Tag: 1 Corinthians

Devotional

Daily Devotional-July 19

July 19, 2020

Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let’s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ’s body!

In this chapter Paul addresses two issues going on in the Corinthian church. The first is that the Corinthians are wronging each other, but instead of dealing with their interpersonal sins within the church, as is fitting for believers, they are taking each other before the pagan courts. Paul rebukes them for this kind of shameful treatment of their fellow believers!

As those who have been redeemed and made part of Christ’s body, our treatment of one another must reflect the love of Christ which we share! The love we have for one another is what identifies us as true disciples of Jesus (John 13:), and Paul says it would be better for us to allow ourselves to be harmed or defrauded rather than allowing those outside the church to judge those within the church!

The second issue is that some of the Corinthians had been using prostitutes, believing that what they did with their bodies was inconsequential. Paul warns them strongly here that their bodies have been united to Christ and His body, that their bodies have been made temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them, and that therefore the way in which they use their bodies is of utmost importance!

Our bodies have been united to Christ and made temples of the Holy Spirit as well. This means that whatever we do with our bodies, it is as if Christ himself were doing so; we cannot take shameful, sinful physical acts so lightly, because when we do so we take lightly the fact of our union with Christ and the indwelling presence of the Spirit. 

We no longer belong to ourselves, because we have been purchased by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! So we must be careful to honor God in every way in the way we use our bodies. 

1 Corinthians 6

Lawsuits Against Believers

6 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee Sexual Immorality

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • How does the fact that your body is a member of Christ as well as a temple of the Holy Spirit motivate you to change the way in which you use it? 
Devotional

Daily Devotional-July 18

July 18, 2020

Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let’s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ’s body!

Here Paul turns his attention from the arrogance causing divisions within the Corinthian church to the arrogance of tolerating flagrant sin within the congregation. Paul has heard report that they are continuing to fellowship with a man engaged in sexual immorality and that they refuse to discipline him or remove him from the church body. Paul reminds them of the holiness that they are called to maintain in their personal lives and in the lives of the church, and urges them to remove this man from their fellowship immediately!

To many of us it may seem strange that Paul would urge such a thing, but he reminds the Corinthians here of the grave danger tolerating unrepentant sin in the church presents, both to the church and to the sinner! Refusing to discipline members engaged in unrepentant sin puts the church in a dangerous position, Paul says, because that sin will inevitably spread its poisonous consequences throughout the whole congregation in some way (v.6). This is a reminder to us that our sin does not only have personal consequences for us; it can have communal consequences even if we aren’t aware of them (check out Joshua chapter 7 for a good example of how even our secret sin that no one else knows about can still have spiritual, communal effects!).

Refusing to discipline the church member engaged in unrepentant sin also puts the sinner in a dangerous position because it does not call them to repentance and holiness! It is important to remember that church discipline in never meant to include punishment for punishment’s sake, but that it is aimed towards restoration even if that means the sinner is put out of the congregation for a time. As the body of Christ, we are called not only to live holy lives but to hold one another accountable as well, and that is why Paul tells the Corinthians in verse 5 to “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,” (by putting him out of the fellowship) “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The goal is for the person to finally repent and be restored to the fellowship!

What might the church look like if we really, consistently held one another accountable in this way, refusing to be tolerant of unrepentant sin, whether in ourselves or in our midst? How much more like Jesus would the church look like?

1 Corinthians 5

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • Have you ever considered that your sin, even your secret sin, might be damaging the church and its mission in unseen ways? What kind of holiness should that motivate in us?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-July 17

July 17, 2020

Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let’s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ’s body!

In this chapter Paul continues demonstrating to the Corinthians the error of their arrogance and boasting over one another. He reminds them of the grace of God that they have received, and how apart from that grace they would not have anything at all (v.7)! 

It is so immensely important for us to always remember that every good thing we have is a gift from the hand of God. Apart from His grace to us through Jesus Christ, all we have earned for ourselves from God is His wrath, judgment, and condemnation. In Christ we have received precisely the opposite of these things, and they are only ever gifts of His grace! We have nothing that we did not receive from Him. 

Paul then reminds the Corinthians of the true meaning of Christlikeness. Following after Jesus does not involve, as the Corinthians seem to have thought, being the strongest or the wisest or the most respected. On the contrary, Paul uses the example of the apostles to show them that it means becoming weak, foolish, hated and reviled in the eyes of the world, often joining with Christ in His sufferings. It is when we join with Christ in His sufferings and lowliness that we actually experience the power of His resurrection in and through us (Romans 8:17)!

