1 Corinthians 1:21-31
He is the source of
your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is
written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1 Corinthians
1:30-31)
Piano rolled blues,
danced holes in my shoes
There weren't another other way to be
For lovable losers, no account boozers
And honky tonk heroes like me – Waylon Jennings, Honky Tonk Heroes
There weren't another other way to be
For lovable losers, no account boozers
And honky tonk heroes like me – Waylon Jennings, Honky Tonk Heroes
Lovable losers, that’s what Paul says we are. Actually, the word he uses is “foolish.” In spite of our lack of wisdom, power, or social status, God chooses us to be God’s agents of healing in the world. Paul seems to be indicating that based on the world’s standards, the church is a ship of fools. And yet it is a ship whose sails are filled with the wind of the Holy Spirit.
Paul is writing this letter to the congregation in Corinth;
a community of believers that has been caught up in a game of spiritual
one-upmanship. Some were claiming to be closer to God because they had been
endowed with superior gifts or had special knowledge that afforded them higher
status. Paul takes them down a few pegs by helping them remember that God
doesn’t operate this way. If the world’s standards of superiority were the
rules by which God played, God would not have chosen the cross as a means of
self-revelation. In the same way, God seeks to use the weak and despised in the
world to reveal his power. If you’re going to boast, he says, then boast in
what God is doing in and through you.
1Corinthians 1:21-31 NRSV
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 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;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 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;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
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