart,” in verse 16. Here, he puts his trials, his afflictions, his humiliations, and his pain in perspective to the treasure of eternity. Eternal life is his goal, so he does not lose heart. We have a lot to put up with, as did Paul in his life, and we may feel as fragile and ugly as jars of clay at times. We have a treasure, though, beyond value if our faith and hope are in the resurrection of Christ.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Suffering Before Glory

In I Peter 2, Peter describes what Jesus underwent on our behalf, and he holds up that sacrifice as an example to us. In verse 21-25, Christ’s suffering is the basis of our calling. Philippians 2 then gives a clearer picture of what Jesus would go through before His exultation. In his book, Peter relates suffering to glory. Our endurance and perseverance leads to God’ glory and our’s in Him. Paul, in Philippians, details that suffering, that endurance, that perseverance. In recognizing that God has highly exalted Jesus, we must first appreciate the extent to which he submitted Himself.

Christ’s Humility

II Corinthians 8:9 records Paul writing that Jesus made Himself poor, and he writes, in Philippians 2:7, that Jesus submitted as a servant. The Creator of John 1:1 becomes as the created – subject to pain, sorrow, frustration, sickness, and death. In Matthew 20:26-28, when Jesus’ disciples begin to argue over who should be highest in Christ’s kingdom, Jesus remonstrates them to put such thoughts aside, that they should seek servitude as He lives in service.

In Philippians 2:8, Paul writes that Jesus humbled Himself, and this humility would be prerequisite to His coming in the form of man, living in service, or submitting to obedience. In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul pleads for Christians to live in humility, and Ephesians 4:1-3 appeals to a walk of humility. I Peter 5:6 and James 4:10 call on us to humble ourselves before God. Jesus emptied Himself, became a servant, and He learned obedience in humility. In the gospels, He is obedient, even to a humiliating death on the cross.

Emptying Ourselves

Knowing these things and applying them are two different things.

• Where we would be full of ourselves, our Savior emptied Himself. Galatians 2:20 reminds us we must dethrone self and allow Christ to reign in our hearts.
• Where we would have others serve our interests, Jesus was servant to all. Whether foreign, poor, rich, sick – Jesus reached out to their needs. Our lives should be ones of service.
• Where we would exalt ourselves, Jesus humbled Himself. We need to start with humility so we can look to the needs and interests of others.
• Where we want to do things our way, Jesus willingly and unconditionally obeyed His father. We should have the same trust we see in His submission.

Conclusion

In I Peter 1:22, Jesus calls on us to love one another fervently, living and abiding in the word of God. When we can empty ourselves, humble ourselves, serve others, and obey God, we purify our hearts before the Lord. We should be amazed at what our Savior was willing to do for each of us. The one who knows all things and spoke all things into existence – He did much for us in humility. He faced endurance and suffering before glory and exaltation. We should expect and be willing to submit to no less than that.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Facing Suffering as God’s Child: Part 2

A Quick Recap
The subject of suffering and sorrow is one with which we and many theologians struggle. Why does God allow suffering in this world. The issue centers around a couple different hypotheses: that God is either not powerful enough to prevent suffering, or He is not loving enough to relieve our suffering. Most arguments regarding God and His role in suffering boils down to one or the other of those theories.

Suffering begins with sin in Genesis 3. Rebellion brings suffering. Sorrow also comes as a result of natural disasters. the wrongdoings of others or ourselves, and some suffering is born innocently. What we asking when we question God’s role? Do we want God to micromanage our affairs, removing any sense of free will? Do we believe we can understand the details of God’s creation? We want to place blame, however. We want to know why. The problem suffering poses for the monotheist is that cruelty must be sourced. Just like Job and his friends, we sometimes speak without wisdom in trying to make God answerable to us.

God’s People and Suffering
In Hebrews 5:7 and 2:18, the author of that book speaks to the challenges Jesus faced in suffering and pain. II Corinthians 4:8 says we are pressed on all sides, are pursued, are confused, are struck down. Paul ends up calling these light afflictions. Romans 5:13 tells us suffering works endurance, and James 5:10 calls on us to consider the patience of the prophets and the endurance of Job who suffered in the work of the Lord. God’s people are not immune to the pains and sorrows of this world.

The book of Job teaches us that what happens on Earth relates to eternal principles. We can be faithful despite our worldly conditions, and Satan seeks to challenge that at every opportunity. The devil seeks to find each man’s price. In Job 2:4, after Job has already lost so much, Satan still looks for Job’s price. He looks for a breaking point. He knows that faith is difficult when we hurt.

Job 1:21-22 records Job worshipping God after losing much of his family and his possessions. His wife blames God. His friends blame Job. Later, when God replies, the message is simply that God created all and offers no other explanation. Still, Job endures. Like him, we can stand as a monument of faith if we can endure Satan’s temptations in the face of suffering.

Reacting to Suffering
We should not feel as if we are solitary in our suffering. Too often, we compare our suffering to those who we perceive having lives than easier than ours, but we forge too consider those who face worse. Furthermore, we cannot let ourselves give up when faced with our perception of an overwhelming situation. Consider Peter and Judas, both faced with their roles in rejecting Jesus. One kills himself. The other reconciles with his Lord. In Acts 16, things look grim for Paul and Silas as they are chained in prison, yet they praise God. Finally, we should not reject help from our brothers and sisters. Philippians 4:13 says we can do all through Him who strengthens us.

