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July 16 - July 22, 2024
God does occasionally use such people, but as Paul says, “not many.” He generally ignores that strategy and employs plain clay pots—in order that it may be clear to all that the power is of God and not from us. Even the notable and talented of this world must learn to become clay pots in order to be used by God to maximum effectiveness.
Christ bypassed them all and called simple, crude, unknown, and uneducated fishermen from Galilee to be His disciples.
By myself, I’m good for nothing but taking out the garbage.” In the words of Romans 7:18, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” But by God’s grace, he was an ugly jar that contained an immense treasure.
By using frail and common people, God makes it clear that the power is His, not ours. The fact that God can make spiritual leaders out of such unsightly clay jars is proof of the greatness of His power. Spiritual power is not the product of human genius or human technique. The power is from God.
The humility that stems from knowing our human frailties ought to motivate us to hate sin and to be constantly and continuously repentant. That was the spirit of the apostle Paul himself, as we see in Romans 7. Every true spiritual leader will cultivate a holy hatred for sin and a humble, repentant heart over sin in his own life. That is an essential part of the life of every humble clay pot.
Yes, he was a clay pot—in some ways fragile, breakable, replaceable, valueless. But don’t underestimate him, either. He was a sturdy clay pot, not eggshell china. This quality is absolutely essential to anyone in leadership: A leader is resilient.
He was quite aware of all his own weaknesses. But at the same time, in those weaknesses he was mighty (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:10).
Nothing is more completely Christlike than that sort of strength in weakness. “Though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you”
This was nothing new for him. In his earlier epistle to the church at Corinth, he had written, “To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now”
From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
The same evil hatred that put Christ on the cross is still at work in the world, but now it pursues His faithful servants. Paul was bearing all that abuse daily— “always [being] delivered to death for Jesus’ sake”
disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them”
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
But all through life I see a cross Where sons of God yield up their breath; There is no gain except by loss, There is no life except by death, And no full vision but by faith, Nor glory, but by bearing shame, Nor justice, but by taking blame; And that Eternal Passion saith: Be emptied of glory, right and name.
Paul mentioned death some forty-five times in the New Testament. Normally, he used the Greek noun thanatos, which speaks of death as a fact.
It is invetible!
As a mere clay pot, Paul knew he was expendable and was willing to be sacrificed.
In other words, his sacrifice was ultimately for their benefit. “So then death is working in us, but life in you”
It wasn’t some masochistic love of pain that drove Paul, but love for the Corinthians.
Remember that Jesus’ earthly sufferings were not limited to the pains of the cross. He, too, was relentlessly stalked and ruthlessly hunted by His enemies. He lived in the face of death until He died on the cross. None of us will ever suffer a fraction of what He suffered.
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”
Right there in Corinth, total pagans with no knowledge of the true God had come to faith in Christ after hearing Paul preach in their city square. What could account for that, other than the power of God?
Such a life of sacrifice suited Paul fine, because the return on the investment was so worthwhile.
An apathetic leader is a contradiction in terms. No true leader will ever be uncaring. In fact, this is another fundamental principle of all leadership: A leader is passionate.
All leaders must have passion, and spiritual leaders especially must be driven by an intense passion for the truth, as well as a deep, fervent, and abiding love for Christ. It is impossible to maintain such affections and be passive or unemotional.
Righteous wrath is no less noble than love, since both coexist in God. Each necessitates the other. It was Jesus’ love for the man with the withered hand that aroused His anger against those who would deny him healing (Mark 3:5). It was His love for His Father, and zeal for His glory, that kindled His anger against the mercenary traders who had turned His house of prayer for all nations into a cave of robbers
Great leaders who have turned the tide in days of national and spiritual declension have been men who could get angry at the injustices and abuses which dishonor God and enslave men.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
The conflict was not yet over. Paul knew what every good leader knows: Rebellion always sows seeds for more rebellion.
No one in the world ever suffered more unjustly than Christ. He was sinless, totally innocent, completely without deceit. And yet when He was reviled, He did not return the taunts. How merciful was Christ? Isaiah spoke of Him prophetically, saying, “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench”
But Christ’s ministry was to redeem people who were otherwise worthless, not destroy and discard them. Such compassion set the spirit for His entire earthly mission
“God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”
Then he replied in a way that welded his strength and his tenderness together. He began with a clear expression of compassion, but then he immediately began to speak with a calm firmness that soon rose to a militant tone. The note of gentle sarcasm signaled the shift from compassion to firmness.
By the way, Paul was not always meek in face-to-face situations. Remember, on one occasion, he even rebuked Peter. He did it publicly, and “to his face, because he was to be blamed” (Galatians 2:11). The record of Paul’s personal courage fills the book of Acts, starting with chapter 13. He boldly stood against courts, councils, religious leaders, mobs, governors, kings, and especially false teachers. He was by no means weak or cowardly. That would have violated one of the cardinal principles of leadership: A leader is courageous.
The leader’s compassion doesn’t cancel out his willingness to fight. His courage is equal to his passion.
He still denied, of course, that he walked “according to the flesh” in the moral sense. But he also admitted that he was still “in the flesh” in the human sense.
We are fighting for the preservation and proclamation of the truth. We are fighting for the honor of Jesus Christ. We are fighting for the salvation of sinners, and we are fighting for the virtue of saints.
In fact, for every good and noble effort of Christian leaders in business, politics, education, the military, or any other legitimate pursuit, there is inevitable engagement with the kingdom of darkness. Since all Christians, in whatever they do, are supposed to be engaged in the advance of Christ’s kingdom, they face opposition from the powers of evil.
Even if your job is to sell cars or food products, if you are a Christian, you are a soldier in a spiritual battle, and for that battle, you need to be skilled in the use of the right weapons.
What Paul had in mind were clearly not weapons of human invention, but divinely ordained, spiritually powerful weapons.
These are the various thought systems people have raised up against the knowledge of God. Romans 1 describes the course humanity has followed into sin. Although the truth of God’s existence and infinite power are clearly visible in creation
Indeed, when the apostle Paul listed the armor of spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:13–17, he named only one offensive weapon in the panoply: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (v. 17). The power of God for salvation is the power of the gospel alone (Romans 1:16; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:21).
One who is not able to engage in the spiritual warfare on this level is simply not equipped to lead well.
This is the one snare that has probably caused the downfall of more leaders than any other hazard: a lack of personal discipline.
“yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
And thus Paul highlighted for us another critical, indispensable, and supremely important quality every leader must maintain: A leader is disciplined.
those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
The leader’s confidence in his own calling must be matched and balanced by a holy dread of personal spiritual failure. Leaders are exposed to unique and singular temptations.
Pride has been a peculiar snare for many; a lack of purity and self-control has caused others to founder. Moral and personal default has been the downfall of many in leadership. It all stems from a lack of discipline.
no leader ever ought to feel immune from personal failure. Paul certainly did not.
