In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul talks about us having treasures in jars of clay.  My friend Duane Stewart prefers the rendition from The Message paraphrase: "We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives."  This is so antithetical to the way we want to do things in the systems of this world.  We always seem to want to try to match or outshine the gifts we are given.  Have you ever seen a painting that is set in a frame that almost seems to obscure the painting?  That's what we try to do in our flesh.  We also try to take this world system mentality with us into the Kingdom of God.

That's why you see heads of ministries that are bigger than life.  The truth be known, many of them are, without being cognizant of it, trying to be bigger than God.  So when you hear or encounter (personally) one of these Christian celebrities, do you perceive the glory of Jesus or are you enamored with their persona?  The answer to that question will tell you whether they are part of the Kingdom of God or if they are just building their own empire.

So let's make this personal.  Am I part of the Kingdom of God or am I just building my own empire?  We can easily sit back and judge the motives and results of those who are more prominent either in the Kingdom of God or building their own empires.  But each of us are also doing either one or the other.  So when people encounter us, what do they see?  Do they see the glory of Jesus in what we say and do or do they have difficulty perceiving the treasure we have because we are trying to outshine Jesus?  Let's strip away the gaudy pixie dust and stickers we've plastered on the ordinary clay jars of our lives.  Let them encounter the treasure that we carry with us.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.  2 Cor. 2:14

Here Paul paints a picture with which the Corinthian believers are all too familiar.  Whenever Caesar’s armies went out to conquer an adversary and were successful, they celebrated their victories by parading captives from the conquered countries through the streets of Rome.  This may seem like a rather negative way to portray us as new believers.  But Christ’s warfare is different.  All of us were captured from the enemy, Satan.  And even though our acquiescence was voluntary, it is nevertheless, a significant victory in the spiritual warfare that is raging around us.
And God is parading us around as an in-your-face celebration that Satan witnesses as well.  So, remember that Satan too was defeated at the cross and at the Resurrection.  In a very real sense, he too is part of the captives, albeit in chains as an unwilling prisoner.

We can look around us and see that Satan is still at work.  So, there is an “already, but not yet” aspect to what Paul is talking about.  But, in the timeless domain of eternity, Satan lies defeated, and we are being paraded before him as reminders of the totality of his loss.