1 Corinthians 4

The Ministry of Apostles

4 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • How can we fight the mindset of pride that causes us to lift ourselves up over others? How does remembering the grace of God decimate all notions of arrogance in our hearts?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-July 16

July 16, 2020

Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let’s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ’s body!

Paul continues his scathing admonishment towards the Corinthians for their behavior in this chapter, essentially telling them they have been acting like a bunch of babies (v.1-2)! In being boastful about their preferred Christian teacher, they were acting just like the unbelieving world around them and demonstrating their immaturity in the faith. Paul urges them to remember who they are (the dwelling place of God’s Spirit cf. verse 16) and whose they are (Christ’s cf. verse 23).

How often do we see jealousy, arrogance, strife, and division in the church? Yet Paul says here that these things demonstrate a lack of spiritual maturity! These are worldly, fallen, and sinful ways of living; the gospel calls us to a supernatural way of living and makes it possible for us by means of the Holy Spirit! Instead of jealousy, arrogance, and strife, which are all focused on the self, God calls us to dwell in unity, love, and selflessness together as the church. 

The Lord calls us to put away merely human, worldly ways and walk in a supernatural, Spirit-empowered, new way as His people. Are you living as a spiritual infant, or are you growing up into maturity in Christ?

1 Corinthians 3

Divisions in the Church

3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • What are some ways you have seen the lack of spiritual maturity demonstrate itself in the life of the church? How can you be always growing up into maturity in Christ and helping others to do the same, to live in this new and supernatural way?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-July 15

July 15, 2020

Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let’s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ’s body!

In this chapter Paul continues to challenge the worldly perspective of the Corinthians and their proclivity to trust in earthly wisdom. He reminds them of how he had first preached the gospel among them, not using persuasive language or wise speech but demonstrating the power of the Spirit, in order that those who came to faith would put their trust in the power of God rather than in the wisdom of men. 

He goes on to explain to them that the wisdom from God is not like the worldly wisdom because it is a spiritual understood only by means of the Holy Spirit. He goes so far as to tell us that, because who believe have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have the mind of Christ available to us! We can think the way that Jesus thought through the power of the Spirit, and thinking the way that Jesus thought necessarily leads to us living the way that Jesus lived. 

“The natural person”, Paul says, “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to comprehend them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). Apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit and His work and ministry in our lives, we would be just like the rest of the world, totally unable to comprehend the truths of the gospel and considering Christianity to be the stuff of fools. 

Thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, that He has made a way for us, who were dead in our sins and spiritually blind, to be made alive and to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened to the truth! Celebrate the wisdom that comes from God today, and that He has given you the means, by His Spirit, to comprehend it!

1 Corinthians 2

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • How does having the mind of Christ available to us through the Holy Spirit work itself out practically in our day to day lives?
Devotional

Daily Devotional-July 14

July 14, 2020

Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let’s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ’s body!

In the opening chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul jumps right into the problems he has heard rumor of going on in Corinth. The people were arrogantly one-upping each other by claiming to be followers of whatever gospel preacher they considered to be most eloquent or wise, and it was causing the church to be divided into factions. 

Paul here exposes the foolishness of such thinking: the power of the gospel does not lie in eloquent speech or in worldly wisdom but in the cross of Jesus Christ! Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are thinking in a worldly way when they are divided like this, and the gospel itself sounds like lunacy from a worldly perspective!

Think about it: the gospel flips all of our worldly expectations upside down. The God of all glory was meek and humble. The way He conquered was by allowing Himself to be unjustly betrayed, tortured, humiliated, and murdered. In order to live we have to die with Him. Nothing about the gospel makes sense from the perspective of the world, but that’s the point! The gospel is folly to the world, but to us who have been saved it is “the power of God” (v.18)!

The upside-down gospel reminds us that we live in an upside-down kingdom. The weak in the eyes of the world are strong. The foolish in the eyes of the world are wise. The poor in the eyes of the world are rich. Those who put others before themselves end up on top in the end. We need to be reminded of this, and that it is never our own wisdom, our own power, our own righteousness that does anything. It is only in Christ, His power, His wisdom, His righteousness and His grace that we have anything at all! 

Though it looks like foolishness and weakness from a worldly point of view, to us Jesus Christ is the very wisdom and power of God! Today, instead of seeing your faith from a worldly perspective, be reminded of your own powerlessness and your absolute dependence upon the power and grace of Jesus!

1 Corinthians 1

Greeting

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

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.”

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Family Discussion Question:

  • Why is it so important for us to remember that the gospel does not depend on human power and wisdom, but on the power and wisdom of God? How does it change the way we understand and live out our faith?