The transcript of a Sermon on 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 has been lightly edited.
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This week we are in 2 Corinthians once again. Today we are going to look at 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7-18. To be transparent, I was looking for a New Year’s sermon and there’s a passage in here about renewal and being renewed day by day and I was going to riff on New Year’s and renewal and resolutions and things like that, but then of course the Holy Spirit took over and we’re going to consider suffering for the New Year and see how God speaks to us in that suffering.
2 Corinthians in many ways is Paul’s defense of his ministry and we’ll consider that a little bit as we go through this passage, but today we are drawn to the Word of God by the Spirit of God and we are going to look at 1 Corinthians 4 beginning in verse 7. So please follow along.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our moral flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke. We also believe and so we also speak. Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. For it is all for your sake so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to things that are unseen. For things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Let’s pray. To the Great Father above, we do thank You for all that You give to us. And we thank You that You have shown Yourself to us in Your creation and You have revealed salvation to us in the Scriptures. Show us the goodness of that salvation. Show us the goodness of Your Gospel as we approach this Word. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
INTRODUCTION
You’ve heard me mention before something called the prosperity Gospel and you’ve heard me warn that a lot of preachers, whether they’re writing books or on television, are proclaiming a Gospel of prosperity.
Well, what is the prosperity Gospel? The prosperity Gospel in summary is the teaching that all the promises of Heaven can be yours right here on this earth today if you, number one, have just enough faith. Number two, send that preacher just enough money. And it’s easy to say that we reject that message.
It’s easy to see if you have studied your Scriptures, if you have sat under good, solid teaching, it’s easy to see that salvation and the blessings of the new heavens and the new earth have nothing to do with how much faith I have or how much money I give, but has to do with the finished and complete work of Jesus and that alone. It’s easy to reject, at least with our mouth, the prosperity Gospel.
But sometimes, we still live according to it. Do we not? We sit here. If life’s not going the way we want it, maybe we’re grieving. Maybe we’re hurting. Maybe we’ve lost a job or struggling with a chronic illness. Whatever it may be, we do not profess with our mouth that we have enough faith and God should treat us better, but we think in our hearts and in our mind, do we not? You know what? I’ve been a good Christian long enough. God owes me something more than what I have.
And Paul directly confronts that in this passage. It is not about God giving us the benefits of heaven now because we have enough faith. It’s about longing for and waiting for those benefits when we get there.
And so, Paul is going to show us power in suffering. He is going to show us God’s glory in suffering. And he’s going to show us renewal in suffering.
And as he does that, he is calling us to take heart. For God’s power of salvation is at work in us while we suffer.
POWER IN SUFFERING
First, the power in suffering.
Much of the book of 2 Corinthians is Paul defending his ministry. Paul had gone to Corinth. He had explained the Gospel.
People had been converted under the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel and a church had been established. And based upon what we read throughout the book of 2 Corinthians, it looks as though a group of men came behind Paul and said, “Ignore Paul because he’s not a real apostle and we are. And here’s a list of reasons why Paul is not a real apostle and we are.”
And one of the things that they said is Paul suffers. Paul has been beaten. Paul has this thorn in his flesh. Paul has been put in prison. So he must not be a real apostle like we are because look, we’re healthy. We’re wealthy. And we have the wisdom of the world.
And that’s what Paul is addressing here in chapter 4. When he talks about the power of the Gospel in the first four verses, he introduces the power of the Gospel in suffering by saying that we have this treasure. What treasure? Look back at v. 6.
“For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The treasure that we have, the treasure that Paul had, the treasure that the church in Corinth had was the treasure of God’s power of the Gospel. And he says that we carry this treasure in jars of clay. Several years ago, a couple years ago, we had an opportunity to go to this pottery studio out in Meadow Bridge. You go down to the Meadow Bridge exit on the interstate. You head back up the hill to Meadow Bridge. You wind out into the middle of nowhere.
And Jeff has a pottery studio. And three or four times a year, he has a show there. And we went out and I bought this really beautiful handmade coffee mug at Jeff’s show. And I still use it. I use it every week. It’s kind of my Sunday coffee mug. It’s part of my Sunday routine. But it’s beautiful.
It’s not what Paul’s talking about here. He’s not talking about a beautiful piece of pottery. He’s talking about a usable, functional, disposable piece of pottery that people would have used in their day-to-day lives for cooking, for storage. They were fragile. They were easily broken and quickly thrown away and replaced when they were broken. That’s what Paul is talking about when he says that we have this treasure in jars of clay. What are the jars of clay?
