“For God, who commanded the light to shine 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 the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” 2 Corinthians 4:6-10 KJV
In this passage Paul is explaining to the church at Corinth that while we live in bodies, our focus should be on our spirit and our spiritual lives. We are the only creatures that God created that can understand His glory, and understand that everything around us shows His glory, not ours. While we are in these bodies – these earthen vessels – we should remember that Christ died for us and we should live a life as Christ-like as possible. Unfortunately, that’s not an easy task today.
We live in perilous times, similar to the time of the apostles. They were persecuted because they were sharing a new doctrine and we are being persecuted for trying to preserve that doctrine. Christians are being attacked from every angle you can think of (even our own government is attacking us in direct violation of Constitutional Law), but we don’t need to be distressed. Confusion is all around us in the form of false doctrines and compromised doctrine, but we don’t need to despair. We are persecuted by the media, politicians, judges, religious groups and many others, but we will never be forsaken. Our Lord is always with us and will never abandon us. Our persecutors may even try to destroy our bodies, but we cannot be destroyed. We are not just the sum of our earthly parts, but spirit filled children of God. We are indestructible spiritual beings (treasure) in earthen vessels.
If you are a true born again Christian, you don’t have to fear anything, because you are a spiritual being that will live forever sustained by the glory of our Almighty God.