II Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us
Do you know how to stir the feelings of other people? Maybe you can make someone mad with just a word, or maybe you can make someone happy by recalling a story. Sometimes we say about someone, “They are just so quiet. They don’t say much.” Then, someone hears us making that comment and says, “You think that person is quiet? They aren’t quiet. If you stick around them long enough, you will hear them say plenty.” All of us have plenty to say about something about which we are passionate. Every one of us is animated or made alive by something.
In II Corinthians 4:7 Paul says, “But we have this treasure [the gospel] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” So, this great treasure, the gospel, is put in something like a clay pot, something very plain. There is a contrast between the value of what is inside and the vessel. All of us probably know someone whom God greatly uses, but when you meet them in person, you think, “This person is not eloquent, particularly educated, or dynamic, yet God is using him in a great way!” That is because it is not the person but the God who animates him, who gives him life.
What animates your life? What gives life to your actions? Ultimately one of two persons will animate your life today. How do you know if it is you or God who animates your actions? Let me give you two questions to ask yourself.
First, who gives the power? We are told “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” It wasn’t that the vessel carrying the gospel was remarkable. By comparison to a man named Apollos, Paul was very plain in his speech. He wasn’t an orator, yet he was used greatly because God was the One doing the work in Paul.
I’ve heard my uncle sometimes pray, “God, help me to think what Jesus would think, say what Jesus would say, do what Jesus would do, and feel what Jesus would feel.” That is a wonderful prayer because Jesus would say, think, do, and feel things I would not. We are talking about the animating power of another person, Jesus Christ in us.
An example of the fact that Jesus wants to be the animating power of your life is the comfort that Paul talks about. In chapter 1 Paul says that God is “the God of all comfort” and that He comforts us. In chapter 7, speaking about this animating power of comfort, Paul says that he had been in a lot of trouble, “nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” God is the One Who comforted Paul, but He did it through Titus. So, God was the one animating the actions of Titus.
Think about giving. II Corinthians 9 speaks about a cheerful giver, yet if you really look at the chapter, most of it is about God giving through us and to us, not merely our giving. It says, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you.” It says that God has given and ministered to us, and we are “being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.”
This brings us to a second question. Who gets the credit? II Corinthians 9 says that when we give it “causeth through us thanksgiving to God.” Later it mentions “many thanksgivings unto God” and those who “glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ.” In other words, I may be giving towards others, but God is the One Who has given me the power to have money and gives me the grace to give. He gets the credit.
If I can be thanked for every good thing that happens in my life, there is nothing supernatural about that. I am basically edging God out of my life. Sometimes we can even be secretly smug or feel secretly superior because we have done a good thing and no one else knows we have done this good deed. Hey, we are even better than they know. Well, maybe we don’t know what good things they have done and it really doesn’t matter. What matters is if I’m the one getting the credit for the good done, then I’m the one who has done the good. If I am the one who has done the good, then it is wood, hay, and stubble. It will not be long-lived.
On the other hand, if God is the animating power in my life, He is the One Who gives the power and Who gets the credit. If you are the one with the power, you are the one with the credit. If you are the one with the credit, there is not as much being done that could be done if it was Christ through you. One of two people will animate your life today, and the questions to ask are, “Who gives the power?” and “Who get the credit?”