“Take
a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I
don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential,
not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately
chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose
these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’? That
makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn
before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean
slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we
have the saying, ‘If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.’”-
1 Corinthians 1:27-31 The Message
I love the way Eugene Peterson re-wrote the words of
Paul in this section of scripture. Paul’s style of writing was so strong and
affirming to the Church of Corinth. Look at the third sentence of the passage.
Paul was making it clear that God did not send His Son to choose the best of
the best, but the willing. He came to give meaning and purpose to those that
society chose to ignore. This is the gospel. This is the good news of Jesus and
God confirmed that message throughout the rest of the Bible.
However, the message is not just about choosing
people who are not the best of the best just to prove a point to those who
consider them “higher”, but to show that those who think they are “higher” need
to be knocked down a step. God is the only one meant to be lifted up in this
world He created. We have meaning, but our meaning is given by God and through
His Son Jesus. Our meaning is not defined by social status, clothing,
hairstyle, who we know, how many friends we have on Facebook, or how many
followers we have on Twitter. Our meaning is given by the One who defines the
world. He created the earth and everything that lives on it. He gave purpose to
it all. His grace is what defines us. His story of good news is what gives us
purpose.
Everyone has a story to tell in this world. The life
we have and the story we tell is a gift given to us by God. The only thing we
need to remember, and Paul reminds the readers of, is the fact that His story
should always be told prior to and throughout ours. Share it with joy and
humility. Our life should be a boastful story of God’s awesome redemption and
not a boastful story of how God redeemed us to be awesome.
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