2 Corinthians 4:7

Main Thought: God has chosen to use men and women, small and great, to do His work in this world. That work involves preaching the Gospel, making disciples of all nations, and building the Church. However, lest we get to thinking too highly of ourselves or other servants of Christ, Paul reminds us that we are just earthen vessels, formed and created by God, vessels that are limited in strength, vitality, and duration of life. God has privileged us to help in this work, but the work will be accomplished because of the surpassing greatness of God, not because of us and our abilities. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and 3000 souls were saved, it was not because of Peter’s great prowess in preaching, but it was because of the great power of God upon him through the Holy Spirit. When writing to the Ephesians, Paul acknowledged that their salvation was not because of anything in his might or ability, but it was according to “the immeasurable greatness of His (God’s) power toward us who believe, according to the working of His (God’s) great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead…” (Eph. 1:19-20), and that the ability he had to preach the gospel was “according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of His power” (Eph. 3:7). Daily as we grow older and weaker physically, we come to realize in our work and efforts for the kingdom of God and glory of Christ, that anything we accomplish must be by His might; it must be by the enlivening of the Holy Spirit. What a great encouragement this should be for us, to realize that our physical abilities do not limit the work of God in salvation and the building of the Church or will not stop when we die, but even as our physical abilities fade the power of God is seen more visibly in us and He receives all the glory. Later on in this same letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). Here is the reality, that God’s strength and power are most magnified in us when we are weak, when we are at the end of our human strength and abilities. So, Christian, we are not to despair because our earthen vessels are not as strong or as vital as they used to be, or because we grow tired and weak, but we ask for and know that God’s strength will be magnified in us in whatever tasks we have ahead, that He may be glorified in our work for the kingdom of God in this world.