Christ In YouSample

This treasure we read about yesterday is stored in a very unique place. Paul observed that this glorious, inestimable treasure of Christ was stored in “earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). 

Earthen vessels were pots made out of clay—clay is the “mud of the earth,” thus the term “earthen.” Clay or earthen pots were the everyday, common Ziploc bags or Tupperware of antiquity used to store or carry such diverse materials as water, oil, flour, wine, etc. 

Paul’s point was that this glorious treasure of Christ is housed or stored in our common, everyday lives, and the true, ultimate value of our clay-pot lives exists in the treasure contained inside. 

Additionally, just as clay pots were eventually tipped over or, at times, cracked open to reveal and pour out the contents inside, we, too, must undergo the sometimes-painful process of breaking and molding so that Christ, the true treasure, can become more and more expressed in our lives. 

Paul suggested that it was through this process of affliction and suffering—a process Paul compared to “dying”—that best transforms our clay-pot lives into a fuller expression of the glorious treasure of Christ contained within: 

“For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). 

This means the answer to the question we often ask of, “how long must I endure this affliction?”, is that it must be endured until God removes or cracks open whatever is hindering a fuller expression in our life of the glorious treasure that is Christ. 

What are some afflictions that you have experienced over this past week? 

What afflictions are you currently experiencing? 

In what attitudes or ways are you allowing and/or hindering these to be used by God to mold you—even crack or break you—so that Christ becomes more expressed in and through your life?