Well, it’s you and I. It’s Paul himself. Paul is reminding us that we are fragile, cracked pots that God has entrusted the glory of His message to, the power of the Gospel to. You realize you and I are frail. You ever think about that? Sometimes we’re confronted with our frailty.
Sometimes we are at a point in our life where we can ignore our frailty, but we as humans are frail jars, pots of clay. And it is in those jars that God has put the power of His Gospel. Paul goes on to explain his frailty.
He says that we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Afflicted is to be pressed down, to be squeezed by pain in the world. He says we are perplexed, but not driven to despair. To be perplexed means to be anxious or at the end of one’s rope. At wit’s end, he says, but we are not driven to despair. Persecuted. Persecuted means well persecuted. Chased down and pursued because of a message that you profess. He says, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed.
The power of the Gospel is not in seeing that we are kept from suffering, but it is seeing that in the midst of suffering, we are kept from being crushed, from despair, from being forsaken, and from being destroyed. In fact, Paul goes on to say that the power in our suffering is the truth that we carry within us the body of Jesus’ death whenever we do suffer.
What does he mean by that? Did Jesus suffer on this earth? Yes. And when we suffer, we carry within us the marks of that suffering. Now, our suffering does not save anyone. We’ll see a practical benefit to our suffering here in just a little bit. But when the Christian suffers, it is a reminder that our Savior suffered and He promised us that if He was going to be hated, we would be hated. If He suffered, we would suffer.
And yet, not only do we carry the death of Jesus in our suffering, we also carry the life of Jesus in our suffering. After the worst of His suffering upon the cross, bearing in His body the punishment for the sins of those who believe. Suffering the worst that any human being could suffer and yet bearing up underneath it because He was also truly God.
What happened? He was raised from the dead to glory. And so our suffering is not only carrying the death of Jesus, but it is carrying the power of His resurrection. And Paul says if I have suffered, it is life for you because I have suffered for the sake of the Gospel.
And in my suffering, I brought the Gospel to you and you have received life. And so the power in our suffering is the power of the Gospel that is at work in us and through us day by day.
GLORY OF SUFFERING
Next in v. 13-15, he talks about the glory of suffering.
And he does this by introducing us to Psalm 116. He quotes from Psalm 116, which is a psalm of thanksgiving to God after God has rescued the psalmist from suffering. The psalmist says:
“The snares of death encompassed me. The pangs of the grave or Sheol laid hold of me. I suffered distress and anguish. On down into v. 10, which Paul quotes, he says, I believed even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted.”
Paul says that the glory in suffering is knowing that God hears and answers. Knowing that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and bring us into His glorious presence. The worst that suffering on this earth can do to us, brothers and sisters, is usher us into the presence of God.
And that is the glory of suffering. Paul says, I have suffered for your sake. V. 15, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.
Do you know why Paul suffered? Because he had the audacity to continue to proclaim the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ even when everybody else told him to quit. The Jewish leaders told him to quit. The Roman leaders told him to quit.
And he had the audacity to not quit because the only hope that he had was through Jesus Christ. And he says the more I suffer, the more people hear the Gospel. The more I struggle, the more people see Jesus in my life and they are drawn to Him.
Not because of anything that Paul does. Not really because of anything Paul has said. But because the Holy Spirit uses Paul’s life and Paul’s ministry to bring others to Him.
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul actually expands upon his own suffering. And he talks about this thorn in his flesh in verses 8-10. And he says that I prayed, I pleaded, I begged with God three times to remove this suffering from me.
And what was God’s answer? No. My grace, my strength, my power is sufficient for you in suffering. Be weak so that the world can see My power.
So that you can see My power. And it’s not a power of miracles being done. It’s not a power of just lights and sound and fury.
It’s the power of other people’s hearts being raised from their death in sin and transgression to new life in Christ. Paul says when I am weak, it is the glory of God’s Gospel that shines through my weakness. God puts the glory in jars of clay so that we can see the glory shine and overshine us.
You know, if it was only important people or powerful people or gloriously strong people who had the eloquence of the Gospel, we would think it was them. But Paul says, no, I am weak so that you see God’s glory and not mine. I am weak so that you see God’s power and not mine.
