1Corinthians 1:26-31 REMEMBER WHY YOU WERE CALLED In any gathering of the Lord's people, we are impressed with the variety of backgrounds, educational differences, and financial and intellectual differences, and yet we gather for a common purpose. What is behind these phenomena? Our calling is not based on who we are or any or all of our achievements. We are one in purpose and faith because of the One who called us. We are "brethren," "saints," and "believers" because of God's grace. Our calling by the Gospel is a work of God's grace alone that leaves no place for us to boast of the wisdom gained by the educational advantages we might have. There are some well-learned, knowledgeable people among the saints who gather to the Person of Christ alone, but not many.
Occasionally, there comes some among us, or God in mercy saves someone, from the area of influential people. It is very uncommon to find one who is a political leader, the head of some major public office, a CEO, or an owner of a large business, who is willing to gather with the saints of God in a scriptural assembly. This may happen, but it is usually the exception rather than the expected. The social costs are high, and the humility needed to submit to the leadership of those considered lower on the scale of importance in the eyes of the world is not easily accepted. Business, politics, and public leadership claim the time, energy, and commitment of the whole person in most cases, so they have no time or inclination for the things of God.
High society, whether it be people of royalty by birth or high standing because of family ties, is quite exclusive from the rest of the people in a community. In most places, they are like a caste. They live to themselves and only associate with the rank and file of people if they are servants or employees. These three classes of people, the wise, the mighty, and the noble, usually are not interested or inclined to seek salvation from sin by coming as lost, guilty sinners to the cross and receiving Christ alone as personal Savior. They are usually quite self-sufficient, self-satisfied, self-centered, and not willing to acknowledge themselves as lost before God. The word used by the Spirit of God is "not many" wise, mighty or noble are called. But that does not exclude them from the blessings of the calling of God because there are some who are wise, mighty, and noble in whose gentle, kind, gracious, and humble spirits the work of God's grace in their soul is revealed. These are called in spite of what their position in life was.
There are five groups of people listed who normally respond to the grace of God. They are all needy people who do not reject the benefit of God's offered mercy. They know they are not able to independently meet their own need. They need grace and admit it. There are those who can barely read and never have had the privilege of education, who we have heard worship in "spirit and in truth." Some have been moved by the Spirit of God to learn to read the Bible, who have never read a word before, and don't have much interest in reading anything else. But God chose them to show others their need and the blessings of grace. Even the apostles were looked down on as "unlearned and ignorant" men by some people. "Weak things" really doesn't mean physically unable to do normal work, although it does happen that the grace of God is greatly manifested in such people. The blind hymn writer, Fanny Crosby, was weak in one way but used by God to bless many other people. Often, those who respond to the Gospel are not influential people who set the course of nations or control society, but God chooses them to manifest the riches of His grace. Slaves were saved in Corinth and other places under the sound of Paul's preaching. The base or those from the streets of our cities are more likely to come and listen to the Gospel than those who are well-off on their own. Some people are actually looked at with contempt, and because of who they are and what they have done, are social rejects. God works in prisons as well as pulpits; in streets as well as in buildings set apart for preaching.
God calls us when pride is humbled. When a person has been brought so low, the only way to go is up. God steps in, and perhaps by a tract or testimony, a preacher or a newly saved acquaintance brings one considered foolish, of no account, and actually despised, into the blessings of His grace and seats them with Christ in heavenly places. In the assemblies of God's people, there are those who only find glory in the Lord. They don't speak of their own achievements or skills. You won't hear them boasting of their great successes. They are not there as celebrities and heroes but as simple people who have experienced the wisdom of God personally.
That divine wisdom is not something we boast of - it is God's wisdom. From that has come our righteousness - our standing before God as those who have been "justified freely by His grace." We have nothing to boast of in this, but we are thankful God called us. Allied to that is our sanctification. The Lord prayed we would be "sanctified through Thy truth. Thy word is truth." God, who called us, sanctified us, and set us apart from all around us to Himself, that we will be a holy people. Those believers in Corinth, and we now, remember that in this called-out company of saints, it is God who has brought us to this place. "Redemption" involves the price paid on our behalf by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has freed us from the bondage of sin and its consequences. We will finally go full and complete in Christ, to heaven in a body that will truly glorify the Lord. These "foolish things" have access to God as worshipers and servants and are gathered by Him into a local assembly temporarily to get ready for divine purposes in the future. This truth removes the tendency to boast in ourselves and be divisive for any reason but to join in grateful unity around the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One had a high position, but from it, one day he fell He faced up to the reality of sin, taking him to hell In spite of what people thought, he was humbled before the Lord. His pride was scattered like little pieces as he heard of the grace of God.
Another taught him what he had learned, and he thought he knew it all Until he was faced with his sin, and for mercy on God did call He doesn't boast of a great intellect, only of Christ by whom he was saved The message he tells others now is the Gospel of salvation by grace.
Looking for something to satisfy he traveled from place to place There was no way he could remember where, nor could he even trace The course he followed, but this one thing he knew God brought him to the place of repentance, and there His grace did show.
In a called-out company, we come from different walks in life The common bond of fellowship goes beyond life into light When we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship together We look different, act differently, are different, and yet are sisters and brothers.
Not high and mighty, but just plain with this One Person in common Our Lord and Savior is our gathering Center; every one of us knows Him We have personally experienced His grace, though each has a different story Everything we have to claim is nothing when we give God all the glory.
"Father, the fellowship of contented and grateful saints is a wonderful thing to experience. Give us the grace to nurture it, cherish it, and defend what we have been given by Thee lest it be lost or taken from us by those who want their own way. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."