Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 72. Part 1 I am a Jar Made of Clay (and God has molding to do)

Hello human.

Today’s BUOY started with wanting to grow significantly in how I love my enemies, and people I define as at neighbor’s length that I find hard to love.

How I can gain clarity on that % of my mind that spends negative energy on not-loving someone, maybe disagreeing with what someone believes, rallying my mental troops to stand against a type of person rather than seeing every person as a child of God. And the worst of it, doing nothing that produces the love I am commanded to do. That God-love that is the be-all, end-all of everything. The Love premise: love your enemies, love those you do not agree with, make no lasting judgements, stay in your spiritual love lane no matter what.

AND THEN. How I can flip my mental switch to the love side-of-things. Because I know that how I spend my time mentally clears the path for my behavior.

All this in the context of just having completed a section of the New Testament on my Bible read-thru – Romans, 1 and 2^nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I knew I had read something from Paul that spoke to my heart about loving those who we define as hard to love. But I couldn’t find anything that spoke to what I was familiar with, what had a logical connection.

To my surprise, I ended up back in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. I spent a great deal of time reading and re-reading and praying about this direction. Although I share part 1, half of the journey in this Buoy, I can thank only the Holy Spirit. I would never have landed here on my own.

I couldn’t understand how Paul’s suffering and his relationship with some of the Corinthian church members connected to my desire to grow in my love for those I do not feel a connection with.

2 Corinthians is said to be Paul’s most personal letter, filled with high-stake emotions. We see a vulnerable, Paul, working through the resistance he was receiving from some of the Jewish leaders in the church of Corinth. They challenged Paul on several things. The unifying element was their defiance of his personal courage, that he suffered too much to be a Spirit-filled apostle of the risen Christ.

This letter is such a transparent look into Christian discourse between a man on fire for the Lord, and a church body with not only Jews, but converted Gentiles in the middle of a cosmopolitan city populated by Romans, Greeks, and Jews. Scholarly estimates have the church population at about 40 -150, in a city of about 700,000 people. Corinth was a city that served as the most important commercial hub of the ancient world.

For the Sake of God’s Glory

Paul lived and ministered to others on the front lines of God’s spiritual war.

Paul’s focus in this epistle is the relationship between his suffering and the power of the Spirit in his life, that God uses Paul’s suffering as an apostle to reveal His glory.

This is very personal to Paul. He is convicted that suffering illuminates God’s glory in every person’s life. It’s a critical connection Paul must make, between his apostleship to the good news of Jesus Christ that he embodies through his actions.

To reject Paul and his proclamation is to reject Christ himself. His life is his ministry is the embodiment of His Savior. Paul’s witness, and his ministry, are spiritually powered by his view of what he sacrifices for the sake of God’s glory. How he gets out of the way of his own earthly desires, his own human condition, to reveal the light of the gospel.

How he gets out of the way of the glory of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:1-5

Present Weakness and Resurrection Life

4 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

Honoring Jesus through Suffering

In verse 6, Paul defines the light we read about throughout God’s Word.

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Then, he defines the essence of suffering through embodying Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

My heart rejoices reading this. Paul is saying that our suffering, our “being given over to death” is for Jesus, and that our suffering never leaves us crushed, in despair, abandoned or destroyed. This whole spiritual process honors the death and resurrection of Jesus. Suffering is how we honor him. The resurrected life of Jesus lives through us for the sake of redeeming others.

I want to pause for a minute on Paul’s analogy of a jar of clay.  This is a common item used in the households of ancient Palestine. He likens the clay jars to humanity, calling us jars of clay in which God has placed a great treasure. This hit home for everyone. Everyone knew it takes very little to break a clay pot.

Yet ours is an awesome God, empowering the treasure of His resurrected Son within the fragility of the human condition. Because our suffering is a powerful connection, a searing witness that speaks to the eyes, the ears, the heart of the humans on our path.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore, We Do Not Lose Heart

And Paul goes on in verse 16 with a floodgate of encouragement.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Verse 18 offers a panoramic view of earth, and our eternal destination. Paul calls our earthly challenges “light and momentary troubles” and worth every battle with anxiety, adversity, and animosity…. that when we feel our lives fraying around the edges, and weariness settles into our bones…

We know, our God is an awesome God, empowering the treasure of His resurrected Son within the fragility of the human condition.

I have landed on the threshold of suffering. Because our suffering is a powerful connection, a searing witness that speaks to the eyes, the ears, the heart, and soul of the humans on our path.

Our suffering is evidence of the sacrifice Jesus made; it is evidence of God’s power over everything. What I am most drawn to in Paul’s words is “fixing my eyes on what is unseen.”

The unseen is eternal life, the kingdom of God, with Jesus on His right hand. The spirit world. I receive spiritual glimpses of the unseen, insights about His glory. As God draws me closer, the glimpses are longer, and the more I do to represent Jesus, the clearer my spiritual vision is.

Landing on the Threshold of Suffering

I started this whole thought process with how to love my enemies, how to love my neighbors, how to love like Jesus.

I have landed on the threshold of suffering.  

And how I might engage with others to bring more of the glory of God through the face of Christ.

With the fervor of Paul, the tenacity of his path, the fierceness of his spiritual stride.

Paul’s dissenters thought he suffered too much to be Spirit-filled, that he was weak and tossed about in his person (his trials, imprisonments, etc.), that his life did not represent the authority of God.

But what this letter does is open the unseen of Paul’s life. I landed on this threshold of suffering because I am a jar made of clay. And God has molding to do.

God molded, and molded, and molded Paul for his entire ministry. Paul’s suffering was his witness.

I want God to mold, and mold and mold me for my entire ministry. I am told I can count on suffering, as Paul says—being hard pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted, struck down.

I have landed on the threshold of suffering. Paul’s discourse will help me raise my spiritual game.

What if I fix my eyes on bringing some light on the unseen in the lives of others, those we disagree with, who live differently, who react differently than I do?

What if we, you, and me human, nudge the door open, crack a window just enough so they can see a little of the light coming in?

What if we, you, and me human, get out of the way for the glory of God? It involves suffering.

When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, love our enemies, that covers everyone, right? We each have a whole life’s work with humans we don’t have an easy connection with…

Consider this:  How do we bring “the unseen” power in our lives to those we feel so distant from? How do we get out of the way and step over the threshold of suffering?

Episode 73.