Non-Conventional Wisdom, Part 2

GETTING STARTED

I was an average kid. I grew up in a middle-class household, was a middle child, made average grades, was an average athlete (the word athlete may be a stretch), got into an average amount of trouble, and graduated somewhere in the middle of my class. Average. Nothing to really brag about. So, when it came time for filling out applications for college admission, I didn’t offer the admissions committees a whole lot to be attracted to. “Average” doesn’t sell well in our culture.

  • Have there been times when having an above-average status, GPA, or ability helped you? How?

READ THE WORD: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:26-31 (ESV)

26 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. 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, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. Reread verse 26. When you first responded to the grace of Christ, would you have considered yourself wise? Influential? Were you, in any way, of noble birth?
  2. God chooses to work in ways that are contrary to our human inclinations. Make note of all the contrasts in verses 27-28.
  3. Why did God choose to accomplish his work through the lesser, as opposed to the greater?
  4. In what ways do we tend to boast in ourselves? How about you personally?
  5. What might “boasting in the Lord” look like?

RESPOND TO GOD

God’s admissions process is strikingly different from anything we encounter in our culture. Gratefully, God chooses and uses those who have nothing to brag about. In a non-conventional act of grace, God uses unimpressive people to highlight his overtly impressive nature. This means that average—and even below-average people—can be used in extraordinary ways. The Apostle Paul, in his next letter to this same group of people, drives home this truth when he declares, “We have this treasure (the treasure of the gospel) in jars of clay (average vessels), to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Our grace-giving God is amazingly brag-worthy!

  • Take a moment to dwell on the gifts you have received according to verse 30.
  • Make it a point to go through the day bragging about who Christ is and what he has done for you.