The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Treasure” it comes from the Greek Word “thesauros” which means “treasure.”
Paul describes carrying something priceless inside a body that keeps breaking down. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is 2 Corinthians 4.
Paul explains that having received this ministry through God’s mercy, he does not lose heart, but has renounced hidden shameful practices, refusing to handle God’s word deceitfully, commending himself instead through open, plain declaration of the truth. He acknowledges that his gospel remains hidden to those perishing, whose minds “the god of this world hath blinded,” but insists that he preaches not himself, but “Christ Jesus the Lord,” since the same God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in believers’ hearts, giving the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Paul describes this precious gospel as “treasure,” “thesauros” in Greek, carried in “earthen vessels,” ordinary clay jars, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” He describes their constant hardship in vivid, paradoxical terms, troubled on every side yet not distressed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always carrying about in their body the dying of the Lord Jesus, “that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”
Paul explains that death works in them, but life works in the Corinthians through their ministry, and quotes the Psalms, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken,” expressing confidence that the same God who raised Jesus will also raise them up together with Him. He closes with a beautiful summary of his perspective on suffering, that though the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day, since their light affliction, “which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” urging them not to look at temporary, visible things, but at eternal, invisible things.
The image of priceless treasure carried in fragile clay pots explains something important about apostolic ministry, and about every believer’s life. Weakness and hardship aren’t obstacles to God’s power working through us. They’re often exactly what makes it unmistakably clear that the power belongs entirely to God, not to the fragile vessel carrying it.
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