TEXT: 2 CORINTHIANS 4: 7-15 New Revised standard version
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.†
CLAY JARS
I’ll remind you that in this letter to the Corinthians, Paul was put in the unhappy position of having to defend his own authority, which is always an unpleasant thing to have to do. But the arrogance of the new leaders who had wormed their way into power and influence within the Corinthian church made this a necessary corrective.
Paul needs to put them in their place, but he does not assert himself by flexing his muscles or touting his stellar record of successful church plants. Instead, he makes an appeal to mutual humility.
Remember, as we’ve said before, the Greeks believed that the body was something like bad—lowly and base. But the Jews believed that the body was good because it was created by God. Paul finds a winsome middle ground in the expression “Jars of Clay,” because it suits both cultures. To the Greeks, yes, the body is worth nothing more than clay. To speak of a treasure in clay jars fit in well with their views concerning the nobility of the soul contrasted with the earthiness of the body. For the Jews, to speak of the body as clay reaffirms that God made humanity from the clay of the ground. Master potter that He is, we—including our bodies—are made good and in His image. So Paul tactfully manages to speak to both cultures, despite their variances at once.
We are jars of clay, earthen vessels. Clay jars were inexpensive, fragile, and even dispensable. They were completely ordinary—you could find them anywhere—in every town, village, and home. The contemporary equivalent would be paper cups. Paper cups are ordinary, somewhat fragile, and completely dispensable. So Paul says our bodies are like paper cups, but they contain something most miraculous and extraordinary: the knowledge that the full glory of God is in Jesus Christ—found there, and knowable through Him. That secret is the very light God has given to transform the nations and the world. And getting that secret from within us out into the whole world is the whole point of the gospel.
PAPER CUPS
So we—you and I—are like paper cups containing the secret of the universe, and though we contain it, we don’t hold onto is as our own. We are neither possessive nor secretive of that knowledge. Rather, we are to give that secret away as freely as we can. We are to pour out that light, that glory—amid, within, and around—the darkness of a fallen world.
The secret of salvation is the thing we freely proclaim from the rooftops and and in the public square. The secret is not for an elite few, but for the whole world—for all with the ears to hear and the eyes to see.
We are paper cups, worth very little in and of ourselves, but our true value is established by the infinitely valuable thing we contain within us.
These paper cups which are our bodies, contain the purest gold. More than gold—something even costlier than gold. Consider the substance called Californium (perfect for our series). Californium is a rare element presently valued at something like $25 million per gram. Imagine a paper cupful of that! Even costlier is antimater—antimatter goes for 70 trillion dollars per gram. This is closer to the mark Paul would have us to understand.
We paper cups, we clay jars, contain something of inestimably great value. So how should that make us feel—proud? No, humbled. Unlike the arrogant leaders Paul opposed, he reminds us that we are nothing—totally ordinary, even disposable—but the glory of God in Christ, which we contain by His grace—is infinitely valuable.
So rather than pride, we are called to humility and service.
HUMILITY
I’ll remind you that humility is one of the eternal virtues. It is the positive power at the opposite pole of sinful pride. Pride is weakness; humility is strength. But we should understand exactly what humility is in order that we seek it, strive toward it, and recognize it as a spiritual necessity.
The word humility rings negative to many hearers because of its association with humiliation. The horror of being humiliated by another is a horror to us all, but to rightly understand humility is to recognize the eternal virtue that it is.
I’ll talk about three: humility as courage, humility as communal, and humility as eternal.
Humility as Courage
First, let’s acknowledge that humility is a matter of courage. Courage may be easier to associate with the mighty and powerful, but this isn't necessary. Courage is not about power, but goodness. Courage is the strength by which we serve conscience instead of impulse. Courage leads us to do what is right even when doing so puts us at a worldly disadvantage.
When a soldier in a foxhole throws himself on a grenade in order to spare the lives of others, that isn’t prideful, but courageous. It is humility, for in some way, that soldier has internalized the truth that his life is not better than those of the others—nor does he think his own life without value—but in doing what has to be done to save lives, we see that humility means doing what is courageous.
Courage is the necessary strength of humility, not because the soul rises up in great strength to perform mighty deeds (this is food for pride), but because it stands for the goodness of God in any situation. It takes courage to say no, to refuse worldly bribes, to reject peer pressure, to shun what is easy and embrace what is good. It takes enormous courage.
Humility as courage is seen in God's steadfast love for Israel–he continues loving beyond every insult to himself. We see humility as courage in Christ's confrontations with the Scribes and Pharisees. With his clearing the temple, with his refusal to sell out to Pilate, and most shiningly with his complete obedience to the Father as he agonizes in Gethsemane and on Golgotha.
