Paul's Ministry ManualChikamu

Dealing With Weakness

When archaeologists dig up the past, they find many remarkable things. One of the things they have found is what they call “coin hoards”—coins buried in clay jars for safekeeping—ancient Greek and Roman piggy banks. They have found thousands of these. They are “treasure in jars of clay.” They are no longer of use to their owners, but these coin hordes provided the Apostle Paul with a remarkable image in 2 Cor. 4:6-18; we are like clay jars holding the treasure of the gospel.

We have, writes Paul, “the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay” (v. 7). The glory of the gospel is the treasure. We are the containers. We carry the treasure, and this is so for a specific purpose. It is “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” We can’t change people’s hearts, but the gospel can. We may be able to influence people in certain ways, but we can’t change them, not deep in their hearts. Only God can do that through the gospel.

As Paul writes this letter, he is traveling around to the churches collecting money to relieve the suffering of the Christians in Jerusalem. Possibly some of those he has recently visited have taken him to where they buried the money they had set aside, and he has watched as they dug it up. He has seen the earth pressing around the jar, and he writes, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (8-9). Our suffering is pressing in on us on every side, but we go on.

Paul shows this kind of strength because he sees a purpose in his own weakness. The purpose is “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (v. 7). We are to display God’s strength, not ours. And, adds Paul, “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“ (v. 14). And that lets him write that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (v. 17).

I hope you don’t mind being called a clay jar, but that’s what God uses. He deliberately chooses weak vessels to display His strength. So when you feel weak or discouraged, when you feel unable to keep going, when you feel inadequate to serve the Lord, lean back on the fact that this is all in God’s plan. He wants you to depend on His strength.

Prayer: Father, Lord of heaven and earth, teach me to depend on You. You are my strength. You are my rock. You are the energy of my life. Help me to trust You and to depend on You. Let me in my weakness live and serve You in Your strength, Lord, for Your glory.