God wants us to lift our eyes and trust Him. Psalms 121, 123, 119:66-67, and more record David looking to God despite any trials around Him. Psalm 118 calls the Lord our helper who keeps us from fear. Consider Jesus’ trust in the Father, knowing He would be raised to life after being lowered in death. He trusted His tomb would be empty after enduring the inhumanities of crucifixion. James 5:13 calls on us to give God our worries, and I Peter 5:6 says God will lift us up when we humble ourselves before Him. Our focus is on Him and the glories He prepares for us in Heaven. After asking who can stand between us and God, Paul calls God’s followers conquerors and inseparable from His love in Romans 8:37-39.

Enduring suffering is a challenge of epic proportions. We will all face things unique to our lives, but we are not alone. While we can debate the origin of suffering, Job teaches us that our resistance to the devil in the face of suffering is a monument to His power and the faith of His people. We can look to one another and to God when we face pain in this life, and let our faith grow so Satan knows we have no price.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Facing Suffering As God's Child [Part 1]

We live in a word filled with tragedies and sorrow. We see innocents suffer unjustly. Our possessions, families, or lives may be taken by factors beyond our control. You can't make it through a daily news report without hearing of a new shooting, abduction, natural disaster, or fatal accident. From these events comes an understandable question: why does God allow suffering in this world? It is a question theologians have wrested with for centuries, and the answers tend to boil into one of two theories.

• If God is inherently all-loving, He would stop suffering if He could. Therefore, He is not powerful enough to end suffering.
• If God is all-powerful, then He must not love us enough to end suffering.

Rabbi Kushner, in his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, comes to the first conclusion. God is all-loving but not all-powerful. Job, on the other hand, faces a God that is clearly all-powerful, so does this infer God is unloving?

The Origin of Suffering
To understand suffering, we have to return to its roots. God demonstrates both power and love in the creation of all things and the paradise He provides for His creation. However, there is one provision to this paradise, and this provision is broken in chapter 3 when His love is questioned in that He forbade something from Adam and Eve. From that one sin, suffering entered the world. If God was unloving and merely wanting to just catch Adam and Eve off guard, He would have left it a secret – just waiting to be discovered. God clearly set the boundaries. He did not keep His provision a secret. Then, with the onset of sin, God sets a plan in motion to redeem His creation, but the consequences in this world remain.

The Case of Job
Job is a case study in suffering. He is a righteous man who loses everything. Satan seeks to find his price, and Job comes close to blaming God for his troubles in passages like Job 9:20. He feels he has been wrongly judged. In Job 19:5-7, 22; chapter 31, Job continues this idea. He even lists out evidence of his righteousness. He is a faithful person. Why would this suffering come upon him? If, like his friends argue, bad things only befall the unrighteous, Job is being unfairly judged.

God responds to Job in chapter 40. God asks if there is any who can argue with God. He asks if Job is capable of setting the universe in motion, if He is capable of balancing justice and reviewing God's judgments? Earlier, in Job 33:13, Elihu asks Job why he strives against God. We are accountable to God – it is not the other way around. This is a hard lesson to swallow, and it is natural to want to know why. However, it is not our place to condemn or try to correct God. Job receives no reason for his suffering, and we may never understand our own.

A Loving, Powerful God
Returning to the question of the reasons behind suffering, can we blame God? Do we serve a Lord either unable or unwilling to end suffering due to lack of power or love?

What hope can we have if God is not all-powerful? How do we know He will defeat the grave? How can we know that he will defeat Satan? How can we have any faith if we cannot have faith in His power? Psalm 139 records David writing of the all-powerful nature of God, able to overcome all and having power over all. Nothing is hidden from Jehovah. In John 16:33, Jesus states that he has overcome. He will suffer terrible things very soon, but His faith was in God’s power. He knows God will deliver Him from the hands of death.

If God is all-powerful, why does He not stop calamities? Does He not love His creation? We see God's love in passages like John 3:16 where God has shared His very nature and image with us to be killed in our stead. Abraham had confidence in God’s love when he prepared to offer Isaac. In Isaiah 55:6-9, God invites His people to forgiveness. Judah was extremely wicked at this time, but under even these circumstances, He would take back His people if only they turn back to Him. His love allows for infinite forgiveness and mercy.

What would we want God's role to be? When do we want God to intervene? Should He constantly be altering the forces of nature , continually disrupting the cycles that have been put in motion? Do we want God to take away our own free wills so we can neither harm ourselves or others? Do we want others to suffer consequences so we do not? What stipulations can we put on God’s actions? If God fails us in any way, we automatically will begin to question Him again.

God may intervene in ways we do not see or recognize. We do know, however, that He has a place prepared for us that is absent of all suffering. We can trust His power to be able to take us to this place, and we can trust that His love will allow sinners like us to enter into it (Romans 5:8). Our hope is not in this life but in the next.

lesson by Tim Smelser