One of the biggest issues that I have found in our society is that we are constantly being commanded to be perfect. Whether it is an ad in the newspaper, a parent, a spouse, a pastor or sometimes just yourself, the noise that perfectionism creates is overwhelming. I find that it creeps into our lives slowly, and we are expected to perform beyond our capabilities. Even worse, anything that has blemishes or dents are considered worthless.
I say this to you because it shows that we are not called to be perfect. Society will tell us that we have to be perfect, and that we have to have it all together. As Christians, it will be demanded of us, and others will be waiting for us to slip so they can yell “I told you so!” Whether it is in our homes, with our jobs, our friends, our significant others, perfectionism is a very prevalent problem today. Most perfectionists live very unsatisfying lives, I know because I was forced to be one for a time. The fact was, I fought it every inch of the way and wondered why those people could not accept me for being me. The truth was that they did not love themselves, and that they did not understand what it truly means to be human.
When we read this passage, Pauls starts by encouraging us to not lose heart. He talks about giving in to secret or shameful ways, and unfortunately that is what happens when we feel like we have to be perfect. I know that’s what I did. I would screw up and be very hard on myself. But not only that, when I found weakness, I would hide it. I was afraid of being rebuked at church (which happened), or someone finding out and then lambasting me for it. But instead, Paul says to renounce these ways and to live in Christ’s mercy. It is not exactly the best idea, especially because the world wants us to have it all together. Sounds crazy? I will explain later.
Some might say that it was insulting for Paul to describe us as Jars of Clay in 2 Corinthians 4:7. Does anyone know what Paul used that as an illustration? The reason is because clay jars were very unattractive and cheap. So what people would do is they would place their treasures in the jars and hide them because they figured that no one would come looking for a treasure in such a homely container.
When you begin to understand that the historical aspect of this as well, you begin to realize that this is very important. The Corinthians were very superficial on a whole. They wanted what they felt was the best gift (seen in 1 Corinthians), were rather showy in worship and was obsessed with appearance, much like the Roman Empire on a whole. So the idea of being cheap and fragile vessels would have been a complete shock to them.
But don’t worry, Paul is not calling us worthless and unattractive! Well, sort of, more like frail and breakable. When you consider who the letter is being written to, you can understand why he wrote this. He is writing to a Corinthian church that was full of issues and they needed to understand their place.
There was a story that really hit home for me that was received as an email. I am paraphrasing, so I hope I do not get in trouble for telling it wrong. It was a story about a woman who had two clay pots. She would take the two pots down to the river to get water for her home. One pot was perfect, and it held the water. The second pot, was unfortunately cracked. When the woman would bring the water back from the river, she would bring back the water to find that the one pot had lost most of the water. The perfect pot would mock the cracked pot (please suspend reality!), and said that it should just be destroyed. So the broken pot asked the woman why he is still kept around since he is not reliable.
“Do you ever look at the ground on your side of the road? There are flowers and grass that rely on your water every day! Look at the other side, and you will see it is desolate.” So the next day, the pot looked at the side of the road that it was on, and found that it was in fact much more colorful and lush than the other side.
This story hits home for me because I am a cracked pot. Having dealt with learning disorders and medical conditions, I am broken. But what I have learned is that because of my weaknesses, God is active. There is no reason that I should be pursuing the degrees that I am, there is no reason that I should even be teaching right now, but I am. So you can imagine how much of an encouragement that can be to someone in a similar situation. If I never bothered to mention this detail, then someone might never know that it is possible to get this far and give up or disregard it as a dream.
I can recall times in which I was faced angry people who were insulting me, and insulting God. Even though I should have shut down and not said anything back, that is when I opened my mouth and the Holy Spirit spoke. The men were never convinced, but those that watched gained a better understanding of what I believed and who Christ was. This is a place of weakness for me understanding my situation, and I should not be able to form arguments that smoothly or quickly. However, it was in my weakness that the Lord came through.
Another major point of verses eight and nine are that Paul describes us as a multitude of situations; hard pressed, not crushed, perplexed yet not in despair, so on and so forth. So what does this say to us? That one, we can never be perfect. We will get our share of hits by being who we are, however, he will not let us shatter.
I would like to leave you with this image. Have you ever put a candle in a broken pot? It is only through the cracks in the pot that you can see the light. Much is it the same for us. If we are the perfect pot, we will not give much light. But when the light shines through our cracks, we are able to guide people in ways that others cannot. So please do not be hard on yourself over the little things in life, and learn to embrace the fact that the Lord is in control and that he will love us no matter how many cracks we have.
