Treasures in Jars of Clay

2 Corinthians 4: 5-18
5 Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. 6 It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful. 7 If you only look at us , you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. 8 As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; 9 we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. 10 What they did to Jesus, they do to us— trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us— he lives! 11 Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. 12 While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best! 13 We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. 14 And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. 15 Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise! 16 So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. 17 These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. 18 There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.


I have thinking, praying and reflecting on this passage of scripture for the last couple of weeks. And I am so drawn by the Jars of clay part. I still have the mind of an artist even when I am not being very disciplined about actually creating anything but I love the visual message of this passage. We have treasure and not only do we have a treasure we have it something fragile and frail, we have it in a jar of clay

Notes for Verse 7
Verse 7. But we - Not only the apostles, but all true believers.

Have this treasure - Of divine light, love, glory.

In earthen vessels - In frail, feeble, perishing bodies. He proceeds to show, that afflictions, yea, death itself, are so far from hindering the ministration of the Spirit, that they even further it, sharpen the ministers, and increase the fruit. That the excellence of the power, which works these in us, may undeniably appear to be of God.
Notes for Verse 8
Verse 8. We are troubled, etc. - The four articles in this verse respect inward, the four in the next outward, afflictions. In each clause the former part shows the "earthen vessels;" the latter,

"the excellence of the power." Not crushed - Not swallowed up in care and anxiety.

Perplexed - What course to take, but never despairing of his power and love to carry us through.
Notes for Verse 10
Verse 10. Always - Wherever we go.

Bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus - Continually expecting to lay down our lives like him.

That the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body - That we may also rise and be glorified like him.
Notes for Verse 11
Verse 11. For we who yet live - Who are not yet killed for the testimony of Jesus.

Are always delivered unto death - Are perpetually in the very jaws of destruction; which we willingly submit to, that we may "obtain a better resurrection."
Notes for Verse 12
Verse 12. So then death worketh in us, but life in you - You live in peace; we die daily.

Yet - Living or dying, so long as we believe, we cannot but speak.


I have always love drinking chai out of the little clay cups. In a simple way I have always thought they were so beautiful and at first I could not imagine that you would use this little clay cup only once and then throw it away. But that is exactly what you do you throw it away out into the street and it breaks into a dozen pieces. This fragile thing hold a little bit of Indian treasure called Cha…

The message says we have treasure in “the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.” So we as God’s people hold a much greater treasure than a cup of Cha. we are the Jars of Clay and the treasure we carry with us is Jesus. And I always wonder why Jesus choose to work through people who fail and stumble and make huge mistakes…I wonder why me. But I am beginning to see that Jesus can use me his little jar of clay because it is not about me but It is about Him. Acknowledging how fragile I am and big and amazing God is keeps me humble and it keeps me constantly leaning on Jesus.

Paul's focus, however, was not on the perishable container but on its priceless contents—God's power dwelling in us. Though we are weak, God uses us to spread his Good News, and he gives us power to do his work. Knowing that the power is his, not ours, should keep us from pride and motivate us to keep daily contact with God, our power source. Our responsibility is to let people see God through us

We hold the treasure for the girls. We hold the power of God within us and we have this treasure to offer our friends (men, women, and children) in kalighat and sonagacchi. And God has chosen you. He has chosen you to bring the treasures of who He is and all that he has to the people in your home and in your workplace. You are the ones who carry a treasure and it is not about you but about the those who still await the treasure. And the scripture promises that it will hard and we will battered by troubles and not know what to do, we will be spiritually terrorized but we will not be defeated, demoralized or without the help and guidance of our Jesus. we have to allow God to shine bright in us so that these jars of clay with light up this city and the world with the love of the only God who can transform it.