Distance Devotions – April 28, 2020
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 – Treasure in Earthen Vessels
2 Corinthians 4:5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Men are self-centered, all of us, to some degree or the other, we focus on ourselves and the struggle to be spiritual is intense. We expect such things from children. You know, the child who in the church nursery with other children believes all the toys are his/hers. Children have to be taught to share and some learn it happily while others go kicking and screaming. Such a sight would be unseemly for an adult, yet, in our heart of hearts that is exactly what happens sometimes. God help us to war against this sin of the flesh that we most often call covetousness.
When we are dead and gone, there will scant knowledge of us in the next hundred years or so. There is the occasional bright and shining light of a unique individual who God singularly uses like a Spurgeon, a Moody, or Livingstone. Most of us labor in relative obscurity from the vast majority of the world and spend our ministerial life in one or two places. However, lest we get discouraged, we are reminded that the ministry is treasure. What a wonder! Men who were once themselves under the curse of damnation for sin are now announcing to others that Jesus saves! Men who were lost in the darkness of carnality, some in the depths of depravity and debauchery, have been made pure in the blood of the Lamb and are His mouthpiece to others in like pits and cesspools of sin. There have been untold millions who were not so far down as other men, but were sinners on their way to the same hell as the most depraved man who ever lived. God is not limited as to who He can use and will use to accomplish His will. But, the treasure is held in an earthen vessel. While I will likely not be much remembered in the next century, the Gospel I have preached all these years will still shine on, attracting sinners of all stripes to come to Jesus.
Paul knew his weaknesses. He knew that all of us carried with us the sentence of death because of sin in this old body. He also knew that the glory of ministering the things of God to fallen men was a gift from God to His children. All of us, whether in the pulpit ministry or not, have this treasure. Any of us can lead lost souls to Christ. Be a witness, testify to others of what Christ has done for you. The vessel doesn’t much matter, but the treasure does.
Pastor F. J. Weems III