Treasure in clay jars
Clay jars were cheap, common and breakable, used for everyday things and thrown away when cracked. Paul says that is what we are, ordinary and fragile people carrying the gospel.
Our weakness is not a problem for God; it is the setting He chooses. When a cracked jar carries light, everyone can see the glory belongs to the One inside, not the container.
Lord, I am a cracked and ordinary jar. Thank You for trusting me with Your treasure. Let Your power show through my weakness today. Amen.
ὀστράκινος (ostrakinos (os-TRAH-kee-nos)). “Of clay” or “earthen,” from the word for a piece of baked clay. The same root gives us “ostracize,” because broken pottery pieces were once used to cast votes.
Paul wrote Second Corinthians around AD 55–56 to a church that doubted him. In this chapter he describes his sufferings honestly, and he explains why God lets His servants be weak.
Peter Cameron Scott’s team of the Africa Inland Mission arrived at Mombasa, Kenya, to begin work. Scott died of blackwater fever the next year, but the mission continued and grew into a major church-planting work across Africa.