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Fools for Christ's Sake ...

Thursday, June 5, 2014. Perhaps you are a Christian, who is in trouble. Perhaps you have prayed already many times, that God may help you. I found two passages, which tell us a lot about God's view into trouble. It is a much deeper understanding, a much wider view, than we have usually.

Despised and Rejected …

There is a passage in the letter of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians, where Paul talks about his own situation which he sees as being a “spectacle to the world”. A corresponding passage in the prophet Isaiah talks about Jesus himself, being such a spectacle, despised and rejected by men … Let us read:

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?1 And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces6 he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53)

The passage in 1 Corinthians is about the Apostles, who follow Jesus and form his main leadership team. They experience quite similar things:

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.

What does it mean …

What does it mean, if we read about the pain of Christ, and about the difficulties of the apostles? It does not mean that we necessarily need to go through the same. We are not Christ, and he died to heal us. We are not the apostles, we are just simple believers 2000 years after New Testament times. But still, the passages are there to teach us a lot! They are written to help us in our own situation.

A key point here is that success is not in the focus of God. He wants his salvation to succeed, yes. But that is not the worldly success we often look for. His salvation is about truth, about grace, about eternal life. It is about our attitudes, about love and mercy. It is about trust and faith as its core.

And God wants to reach every human on the planet. He wants to reach those who are rich, but also those who are poor. In particular the poor are in his focus, so the apostles became poor to reach all of you - rich or poor! We do not need to be afraid of the pain which the Lord has for us. It will become a huge blessing when his time has come. His frame is wider than our own little horizon, and he will make things good. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts