Strength in Weakness
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. "
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
In our resumes and university applications, credit reports and Facebook profiles, political campaigns and music tastes, we are goaded to flaunt our strengths.
Intrinsic to our culture is the philosophy of boasting in strength. Submission to this cultural spurring proves to be a great obstacle to the modern Jesus-lover in his relationship with the Divine. For God views the strength of man as wholesale folly and chooses the weak things of the world to shame the wise. Thus, Biblical instruction contradicts our very habit–– as always–– and we're left at a disadvantage by the very things that we thought enabled us.
No longer should we fall into the trap of trying to woo God's eye toward our shabby "good" but, instead, we ought to learn to lean on His benevolence. We have no good apart from Him and He desires mercy, not sacrifice. We love the One who chose David, the shepherd boy, over Jesse's seven older and more qualified sons. We follow Jesus, who prefers the prostitute to the Pharisee. Our trust is in the Leader who urges fasting (voluntary weakness), instead of caffeine consumption. This is our God. At the end of the day, He is hopelessly allured by human weakness.
But more than that, we cannot buy His love or affection. Notice Paul's answer in Philippians to the religious teachers who thought one needed to be circumcised (the physical sign of Jewish faith):
We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ!
Philippians 3:4-8 (NLT)
I bolded the word "garbage" because it isn't anywhere near what Paul really meant. Yes, our goodness in action is garbage compared to that of Jesus, but what he really meant there in the Greek is "skubala." If you've been part of our youth ministry long, you've likely heard me mention this word. Paul goes into the worty dird realm saying that all his good stuff that made him an awesomely perfect Jew, was "skubala." Skubala is the coarser version of "crap." In other words, "the skubala hit the fan." Paul says his goodness was like skubala compared to Jesus! His strength (which had been incredible!) was worthless and then some! Instead today, we hold up our "goodness" as often as possible. The truth is, unless we are relying on Christ to be our righteousness, we're screwed. You're not good enough, and never can be good enough, to earn God's favor, love, and grace. But, you can be loved enough because it was love that held Jesus to a cross and made you right with God...
Initial devotional thoughts by Alexander Jules Tompkins taken from Deeper Walk: Relevant Magazine
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
In our resumes and university applications, credit reports and Facebook profiles, political campaigns and music tastes, we are goaded to flaunt our strengths.
Intrinsic to our culture is the philosophy of boasting in strength. Submission to this cultural spurring proves to be a great obstacle to the modern Jesus-lover in his relationship with the Divine. For God views the strength of man as wholesale folly and chooses the weak things of the world to shame the wise. Thus, Biblical instruction contradicts our very habit–– as always–– and we're left at a disadvantage by the very things that we thought enabled us.
No longer should we fall into the trap of trying to woo God's eye toward our shabby "good" but, instead, we ought to learn to lean on His benevolence. We have no good apart from Him and He desires mercy, not sacrifice. We love the One who chose David, the shepherd boy, over Jesse's seven older and more qualified sons. We follow Jesus, who prefers the prostitute to the Pharisee. Our trust is in the Leader who urges fasting (voluntary weakness), instead of caffeine consumption. This is our God. At the end of the day, He is hopelessly allured by human weakness.
But more than that, we cannot buy His love or affection. Notice Paul's answer in Philippians to the religious teachers who thought one needed to be circumcised (the physical sign of Jewish faith):
We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ!
Philippians 3:4-8 (NLT)
I bolded the word "garbage" because it isn't anywhere near what Paul really meant. Yes, our goodness in action is garbage compared to that of Jesus, but what he really meant there in the Greek is "skubala." If you've been part of our youth ministry long, you've likely heard me mention this word. Paul goes into the worty dird realm saying that all his good stuff that made him an awesomely perfect Jew, was "skubala." Skubala is the coarser version of "crap." In other words, "the skubala hit the fan." Paul says his goodness was like skubala compared to Jesus! His strength (which had been incredible!) was worthless and then some! Instead today, we hold up our "goodness" as often as possible. The truth is, unless we are relying on Christ to be our righteousness, we're screwed. You're not good enough, and never can be good enough, to earn God's favor, love, and grace. But, you can be loved enough because it was love that held Jesus to a cross and made you right with God...
Initial devotional thoughts by Alexander Jules Tompkins taken from Deeper Walk: Relevant Magazine
Comments
Post a Comment