1 Corinthians 1:26-31

26 Brothers and sisters, 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 God 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. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

The problem at the church in Corinth was factions. The problem in many churches is factions.

Being much concerned about the rise of denominations in the church, John Wesley tells of a dream he had. In the dream, he was ushered to the gates of Hell. There he asked, "Are there any Presbyterians here?" "Yes!", came the answer. Then he asked, "Are there any Baptists? Any Episcopalians? Any Methodists?" The answer was Yes! each time. Much distressed, Wesley was then ushered to the gates of Heaven. There he asked the same question, and the answer was No! "No?" To this, Wesley asked, "Who then is inside?" The answer came back, "There are only Christians here." (1 Corinthians 1:10-17)

Source Unknown.

And so, we are to seek the unity of understanding, and love that will exist in eternity, now. And Paul addresses some of the major areas of disunity that are the basis for the factions in the church in Corinth. They were disunited around their beliefs about intelligence and wisdom: some considered a person wise if they spoke well. They were also disunited around their doctrine of the cross of Christ and its importance and centrality.

Today, they were disunited in their understanding of greatness.

United in Understanding Greatness

Prayer

The world has a variety of answers to the question; who is the greatest? But there is only one answer in Christianity.

Jesus’ words: Jesus set the definition of greatness on its head.

Matthew 20:25-27 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—

I did an Internet search for “the greatest people of all time; Leonardo Devinci, Galileo Galilei, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Lincoln, Plato, Aristotle, Beethoven, Buddha, Einstein, Marie Curie, Jesus, Shakespeare, George Washington, Gutenberg.

We might agree with them in regard to these people’s positive contribution to humanity, still they are not who the Bible describes as truly great in the eyes of God.

We are going to consider that today, because Paul considered the question in his letter to the church in Corinth. Remember that they were a divided group. Each faction declared fealty to one or another church leader; Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ.

Paul wanted them to come together in unity. Part of that unity is understanding how God defines greatness. Is a person great because of intelligence? Speaking ability? Influence?

3 questions: How does the world define greatness? How did God determine who to save? Why did He choose the way He chose? Final question; who then is great?

I. According to the flesh: How does the world define greatness?

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; (according to the flesh) not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

Think of your calling, think of when you were called. Think of your salvation. We’re here in church today; Think of the group of people around you who are saved. And what you will find is not many…wise, mighty, or noble.

Hold on preacher, I think I’m pretty wise, mighty and noble.

He is contrasting the world’s definitions of those words, the world’s designation with God’s definition and designation. So, let’s look at the words for a moment.

A. Wise

Sophia- intelligent, smart, bright

It’s a contrast between two understandings of what wisdom is.Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.Jesus is saying that the wise and learned of the world heard His message, and rejected it. But babes, children, the world’s uneducated, paupers, heard Him and believed. It’s a contrast defining true wisdom. The world defines greatness by intelligence, education, IQ. Their wise are PhD’s, experts, scientists, techno giants. But many who fall into those “smart” categories have also rejected the existence of God. Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;But the world has rejected God’s definition of wisdom. So when they go looking for the brightest among us, they never get around to looking in the church.In their perspective, there are not many wise here…

B. Mighty

When we think of might, we often think of physical strength. But the NIV translates this word, influential. The word is,

Dunatoi: powerful, strong, influential, translated “possible” in some places: “all things are possible with God.

These are the people with whom things are possible. These are “possibility” people. They can get things done. They have power, might and influence in the world.

And the world defines greatness by influence.

These are movers and shakers. Powerful politicians. People with connections. Influencers- with many followers.

And again, we might say that we have powerful influencers among us. But not by the world’s standards.

Not many here…

C. Noble

Eugenis: noble birth, high born, People born into power and influence either by wealth, politics, aristocracy,

The world defines greatness by birth. If you come from certain families.

Not many here…

Now we have to add a footnote to this. We have to remember that Paul was writing to a church, and to a time in the Church when Christianity and Christians were “personas

non-grata(s).”

American Heritage Dictionary: “Fully unacceptable or unwelcome, especially to a foreign government.”