Humility means a courageous faith that will not sell out to culture, to pleasure, or to self-gain of any kind. It takes tremendous courage to unlearn the little ego games that we grow up with—the masks we construct for our emotional self-defense, the self-delusions that have driven us, the little lies we tell ourselves to stave off fear, doubt, and insecurities—and it is part and parcel of our spirituality to grow beyond these masks and games. The virtue of humility lives beyond these things, and once these are stripped away—the masks, the games— we find that we are more truly ourselves than every before, and better for it.
Humility is Communal
Secondly, Humility is communal. Humility is appropriate not only for you and me as individuals, but for the whole body. We should be a humble congregation of humble followers of Christ. Among other things, this means our spiritual development demands that we be critical of all self-righteousness—especially our own.
Should we proud of ourselves—proud of First Pres? Be careful. Certainly part of our faith is an appreciative awareness, a constant gratitude, as well as a joy in our fellowship. We may say "I'm proud of my church" when we actually mean something like, “I am grateful and joyous about my congregation,” even if we don't talk that way.
The danger is that humble individuals can become prideful when grouped together. We are social creatures and even nice people can be swept up in mob behavior and mob-think. The humble man or woman can be guilty of family pride, team pride, party pride, or national pride to the point that truly ugly pride slips in to the heart almost unnoticed.
Charles Spurgeon, that famous, British, Reformed, Baptist preacher of the 19th century, puts it this way:
Do not desire to be the principal man in the church. Be lowly. Be humble. The best man in the church is the man who is willing to be a doormat for all to wipe their boots on, the brother who does not mind what happens to him at all, so long as God is glorified.
So we again need to remember that it is not who we are that gives us joy—we are clay jars, paper cups—but rather whose we are that makes us glad, gives us peace, and excites our joy.
Because we belong to Jesus, we gather and have courage in his name to stand before God in worship. As we know we are his children and that he has won all things for us, we take courage in his victory and strength. This humble courage enables us to stand together and take risks for God's glory and kingdom.
The true Church has always been a courageous-and-humble community making a difference in neighborhoods, cities, and the world following the calling of Christ and risking itself in mission, service, and outreach.
Mark Labberton, the extremely intelligent and articulate President of Fuller Theological Seminary, puts it this way:
Courage is the positive value that pride or arrogance are not. The point isn’t to cultivate an aggressive community of cocky disciples. It is to cultivate a loving and humble community of people who are prepared to stand up and stand in to those places where the love, justice, and joy of God are needed, despite the fears we have for doing so. And then we are prepared to do so again. And again.
So sharing humility as a congregation parallels individual humility.
Humility is Eternal
Thirdly, humility is eternal. When this life is over for you and me, humility continues on. When we walk in God's kingdom, we shall be humble, because we will finally have a relationship with God that is like the Son's to the Father.
Humility is eternal because we shall be eternally in God's presence, seeing God face-to-face, and there can be no other truth but humility when a creature faces its creator.
Now the idea of "eternal humility" may not appeal to all. Some think of eternity as their own ego becoming deified, which is dead wrong. Remember the story of Lucifer’s fall—he couldn’t bear play second fiddle, even to God, and rather preferred to rule in Hell rather than serve in Heaven.
Humility is part of our spiritual completion, and our ultimate destiny does not offer us the option to become God. There is only one of two destinies: either eternal humility or eternal humiliation. Eternal humility means that we will know God and worship Him in His presence to His eternal glory. Eternal humiliation means forever pretending that you yourself are God and suffering the spiritual torments that necessarily accompany all attempts to foster the preposterous delusion that we are, in and of ourselves, anything more than paper cups, lucky enough to be used to contain something so valuable as the glory of Christ.
THE HUMBLE GOSPEL
The Gospel is the story of how God Almighty poured his limitless worth into a paper cup. And the fullness of God was contained there, concealed there, and was subjected to this world’s forces of darkness, sin, and decay.
The cup was destroyed, but God raised it again, restored it, and transformed it into imperishability. That cup is alive with the Father in Heaven—in the body and beyond the body all at once.
We jars of clay, we paper cups, though nothing in and of ourselves, have been called to contain the most valuable knowledge in the universe—it is more valuable than gold, Californium, or antimatter—and we are called to give it away freely to all who will hear us.
May we all grow to share the glory of God that is in Jesus Christ with increasing courage, with increasing cooperation, and with an increasing awareness that this foreshadows our eternity with God.
QUESTIONS
1. What is it that Paul describes as “clay jars”?
2. Why is humility stronger than pride?
3. Why is it we consider pride a form of weakness and fallenness?
4. How is courage related to humility?
5. What is the difference between individual pride and collective pride?
6. What are the dangers of group pride and how can it override individual humility?
7. Humility is an eternal virtue. How can we imagine it playing out in eternity?
8. Why is humility a hard thing to build up in oneself?
9. What is the true source of humility?
10. How can we predispose ourselves to live into greater humility?