April 4th, 21

You are a fragrant perfume. You are a letter. You are a fragile clay jar. Paul uses all three of these metaphors to describe the quality of our Christian life. How does the clay jar live? Paul says that this clay jar that is our life contains a great treasure. And this treasure that dwells within us clearly demonstrates God's power and not our own. It reflects something eternal. The treasure is Christ Himself in you. The life within these clay jars is Christ Himself.

So how do we live? We live in Christ in his power and his strength. And because it is Christ that lives within us, we are told that we should never give up. And we should be ready to speak up and proclaim this life of God and Christ now found in us and offered to all never give up, be ready to speak up. And we as fragile clay jars are told to fix our gaze on Jesus. We are to fix our eye on him and not on our temporal troubles. We are to look to Him who is eternal. We now have this light shining in our hearts. But we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. You are a fragrant perfume. You are a letter proclaiming the gospel written upon your hearts. And now you are a fragile clay jar that contains a precious, priceless, powerful treasure. And that treasure is Christ, Christ in you. That's the Christian life. The life of Christ in us gives us hope and helps us to endure our hardships. It gets us through all the struggles of life and gives us a vision of things eternal, lasting, true and good.

You are loved!