As Paul stated earlier, it wasn’t a valued movement. To the Jews Christ was a stumblingblock, to the Greeks foolishness. So when Paul says here that not many wise, mighty or noble came to salvation we sort of understand it.

This was a new movement and it started in the grass-roots. But as time and centuries wore on, some of the upper echelon did come to believe.

But, today, we might look around us in our lifetime, and say, “hey, I’ve known Christians who were wise, mighty, or noble.” In fact, up until recently in American society, (Wikipedia)

I bet you know this. What broad branch of religion have most of our U.S. presidents identified with?

“Almost all of the U.S. presidents can be characterized as Christian, at least by upbringing, though some were unaffiliated with any specific religious body. Mainline Protestants predominate, with Episcopalians and Presbyterians being the most prevalent. John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president and Joe Biden, the current one, is the second. There have been at least four nontrinitarian presidents.”

And even today, in Congress, most still identify with some Christian denomination.

Now we might argue, and Paul would definitely argue, about whether these are Christian’s in name only.

But we have to remember the dynamics of our society. These people want to get elected in a society that still predominantly identifies as Christian.

But as our society moves away from identifying as Christian, and as true Christianity is rejected more and more, we are finding ourselves back where Paul and the church in Corinth was.

For a brief spot in time, we found the wise, mighty, and noble identifying at least with the name Christian.

But today, in the world, not many of those who are considered wise, influential, or noble, by our society’s standards are openly and apologetically followers of Jesus Christ, Bible believers.

Paul’s point is; you guys are using the world’s standards to divide into factions in the church. You are saying, “I am of Paul, because he is intelligent. I am of Apollos, because he is articulate. I am of Cephas, because he is influential.” They were like the disciples arguing about who will be the greatest. And they are deciding based on worldly standards; who has the education, who is popular, who has some kind of standing in society.

That’s not how God decides who is great. And Paul illustrates God’s standards with our second point. Do you know how God decides who is great?

Paul looks at “their calling.” Their salvation. Who got saved. Who God chose to save. I got stuck on two words here. “God chose.”

Now, let’s stop and address something quickly. Baptists sometimes get antsy in their seats when a preacher talks to much about God choosing the saved. “I chose to believe!” Yes, you did!

Joshua said clear back in the Old Testament, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

But, the Bible also says that those who come to faith were chosen by God.

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

You say, preacher, which one is true? Did I have the free will to choose God and chose Him, or did God choose me before I ever even existed? They are both true. You say, “They can’t both be true.” I say, “Says who?” “You?”

My Bible says that both are true. I don’t understand it. But if God says it, I believe it.

But back to our point. The world highly values their wisdom, might, nobility, but what does God do?

II. God chose: God choses, not worldly wisdom, might, and nobility.

First off, He chose. He didn’t have a giant competition to decide who would be saved. He didn’t line everybody up in a giant game of Jeopardy to decide by intelligence who would be saved. He didn’t hold an election to see who was most popular. He didn’t have us compete. He chose. Based on His own criteria, not our world’s criteria. Now this is where it gets interesting. Who did God choose?

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 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,

God purposely disdained human wisdom and priorities.

God chose the foolish, weak, and despised. You say, “Yeah!” Stick it to the man! But remember, if you are a Christian, this is you. “The foolish, weak, and despised.” That’s a great team name isn’t it. If we were picking teams, that’s who we’d pick, right?

What does he mean by that? How are we the foolish, weak and despised. Again, he is highlighting how the world regards us.

A. Foolish

Mora- we get our word moron from it. So, look around, we are the mora of the world. It is not that we are morons-it’s that the world considers us morons. You know that’s what they think. Every TV show or movie that portrays a Christian, portrays them as a gun-toting, uneducated racist. Or they are a hypocrite.

We are idiots to the world.

“If the humanity does not poison the minds of the children with all sort of religious craps, the new generations of humanity will soon create a new world order where reason and logic will be the sole guide, the sole savior!”
―Mehmet Murat ildan

“I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are venomous enough, or secret, subterranean and small enough – I call it the one immortal blemish upon the human race.”
―Friedrich Nietzsche

So, God purposely chose the fools of the world– why?

