To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

Did you play kickball during elementary school recess?  I remember it well, for it was one of my favorite parts of the school day.  I remember how the teams were chosen. We would all stand in a line and two children who were the captains would select his or her team.  Of course, it was always the most popular and athletic kids that were chosen first.  Eventually the shortest, slowest, and least popular would be left.  It was a little awkward as these least favorites waited to see who would be the very least, i.e., the last one chosen.  In thinking about this, it seems to me that this same process continues through adulthood.  So often we judge a person’s worth by similar standards.  The best looking, the richest, the most popular, the most talented, and the most athletic are so often the most esteemed.  If you don’t think so, look at the salaries of the movie stars and professional athletes compared to most of the rest of us, yet it is “the rest of us” that have chosen to elevate these people to the places of privilege that they enjoy.  It’s all such a contrast to the way God views things, as the verses above tell us.  What a shock we will be in for one day when God reveals His “favorites” for all the world to see.   How stunned we will be when we see that all along God has highly esteemed those that so many in the world viewed as “foolish,” “weak,” and “despised.”  The value system of the world will be turned on its head as the value system of the One Who is the most righteous judge reveals his perfect value system to us. 

But shouldn’t this give us pause? Shouldn’t this cause us to be cautious in how we view others and how our value system is played out in how we act toward others?  To think that the very person to whom we might not give a second thought is highly esteemed and the very apple of the eye of God should make us think twice about our actions and attitudes towards others.  We should think very soberly about the fact that the day is coming when the King of Heaven, the very One Who was Himself, “despised and rejected by men” (Isaiah 53:3), will say to each and every one of us, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). 

May God help us to consider the truth that “the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7), and that the very ones to whom we might be least likely to give favor are the very ones who, one day, will be the very greatest in the kingdom of God (Matthew 9:48).