From Favoritism to Flourishing- Part 4 of 9: Lowly and Despised Things: 1 Corinthians 1:25-29

This first chapter of 1 Corinthians is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It describes the great reversal where the world's values gets tossed on its head. Now that we have a new standard to live by and have tossed off the old things of the world, assumptions that we used to live every day by, including Favoritism, have no place in our new lives. Not only so, but we now find ourselves making value choices that are exactly the opposite of what the world believes. For example, Favoritism says that weak people should be despised and forgotten. In God's world, we are all weak and we become more usable by God as we grow weaker, not stronger. Here is 1 Corinthians 1:25-29:

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

           So what does this mean practically? It means that you shouldn't let your fears of other peoples' opinions dictate your action. This is hard to do at first, but as you spend more time in God's Word and pray for God to change your mind over time, you will be able to see the immense value that even the weakest person has because you look around with God's standard. 
         From personal experience, I've seen that the weaker the person that I try to disciple, the more progress they make in maturing in their faith. I've found that weaker people have less to win by looking at people through the world's eyes, so the process of switching to godly eyes is much quicker and thorough.
        Another practical application is that you need to embrace times of weakness as times of opportunity to rely on God's power. Check out 2 Corinthians 12:9:

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

          What does is it mean to boast in weakness? It means to find joy in situations that put us on the ropes. Those experiences give us a great chance to draw close to God, experience power that can overcome any situation, and, ironically, live life to the fullest. I've found that, as I enjoy times that are difficult, I start to see that every day is a gift from God and an opportunity to do full-time ministry. Good days and bad days are equally usable by God. Waking up with 3 hours of sleep on Monday or waking up to a day of fun on Saturday are on equal ground. Both of those days are capable of being fully enjoyed, just in different ways. This is completely different from the world, which constantly longs for that one day where all the troubles of the world pass away and never finds it.
          There are many consequences of this worldview. In the next two entries, we will look at how living in weakness affects how we treat the weakest among us and how we carry each other's burdens properly before three entries that take us from a place of weakness to Flourishing.
In Christ,
Simeon Snow