To put to shame the wise-to disgrace them. to demonstrate the emptiness of the world’s wisdom.

Who else does God choose.

B. Weak

The sick: the physically weak, interestingly enough this same word is used later to describe Paul’s presence as a preacher. “His bodily presence is weak and sick.” He has no “gravitas.”

God picked people who are weak and sick. This has been a criticism of Christianity from its founding. In the first century, Christianity grew among the slaves, not the upper crust.

There’s an interesting use of this word week later in 1st Corinthians. Paul is talking about another problem in the Corinthian church. There was a disagreement over whether Christians should be buying and eating the meat sold in the temples of false gods. Animals were sacrificed in these temples to false gods. And the leftover meat was sold in an open market.

Some Christians, Paul calls them “those who have knowledge” or understanding, considered the question, and said, “these are false gods.” They are not real. So, there is nothing harmful in buying and eating meat that has been sacrificed to a false god.” But other Christians, Paul calls them, “the weaker brother” did not have a full understanding of these things. So, they were offended if someone ate meat sacrificed to idols.

So, the weaker were the ones who had mental hang-ups. They were plagued by self-doubt. They are the people who think in only black and white. They need to have a list of “thou shalts,” and “thou shalt nots.” And once they have that list, the list, for them becomes the Word of God. There’s no more thinking about it. No more reasoning.

Eating meat from the idol temple is clearly written on the “thou shalt not” side, so I shouldn’t and you shouldn’t. Don’t use logic with me, my mind is made up.

God picked the weak. Those the world considers weak.

Again, yes there are weak minded people in the church. There are weak minded people in every place. But the world perceives those in the church as the weak, the sick, the feeble-minded.

So, Paul says that God chose those people, why?

To put to shame the mighty

Those that the world considers foolish and weak are on the bottom now. But there will come a day when God flips the top and the bottom.

Revelation 6: 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us[a] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

Christ will call up the fools and the weak to be in the sky with him, and the “wise and mighty” will be crawling into holes in the earth to hide.

God also chose…

C. Base and despised – the low-born, the “not”

To bring to nothing the things that are

He chooses the “nothings” of society to make into something.

Now, I think we really struggle with this description of Christians; the nothings.

But we must consider that we are in a different world than then. The first century world was a caste society—you are born poor, and without position in society, and society does not allow you to move out of that. There’s no democratic reform. There’s no pulling yourself up by your boot-straps. The system itself, those who were in control, and even those who were the nothings prevented nothings from advancing.

BBC.com

“Manusmriti, widely regarded to be the most important and authoritative book on Hindu law and dating back to at least 1,000 years before Christ was born, "acknowledges and justifies the caste system as the basis of order and regularity of society".

The caste system divides Hindus into four main categories - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras. Many believe that the groups originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation.

At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and are believed to have come from Brahma's head. Then came the Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, supposedly from his arms. The third slot went to the Vaishyas, or the traders, who were created from his thighs. At the bottom of the heap were the Shudras, who came from Brahma's feet and did all the menial jobs.

The main castes were further divided into about 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes, each based on their specific occupation.

Outside of this Hindu caste system were the achhoots - the Dalits or the untouchables.

For centuries, caste has dictated almost every aspect of Hindu religious and social life, with each group occupying a specific place in this complex hierarchy.

Rural communities have long been arranged on the basis of castes - the upper and lower castes almost always lived in segregated colonies, the water wells were not shared, Brahmins would not accept food or drink from the Shudras, and one could marry only within one's caste.

The system bestowed many privileges on the upper castes while sanctioning repression of the lower castes by privileged groups.

Often criticised for being unjust and regressive, it remained virtually unchanged for centuries, trapping people into fixed social orders from which it was impossible to escape.

Now, that was the Indian system. But the world of Paul’s day had, to a degree, its own caste system. And from where did Christians come? Mainly from among the slaves, the untouchables, the outcasts, the illiterate, the poor.

