“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” — 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT). Those were the words of Paul as he tried to communicate how great of a treasure we have in Christ. He is a treasure that offers more than we can ever fully understand or comprehend, which I will share with you in (Part 2) of this post. But in this post I want to show you what happens when we don’t value the treasure of Christ.
A treasure is defined as: “something valuable or a person who is greatly loved or valued.” Concerning our text, Vines Dictionary of NT Greek Words describes it as: “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” descriptive of the Gospel, as deposited in the human hearts of the persons who proclaim it.
Many may not realize it, but as Christians we possess a great treasure in Christ! And I don’t know about you, but I have been guilty of not always valuing Christ as the precious treasure that He is. The challenging questions I would ask you, as I have asked myself, are these: Do you see the value of Christ? Do you really understand how precious and cherished He is? Do you grasp the truth of His worth? Can you fathom what He did to give you His life so that His life can dwell and live in you? I know for myself many times the answer has been NO. And I say that with a repentant heart. You will never treat Christ as He deserves to be treated until you appreciate His value and worth! And you can’t appreciate His value until you understand the price He paid for your salvation. “For you are bought with a high price, so you must honor God with your body.” — 1 Corinthians 6:20 (NLT). In the natural sense, when we have a treasure that is very valuable we handle it with great care and love. On the other hand when we don’t value something we just throw it aside or kick it to the street so to speak. People don’t take care of the things they don’t value and treasure. When Christ isn’t valued, He simply isn’t important to us. He keeps getting pushed farther and father down our priority list. When that happens:
- He becomes more of a sideline “hobby” than a Savior
- Christ becomes more routine than Redeemer
- Suddenly there is nothing “special” about the Son of God
- He’s more ordinary than than He is extraordinary!
- The treasures of the world are more alluring than the treasure of Christ (Luke 18:18-23)
When we don’t value the treasure that is within us, that is Christ, everything else will come before Him. We will kick Him to the road. We will throw Him aside. I don’t believe we do it maliciously, but none the less the end result is we cast him aside and don’t see His true worth in our lives. But here’s the good news, when we do value Christ and we do recognize what a treasure He is, it changes everything! That’s the topic of my next post so stay tuned!
You can listen to the podcast of the entire message.
