Jars of clay

v.1 In chapter three Paul reminded us of how great the new covenant is. The old covenant’s glory was dim at best when compared to the glory of the new covenant. Paul was a minister of that covenant and he did not take that privilege lightly. Paul uses the term “we” to include all who are ministers of the gospel. Paul was not a minister of the gospel because of anything inherent within himself. He was a minister because of God’s mercy.

Basically mercy is when we do not get what we deserve. God’s grace, love, blessings, etc. are all a result of His mercy toward us. Paul was eternally grateful to be a recipient of God’s mercy (see 1 Timothy 1:12-13).

Paul’s enemies would love to see nothing less than Paul throwing in the towel. The trials Paul endured certainly afforded the opportunity for that as well. However, Paul refused to give up. Paul said “We do not lose heart.” “Lose heart” is used to describe a cowardly person.

We could never repay God for the mercy He has shown us. The least we can do is to be absolutely committed to extending to others the gospel that brought us mercy. Paul was resolved to do just that.

v.2 Paul said that he renounced disgraceful underhanded ways. Disgraceful is a word used to describe a deed that leads to humiliation or shame. Paul’s life before Christ was a dishonorable one. On the outside he seemed righteous but hidden beneath his religion was an ungodly man. Paul now rejected that old lifestyle of hypocrisy. He had repented from it. That is the case for all believers. We were guilty of living a lifestyle that was shameful. When we responded to the gospel we turned from that lifestyle and to the living God.

Paul did not use “underhanded ways”. This describes a person who is involved in trickery. It implies deceitfulness. There were in Paul’s day, as there are in ours, false teachers who seek to deceive the people. The motive of such teachers is usually money, power, or fame. Men who use underhanded ways change the gospel to make it more appealing to the world. They reason that in doing so they will increase their following. Whether they realize it or not they are doing great harm to their followers. They are deceiving them into believing a false gospel void of salvation.

Paul would never do this. He did not preach himself, but Christ crucified.

Paul did not “tamper with God’s Word” or “practice cunning”. In other word Paul did not add something to the Word of God. It describes what a deceptive peddler may do to gold or wine. The idea is to take something of high quality and mix it with something else. Once again, the reason would be for personal gain. Paul would never add anything to the gospel. We live in an age when many discard the simple teachings of the Bible as outdated. They reason that we must add mysticism, psychology, philosophy, and a host of other things to the teachings of the bible. For a minister to do this is to handle the word of God deceitfully.

Paul was interested in the “open statement of the truth”. Paul revealed the truth by preaching the word of God. In doing so he was commending himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Because the moral law is written upon the hearts of humanity, every man has a conscience. Everyone understands that there is a right and a wrong. If we are honest, we must admit that all too many times we have chosen what is wrong. When the true gospel is preached it appeals to the conscience of man. The gospel reminds man that he is a sinner. The gospel offers freedom from the penalty of sin as well.

While many preachers may appeal to man’s money or favor, Paul would appeal to man’s conscience.

Ministers must be faithful to the gospel. The gospel alone can both reveal our sinfulness and cure it at the same time. Paul was committed to preaching the truth for this reason.

There was a more important reason that Paul preached the truth, however. It was because he recognized that God was watching him. He preached “in the sight of God.” That reality kept him accountable.

v.3 Paul recognized that there would be many who rejected the gospel. He did not blame this on the caliber of the preacher. People reject the gospel because they are lost. The term “perishing” speaks of a person who is perishing in their sins. If a person rejects the gospel, we are not to change the gospel to make it more appealing to them. We should not blame the message if a person will not receive Christ. We should blame the person. Their rebellion against the truth of God is what is keeping them from being saved. Every believer needs to understand this. Our churches are cheapening the gospel to get converts. In doing so we are doing more harm than good. We are giving false hope to many when we promise eternal life with an altered gospel.

v.4 The god of this world is Satan. “World” refers to the system of thought in the present age we live in. Satan is behind the ungodly ideologies of our day. He is actively involved in politics, education, the arts, recreation, economics, and many other things. The way we think is largely based on these things. Because Satan for the most part controls these things in our societies, he controls the way the world thinks. The unbeliever is under the control of the devil himself. He cannot understand spiritual truth because his mind is blinded by Satan.

The world would never follow Satan if they truly knew where it will eventually lead them. Few unbelievers are planning on going to hell. They follow his system because they are blind to the truth. People do not respond to the gospel because it is weak. They do not respond to the gospel because they are blinded.

Satan is involved in deceiving humanity because he does not want us to be saved. The gospel is described as light. It illuminates mans spiritual darkness. Man lives in and loves darkness, apart from Christ. Darkness is a descriptive way of depicting a life of sin. Usually ungodly deeds are done in darkness for the purpose of covering the act. The gospel turns the light on in the darkened sinner’s life. He understands that God is aware of his sinfulness. He too sees his sinfulness for what it is and turns to Christ for forgiveness. This is what makes the gospel glorious. It has the power to transform a child of darkness into a child of light.