RENEWAL IN SUFFERING
It is the power and glory of God that we see in our suffering. And lastly, he says that we see renewal in suffering. Verse 16, he says,
“We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
We feel this outer self wasting away picture, do we not? Many of you know that I have been running. I’ve not been able to run for the last few months, and it’s been showing me my own frailty and my own weakness, but kind of within the running social media community, there’s a joke that shows up every so often.
It says the secret to being able to run fast and injury free is to be younger than 30. There’s truth to that, is there not? Because we know that as we get older, we feel our frailty more and more. As we ail, as we get sick, as we age, we feel our outer self wasting away.
But through that suffering, through that wasting away, Paul says it is our inner self that is being renewed day by day. The Spirit is at work in us in the midst of our weakness, in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our hardship, making us new every day.
I mean, I hate to say this, I am stubborn enough that sometimes the greatest leaps forward that the Holy Spirit has given me in my holiness is through the hard times. It is through the suffering. It is through the pain. I’m not sharp enough to get it when life is good. And so sometimes God has to come to me and He takes things away, or He causes or allows pain in my life so that I have that leap forward in renewal and in holiness.
But the renewal is not just on this side of glory. The renewal is on the other side of glory as well because it is that power that’s at work in us now.
He says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Now, we might get upset with Paul here in verse 17 because he says light momentary affliction. And especially if you’ve been dealing with a chronic issue, it feels anything but light and momentary.
But then he shows us that it’s light and momentary in comparison. He says, to the eternal weight of glory. You know, the average lifespan is somewhere between 70 and 75 right now, is it not? Compare 70 or 75 years, maybe 100 if you’re lucky, to an eternity of God’s glory.
Suddenly, even a lifelong chronic problem doesn’t seem so bad. He says the weight of glory there. The grocery store in Florida where I grew up, Publix, had these industrial scales at the door as you walked in. And they still do. Big green things. Big chunky metal scales. And they go up to like 500 or 600 pounds. They have this dial on them. Big dial.
And every now and then, my sister and I, we would rush in there and we would both try to jump on it at the same time to see if we could get that needle to go as far as we possibly could. We would try to max the weight out on that scale. That’s the picture there of the glory.
Think of the biggest scale you possibly can. God is going to max out the weight of His glory on you into eternity. And so, the renewal through suffering is able to be engaged because we look forward to that eternal weight of glory knowing that what we suffer right now is nothing compared to what awaits us in the new heavens and the new earth.
And so as we suffer, as God seeks to renew us through that suffering, we don’t look to the things that are here, to the things that are seen, He says, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that we see are transient. But the things that are unseen are eternal.
Where do you look when you’re suffering? Do you get kind of navel-gazed and just get caught up and overwhelmed and drown in not being able to see beyond the pain? Or whatever issues are causing you problems right now?
Or do you look beyond that and you hope for and long for that eternal weight of glory that is yours right now, but you wait for the ultimate fulfillment of that weight of glory in the new heavens and the new earth?
CONCLUSION
And that’s the question that Paul leaves us with, is where is your focus in suffering? We have two ways to react to suffering in our lives. The first way comes from the song that they sang every week on Hee Haw. Doom, despair, and agony on me.
How many of us look at suffering in our lives and that’s our legitimate reaction? We despair in suffering. Because that’s the temptation that the world leads us to. The world says look at your hardship, look at your difficulty, and get depressed.
Or get anxious. Or get angry. Or whatever.
And I don’t want us to deny that suffering hurts. Whatever suffering looks like for you. We do not deny the pain. Look at the psalms. And the psalms of lament. In Psalm 116, which is not a song of lament, it’s a psalm of thanksgiving. What did the psalmist say? He said, I despaired of my life. I thought I was going to die. And so I cried out to God and He rescued me.
We do not deny the pain. We don’t pretend like suffering isn’t hard. But that is not our main focus.
Our main focus is the second response. It is joy in knowing that God’s power, God’s glory, and God’s renewal comes to us through suffering. And one day that suffering will be replaced with an eternal weight of glory.
So brothers and sisters, if 2026 is harder for you than 2025, see, I told you it was a New Year’s sermon. If 2026 is harder for you than 2025, how will you respond?
Let’s pray. To the gracious God, to the glorious God, we do thank You that we are not alone in our suffering. We thank You that we carry the life and the death of Jesus in our suffering. And we thank You that our salvation came through suffering. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
BENEDICTION
As we leave this week, please take this blessing with you.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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