March 29, 2023
Daily Devotion:
"Light Shall Shine Out
of Darkness"
2 Corinthians 4:5–7
For we do not preach
ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for
Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness,"
is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from
ourselves.
We Christians have received a
priceless treasure (the glorious gospel) in a very frail and perishable
container (our weak bodies). There is a reason. So nobody will have any
question about the source of power, it must be of God and not of any human
origin. And so—to verify just how frail our humanity is, Paul lists four common
struggles servants live with. I'm calling them consequences. Let's see all four
in the two verses that follow before we analyze each one in the next few posts.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians
4:8–9)
