The Plumbline

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness.  We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.  That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.  As it is, there’s not much chance of that.  You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.  (2 Cor. 4:7-9) Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church in the plainest of language he could find to describe the fact that both he and his partners in ministry had been through much for the cause of Christ.  They had faced various trials and persecutions, just because of the message of the Christ that he had preached.  All the while, he wants them to know that the message he carried is simply housed in an “earthen pot” or “jar of clay” – to keep those who heard the message from seeing the disciple who was bringing that message and to focus their attention on Christ instead.  In the King James Version, this text is translate...