2 Corinthians 4:7-15 Study Guide: Treasures in Jars of Clay
Community Group Study Guide — Treasures in Jars of Clay
2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Study Information:
Where do you keep your valuables? Don’t answer out loud, especially in a crowded place. Typically we keep the things that are most precious to us in the safest place we can find. Imagine you had jewelry or a family heirloom passed down through your family worth a million dollars and you had to keep it somewhere safe, where would you put it? Safety deposit box, fire safe, maybe a vault? You would not leave it lying around, that is for sure. Paul calls the gospel message a treasure in a jar of clay. The idea is that the gospel is the treasure and we’re the jar of clay as the communicator or minister of the gospel. As we serve and share Christ with others, we get to point people to this treasure of surpassing value, but we ourselves are common and fragile and God has purposed this frailty in order to show his power so that it is not about anyone one person but about him.
Throughout our series on 2 Corinthians we have highlighted the various answers we have to the question “why do we suffer?” We have earlier learned that we suffer in order to experience God’s comfort and be used by God to bring comfort to others and we also suffer so that we hope. In this passage we learn that our human weakness and frailty and suffering causes us to depend on God more as he demonstrates his power through us.
Suffering Shows that Christ is Sufficient
2 Corinthians 4:7-9
In the ancient world jars of clay were common and fragile, the idea of using them as a place to store something valuable was a bad idea and yet Paul tells us that is what God has done with the ministry of the gospel. The purpose for our weakness and frailty, “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” The Christian life is not meant to grow out of a need God, rather our dependance is meant to grow as we mature in our faith. Paul connected the frailty of the jars of clay with a series of 4 pairs that span the totality of human suffering in order to show us that God delivers us even as we suffer. Paul wrote that we are first afflicted in every way but not crushed. The word “crushed” carries the idea of being constrained, meaning that our affliction does not narrow our ability to minister and serve others. Next, we are perplexed but not driven to despair. There are times where things will not make sense but we’re not at a complete loss. Then Paul wrote that we are persecuted but not abandoned, meaning that in the face of opposition towards our faith God is with us. Finally, we are struck down but not destroyed. Struck down s the word for when one was brought down in a battle and then killed on the ground, Paul intended for us to understand that even in the most dire circumstance we’re not destroyed.
These contrasts show us that suffering has a limit and even in the hardest circumstances God delivers us in ways we may not be able to see at that moment. Being a jar of clay means that we practically need God. The gospel is real to us because we are weak and frail and need help. Likewise, the gospel teaches us that God has made a way for weak and sinful people to be restored to him and he uses that to show the beauty of who he is.
Suffering Shows the Life of Christ
2 Corinthians 4:10-11
The previous 4 pairs led to a 5th pair in 2 Corinthians 4:10-11 where Paul paired the idea of death and life. Paul taught that our suffering is a form of death that shows the life of Christ. Verses 10 and 11 parallel each other in that Paul wrote that we carry the body of the death of Jesus and are given over to death in order that the life of Jesus would be seen in our bodies. Our suffering highlights the life and ministry of Christ who was a “man of sorrows.” Our weakness and suffering gives people a physical picture of the ministry of Jesus who was rejected, abandoned, scorned, mocked, persecuted, physically beaten and killed for us and our salvation. God the son took on a human nature like ours and experienced the totality of human existence including pain, grief and death.
Paul wanted us to understand that our weakness and suffering does not diminish the gospel message but actually enhanced it because our suffering displays the life of Jesus in our bodies. This does not make suffering less hard, but it does help us to understand some of the purpose behind our suffering. Paul wrote about this in Colossians 1:24 when he wrote that his sufferings were filling up what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions. The only thing “lacking” in Christ’s afflictions was a visible example of that, and Paul became that for many people, and when we faithfully suffer and depend on God we show the life of Christ too.
Suffering Will Be Surpassed by the Resurrection
2 Corinthians 4:12-15
Paul does not dismiss the hardship of human suffering, but he did want to put it into perspective. Paul shared a quote from Psalm 116:10 which reads “I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; (ESV).” In that verse he affirms his faith and his suffering. What’s beautiful about Psalm 116 is that the psalm teaches about God’s deliverance and that even if our suffering ends in our death, our death is precious in the eyes of God. We hold two things to be true and in tension, affliction is hard and God cares about our affliction. This is why Paul directed our attention back to the resurrection and how God will raise us to bring us into his presence (2 Cor 4:14). The worst that can happen to us in Christ is that we are delivered from this life into the presence of Christ.
Even though this world is filled with so much joy and beauty, our ultimate hope is that we will be delivered from this life into the next where suffering, death and affliction will be eradicated. Even as we grieve, lament and hurt we take heart that these are the very things God will deliver us from through the resurrection.
All of this wells up in Paul where he sees his suffering and frailty as a means to extend grace to the Corinthians with the result that they will increase thanksgiving to God for his glory. All of Paul’s suffering had that purpose of highlighting the glory of God. We can rejoice in that our weakness shows God’s power and our suffering is not wasted.
God has purposed that he uses weak people, jars of clay, so that the power of the gospel would rest on him and not on our shoulders. We can rejoice in our weakness because in our weakness the strength of God is seen.
At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.
How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?
Discussion Questions:
2 Corinthians 4:7-15
What is the main idea behind Paul’s image of the treasure being in a jar of clay?
Out of the four pairs of suffering in verses 8-9, which one have you experienced most recently? How did God limit your suffering or deliver you from it?
Paul wrote that we carry around the body of the death of Jesus so that his life would be manifested in our bodies (2 Cor 4:10-11). How does God use our suffering to display Jesus? What are some reasons that this is an important part of the gospel?
What is the outcome of the resurrection according to 2 Cor 4:14? What are some ways we can comfort ourselves with the gospel during times of suffering? (Think about how Paul used Psalm 116, think about the resurrection, etc).
