Don’t Lose Heart

There Is a Treasure within You!

In an AMG International orphanage in Uganda, I heard the testimony of a precious teenage girl who had come to know Christ but was struggling with her fears of dying.

She was HIV positive and her parents and another family member had died of AIDS. She was so broken and understandably frightened as to what the future held for her. I truly did not know what to say until the Lord led me to share with her that she had a treasure living in her. That treasure is the Lord Jesus Christ in the person of His Spirit. No matter what the future holds for her, He holds her future and will take her through whatever may come. 

The apostle Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4 his testimony and how he was able to face even death daily. It is so encouraging that Paul understood the frailty of his flesh like the rest of us. In 2 Corinthians 4:7 he says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”        

Our eyes drift immediately to the word “treasure” and the words “earthen vessels.” The Greek word for “earthen” is óstrakinos, which usually refers to a simple clay pot. When used metaphorically, as it is here, it pictures human frailty. “Vessel” is the Greek skeuos, a word used to mean “implement” or any object which contributes to the usefulness of another. Quite a word picture isn’t it?  Unless we are filled with God’s Spirit we are just empty clay pots. 

The word for “treasure” is the Greek thesaurós, which refers to true wealth that has not been accumulated overnight but over time. It is that which has been stored up and is therefore valuable. The Gospel message is not the treasure I believe that he is talking about that is in this vessel. This treasure is Christ who is the glory and the grace of God!

Christ is the treasure that has come to live in us. He who is the love and the light and the life has come to live in us! This treasure, the jewel of God, has been deposited in us as believers who, without Him, are simple empty clay pots! Paul understood that he was a simple vessel that had no power in itself. He had no power to deliver the message, no power to minister apart from Christ. He was just a frail, weak, pitiful pot of clay, capable only of coming up with depraved sinful agendas and fleshly goals in ministry. 

We, as believers, must understand what we are not apart from Christ: earthen vessels—clay pots. But, because of the Grace of God, Christ Himself has come to live in us!

Oh, what a treasure! He not only gives us the message, but He is the message. He wants His life and light to shine through us so that those who live in spiritual darkness can see the Treasure that now lives in us!

Paul goes on to state that the treasure of Christ is within us “so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

“Surpassing” translates the Greek huperbolé, from which we get the English word “hyperbole.” It refers to an exaggeration—something that is taken way beyond normal. In this context it means “way above”, a far better way. “Power” comes from the Greek dúnamis, describing the very ability to do something.

 The verb in this verse, “will be”, is present tense—the idea is that this surpassing power will always and continuously be of God and not from ourselves. It is also in the subjunctive mood which makes it “iffy”. You see, sometimes we choose for the power to be of us instead of God because we would rather do it ourselves. Paul knew the basics—he had already said that his adequacy was not from himself but it was from God! Christ, the treasure, lived in Paul to do through him what Paul could never do himself. 

This passage in general sounds a lot like what Paul said to the Galatians, doesn’t it? “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). What about what he said to the Philippians? “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). How about when he told the Colossians, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4)?

The message? Don’t lose heart; you have a treasure living in you if you are a believer of Jesus Christ. Christ lives in you! You are not alone; you never suffer alone. He will enable you to bear up under whatever comes your way because He is our life!

Wayne Barber is senior pastor of Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque, N.M.