Treasure In Earthen Vessels Views

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Treasures in Earthen Vessels 2 Cor.:6-7.---' For God, who commanded the light to shine and out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that that excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.'

God commanded the light to shine out of darkness---so from the very first religion has been cradled in paradox; you cannot get away from it. It is always out of darkness that the light shines; it is always in the earthen vessels that the treasure is hidden. No doubt there are those who would like to have everything plain and straightforward, no mystery of spirit prisoned in matter, of good coming out of the evil, of things seen, which are temporal, yet the tabernacle of things not seen, which are eternal.

Truth is often a treasure and earthen and vessels. Even the Bible, our greatest treasure, has not been exempted from the fate of other books. It has been copied, and transmitters across centuries of declining knowledge. Neither were the Biblical writers exempted from some, at least, of their general characteristics of their contemporaries: they shared the literary peculiarities of men of their own nationality and station; they were not supernaturally raised above the level of knowledge to which their contemporaries had attained in matters of science. Even in the things of religion there is a growth and progression running through the Old Testament and the New. No one generation reached the limits of truth all at once; there was a gradual withdrawal of the veil at different times and different portions.

We should not think it likely that God would allow the revelation of Himself to be mixed up with such imperfect materials. But we are no good judges of what God would or would not do. 'His ways are not our ways.' Out of the imperfect He brings forth the perfect. Ii is so in the world of Nature, and it is so in the world of grace. 'We have our treasure in earthen vessels.' The vessels may be frail but the treasure they contain is Divine. Through all the fortunes and perils of the ages the truth which was in them has been preserved.