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THIS TREASURE IN JARS OF CLAY

2 CORINTHIANS 4:1—5:1

(Scripture Jar)

Waterford Church of Christ

David E. Parks

October, 1999

Purpose: God is our all-sufficient source of power. He can work through our weakness and mortality to manifest the grace of God and the Gospel of Christ to those around us.

Introduction: Margery Williams wrote a children’s story about two nursery animals, a Velveteen Rabbit (after which the book is named) and a Skin Horse, who was very old, and very wise. "What is real?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit. The Skin Horse said, "Real isn’t how you are made, it is a thing that happens when you are loved for a long, long time. Generally, by the time you are real most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are REAL you can’t be ugly except to those who don’t understand."1

The gospel treasure is contained by people marked by weakness, frailty and a kind of living death. Paradoxically, as we shall see, this life situation serves to enhance the message we bring, not detract from it

  1. Based on 2 Corinthians 4:2, what tactics do you think Paul’s opponents were using?

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  2. What Methods were Paul and his associates using.

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  3. If Paul’s Gospel was true, why did so many not accept it (4:3-4; 2 Thess. 2:12-12)?

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  4. Who is "the god of this age?" Why is he called that (4:3)?

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  5. What were the two primary topics of Paul’s preaching (4:5; Matt. 20:25-28)?

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  6. How do you think this contrasted with the preaching and conduct of the false teachers?

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  7. Explain Paul’s Metaphor in 4:7.

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  8. What challenges in verses 7 – 18 remind us that tour bodies are jars of clay?

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  9. Why did God put his treasure in jars of clay (4:7)?

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  10. Is this world the real world (4:17-18)? Why?

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  11. We often assume that our weakness will hinder the gospel and detract from it. On the contrary, how does our weakness reveal God’s power?

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  12. Twice Paul has said we do not lose heart (vv. 1, 16). On what basis can we be confidant that our lives and ministry will not be pointless or fruitless (vv. 13-18; Isaiah 55:11; Judges 7:2)?

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  13. Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. In addition to all the troubles of this life (which Paul speaks of as "light and momentary"), there is the inevitability of death. What images does Paul use to compare the shabbiness of life now with the glory of the life to come (vv. 1-5)?

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  14. How does Paul’s wonderful destiny in Christ affect his view of life and death (vv. 6-10)?

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  15. Reviewing the entire passage, what do you now understand Paul to mean by saying "we live by faith, not by sight" (5:7)?

 

 

Application: In as few sentences as possible, summarize what you learned from this passage.