2 Corinthians 4:6-7
“Because it is God who spoke light to shine out of darkness who hath shined [or ‘lit a lamp’] in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us.”
These verses express a marvelous purpose of God! To light a lamp within us, and so deal with us that He may reduce our earthen vessels to a transparency in His hands — in order that the glory of God, shining in Jesus on high, should shine out from our hearts, that we may be God’s lanterns in a dark and Christ-rejecting world.
Some have referred to Gideon’s lamps and pitchers (Judg. 7), as an analogy of the glory of God shining out of our earthen vessels. However, the lamps in Gideon’s day shone out only when the pitcher was broken. Here, the vessel is not broken but is rendered transparent. All the hindering elements of flesh are so attenuated (lessened and made thin) that the “treasure” possessed by the vessel may shine forth undimmed. Thus Paul says in verse 10, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest [shine out] in our mortal flesh.”
Paul, a Shining Vessel
The circumstances through which Paul was passing when he wrote his letters to Corinth are worthy of our serious consideration, for they show how his own vessel was being made more transparent for the shining forth of the glory of God. His feelings and circumstances entered into all the texture of the teaching which flowed from God to us in his letters. As his vessel passed through the trial or exercise, his heart was trained. His affections were formed by these things, and he was sustained and supported of God in the sorrows of the way, so that “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Paul had drunk from the living stream at the fountainhead of all blessing (John 7:37-3837In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:37‑38)). His thirst had been quenched by Christ. And so his inner man — the mind, the heart, the soul — became the means of refreshing streams to others. That which had consoled his own soul in its sorrow was a consolation to others. The Father of mercies so blessedly filled Paul’s soul with all His consolation in Christ that it overflowed, and the stream passed on in living power, producing fruit in the desert sands of the world where he went.
Paul had to learn how to live in the power of that which he would teach others; his purpose was to bear about in his body the dying of Jesus. How could he be helped in this? By being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may be manifest in his mortal flesh. This is God’s reward to those who seek to live in the power of what they teach and know.
Paul in Affliction
After he had written his first letter to the Corinthians, a very deep anguish filled his soul. The energy of the Spirit, in which he had been sustained when he wrote to the Corinthians, had waned, as he waited in anguish for a reaction from his letter. He feared he had lost the beloved Corinthians. How had they received his letter? Was it too hard, too severe? In deep exercise he repented of having written it. “I did repent,” said he, speaking of his tried heart’s exercise (2 Cor. 7:8). There was a greater death than that of the body, which hovered over his life; his soul died within him, as it were, in the bitterness of his sorrow. Some have passed through this kind of death. Only those who in some measure have passed through it understand it. Paul could not even rest in his spirit at a great and prosperous work at Troas, but he went in search of Titus that his soul might be relieved by news of Corinth from Titus (2 Cor. 2:13).
Pressure after pressure he endured at the hand of the potter, for he was but the clay upon the wheel, growing up under the skillful eye and hand of the Master. All these varied trials fell in crushing soul-death on him. God was attenuating the opaqueness which still remained, that the light might shine forth with brighter power, that the treasure of his heart might be more clearly seen, and that God’s purpose in the vessel might be manifested without hindrance.
Then at last, Paul was comforted by the coming of Titus” (2 Cor. 7:6). What a time of soul-comfort now followed! He said, “We were comforted in your comfort; yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all” (2 Cor. 7:13). Well can he say, “O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.” He can pour forth his heart’s teaching. He is unhindered in his joy.
What a moment for the true servant! What a moment for the people of God! Little did they realize how the servant’s heart was hindered in the ministry, how the springs of God were dry to them because of their state, and how at that same time the servant had to learn fresh lessons of death working in himself. His brightest word had become dull, because the Spirit of God was grieved, and their hearts were dull of hearing. God had to be a rebuker of both servant and people, instead of rivers of refreshment in a thirsty land.
The Gospel of the Glory
Now in Paul we find that sovereign mercy is the basis of the gospel of the glory. This is what Paul calls “our gospel” (ch. 4:3). What was this gospel? By it “this treasure” was communicated to Paul, who stands here as the representative man — the pattern to all. Sovereign and free mercy shone in this man’s life more fully than in any other. He said, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.”
“Our Gospel” comes from the glory of God. It comes forth as a ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:8-9) — no more as the ministration of “condemnation” and “death.” “Our gospel” shines out from the face of Him who accomplished the work. God seated Him on His throne as a witness to the estimate of the work which He accomplished.
The Treasure
What was this treasure which he possessed? The “treasure” was this — all that was brought forth from the glory of God, as found in Christ there, and as possessed in the vessel of clay. The vessel received the treasure into the heart, and then came the attenuating process, which prepared the vessel to better display the treasure. The light was taken in through the exercises of the conscience, and it shone out through the exercises of the heart. The “life of Jesus” needed to shine out from the earthen vessel. The momentary lightness of the affliction worked to enlarge the capacity and give in result a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
And what a strange vessel for such a treasure! Paul would not allow his vessel to conceal the treasure but fully displayed it. Chapter 3 of this letter explains this by recalling a moment in Israel’s history when His sovereignty and mercy shone out when Moses came down from the mount the second time. As Moses came down from the mount, with the second table of the law in his hand, the skin of his face shone with the brightness of this fresh and suited name: “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth.”
This was the purpose of God with the earthen vessel; this was the process to make it become what He desired. The light of the glory in the face of Jesus shone in the holiest on high, and on earth in the chosen vessel.
Adapted from A Chosen Vessel,
F. G. Patterson
Note: Some of the Scripture quotations are Patterson’s own translation of the Greek.