And so, Paul is saying, God chose the nothings. It’s kind of interesting that if you look at the history of spiritual revivals, they typically start among the poor and uneducated.

Jesus noted something similar in His day, Luke 7:29 When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they [a]acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and the [b]lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by [c]John.

It starts among the poor, then as true Christianity changes people, it changes societies. And the poor begin living virtuously; work hard, value education, don’t waste, live soberly, become better. Then Christians often move from poor to the middle class, and sometimes to the upper class.

Old joke: A Baptist pastor visits a poor family in town and invites them to church. They reply, “Well, thanks for the invite Reverend, but we haven’t got any good clothes to wear to Sunday meetin. So, the pastor goes back to church and uses the benevolence fund, and buys some very nice clothes for the family. Shirts, ties, shoes, dresses. And the poor family is very grateful. But the next Sunday, they are not in church. So he visits them again and asks them, since they got the clothes, why didn’t he see them in church Sunday? The father replies, “Well, everybody got their bath Saturday night, and we got up Sunday morning and put on the clothes you got us. And we got to looking at each other, and admiring each other, so we decided that we looked so good, that we could go to the Episcopalian church.

Despite those who are upper-class, and influential who profess Christ, still the majority of Christians in the world are just what Paul called them; the fools, weak, and nobodies of the world.

But we are not saved by intellect, strength, or position. God chose those who are nothing to make them something, and to make those who think they are something into nothing.

III. Why? To shame: Why did He choose the way He chose?

29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Lower what is honored so that He who truly deserves the honor will be exalted. In the Olympic games, if you are going to move the silver medalist to the gold medalist pedestal, you have to first move the gold medalist off of that pedestal.

The world has elevated their notion intelligence, power, and position to the upper pedestal. They are the winners of our world. But they aren’t the true winners. They are not the truly great. So, God chooses those considered morons, weak-minded, and nothing, to demonstrate that the world’s intelligence, might, and position are nothing. He did it so that no one may boast before Him.

A. No flesh glory in His presence

Final question; who then is truly great? Only God. I did a search of Bible passages with the word, “only.”

Romans 16:27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

Psalm 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Psalm 71:16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

Psalm 72:18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

God is the only wise, only salvation, only Savior, only righteousness, only powerful, only wonder worker.

You say, “But there are other saviors, righteous, etc.” A firefighter can save a child from a burning building. But the point is that God as Savior dwarfs, makes microscopic any other act of saving.

Paul is saying that God chose the nothings of the world to bring down those who are elevated by the world’s standards because they are nothing compared to God. We are so puny compared to God.

God says, “I created the heavens and the earth.” Someone says, “Well I made this pot, I’m a creator to.” Or this car, rocket, whatever. None of it begins to compare to what God made.

We say, “I’m very intelligent, I can do sudoku, or words with friends, or calculus.” God says, “I know…everything.”

God says, “I offer eternal salvation to the world.” We say, “I saved a dog from the pound.”

We place ourselves as gold, silver or bronze medalists, when we shouldn’t even be anywhere near the pedestal.

You see, elevating the world’s wisdom, might, and position is an insult to the greatness

Of God.

You say as a Christian, I’ve done some good things in my life. Have you? Listen to what Paul says.

Whatever you have done as a Christian… It is because of him.

Do you have any wisdom? Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God.

Do you consider yourself righteous or holy? It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, our righteousness, holiness.

We are redeemed, not by our goodness, or wisdom, Christ is our redemption.

You see, elevating the world’s wisdom, might, and position is an insult to the greatness of God, and even talking as Christians about “our wisdom, power, or position” denigrates the One who gave them to you.

B. We are in Christ Jesus

He became our wisdom and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

C. We are in Christ Jesus.

We, in the church, if we are to be united, with no factions, must have a united understanding of the source of all our abilities and wisdom and deeds. No parties of Paul, Apollos, Cephas.

He who glories let him glory in the Lord.

Ephesians 2:10 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Who then is great? God alone.

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