The gospel is the glorious gospel of Christ. There is no gospel without Jesus. It is not merely His teachings that we embrace. We embrace the Person of Christ. Jesus is salvation.

Jesus is the image of God. In Christ we have the fullness of the face of God. Christ’s character perfectly demonstrates who the Father is (John 1:14, Hebrews 1:3). If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father. When we embrace Christ through the gospel, we are embracing God. Satan’s fear is that through the light of the gospel we will embrace God through Christ and He will embrace us. That is why he is so busy blinding the minds of the world.

v.5 Many of the false teachers of Paul’s day had a personal agenda. They were in the ministry to make a name for themselves. Thus they were “preaching themselves”. The ministry has always been attractive to the self indulgent. Some people use the guise of religion to gain riches, power, sex, and whatever else their evil heart desires. Paul was nothing like these false teachers.

Paul preached Christ Jesus as Lord. Paul’s preaching centered on the Lordship of Christ. Lordship means that Christ is the Supreme ruler of the universe. Because of His position He deserves and demands the priority in the life of everyone on the face of the earth. The gospel Paul preached compelled men to turn away from their self-centered sinful life and make Jesus their greatest love. It is important that we do not water down the gospel by failing to share the conditions of following Christ. Christ demands complete willingness to turn our back on the world and follow Him (Luke 14:25-33).

Servant is “doulos” in Greek. It describes a slave who is “in a permanent relation of servitude with another, his will altogether consumed in the will of another”. Paul was no longer living to please himself. He had lost his will to the will of Christ. For the sake of Christ, Paul had committed his life to serving others. He was not only a servant of the Lord but he served man as well. Man did not dictate his message or actions. His service toward man should be seen as his commitment to give them what they needed. They needed a relationship with Christ. He had become the servant who would do all he could to bring that relationship to them. Paul was a debtor to all people (Rom. 1:14).

v.6 Paul makes a reference to God’s creative work. God spoke light into the world when only darkness existed. In the same way God has spoken lights into the hearts of believers. He spoke to us through the gospel. The gospel turned on the spiritual light in our hearts.

When the gospel illuminates us we are able to see Christ for who He truly is. He is the glory of God. His face radiates the awesome glory of God. God’s salvation is referenced as a creative work. In II Cor. 5:17 we are called new creations in Christ. The same power that spoke light out of darkness transformed us from children of darkness into children of light. We should never minimize God’s act of salvation (Ephesians 2:1-10).

v.7 “This treasure” probably refers to the ministry (4:1). Jars of clay are simply clay pots. They were cheap vessels used for everything from cooking to storing valuables in. The earthen vessels are the bodies of believers. Earthen vessels are used to highlight humility. What is within us is far more valuable than we are. God uses simple people to spread His message to give Himself more glory. A beautiful vessel may compete with the beauty of what is contained within the vessel. God desires people who are humble. Humble people point others away from themselves and to the Lord. The twelve disciples were common men. God still calls the humble to be His messengers.

The humble must give the glory to the power of God. They know that they do not have the power to change a person within themselves.

v.8-9 The next few verses reveal the weakness and humility of faithful ministers.

Afflicted in every way. This means to be under constant pressure. Paul had constant pressure to abandon the ministry. Yet he was not crushed.

Paul’s ministry was not limited despite the pressure he faced to give up every day.

“Perplexed but not in despair.” This means Paul was at a loss but not at a total loss. Paul did not deny that he suffered loss. He simply knew that he was not at a total loss.

“Persecuted but not forsaken.” Paul was persecuted for his faith by his enemies. Yet his Lord never forsook him. It’s important to note that Paul did not see the trial he endured as God forsaking him. He knew that man was persecuting him, but God was always there with him.

“Struck down but not destroyed.” Once in a while Paul did get knocked down. The important thing is that Paul always got up. He was never destroyed (Acts 14:19-20).

v.10-11 Paul constantly endured suffering. “Dying” should be understood as the process of dying rather than just the final act of dying. Paul was intimately connected to the Lord Jesus. When the false teachers persecuted Paul they in fact were persecuting the Lord. Christ’s sufferings continue through the persecution of His church (Acts 9:4-5).

Amazingly, however, Paul recognizes that persecution actually manifests the life of Jesus in his body. As believers respond to persecution in a Christ like manner, they display the person of Christ. God’s enemies cannot win. If they leave believers alone the gospel spreads. If they persecute us the gospel spreads.

v.12 Paul endured the suffering of death everyday. He endured it so that others may live. The persecution he endured would have ceased if he had stopped bringing spiritual life to others. Paul could never do that. He was a bondservant to humanity (5). Paul’s humility is obvious. He constantly put the will of God and the good of others before himself. His actions could not have been any more Christlike. The suffering he endured afforded the great opportunity of declaring who the Lord Jesus is to a lost world.