Let's Go Back to the Bible

I am only a jar of clay

Sometimes it is easy for us to get puffed up—to think that we are something and to think that our thoughts, our ways, our abilities, our pursuits are of utmost importance and of supreme value. The Lord, however, is quick to remind us that such thoughts are not of Christ.

Paul wrote about the wonderful “treasure” of God’s new covenant and how “glorious” it truly is (2 Cor. 4:4-7). But, as highly valuable and incomparably glorious as the gospel of Christ is, it has been committed to our trust, and we are but “earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7) or “jars of clay” (ESV). While a jar of clay is rather fragile, the central thought of this expression is to emphasize its little value, in order that the focus might remain on “the power of God” and “not of us.”

Elsewhere, Paul wrote, “If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6:3). It is easy to get puffed up, but our Lord says that is when we “deceive” ourselves into thinking something of ourselves that is not true, sound or Christ-like.