Not Many of You

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1 Corinthians 1:26-29 "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."

Think

Every organization on earth recruits the same way. Find the most capable people available and get them on your side.

That is how teams are built, how companies hire, how student council elections work, and honestly it is how most of us secretly assume God operates too. Surely he is looking for the students who are already gifted, already confident, already good at talking to people.

Paul writes a sentence to a church that shuts that down completely, and he does it by telling them to look around the room.

"Think of what you were when you were called."

He is not being cruel. He is being accurate. Corinth was a major city and this church was not made up of its most impressive citizens. He says not many were wise by human standards, not many were influential, and not many came from important families.

Notice he says not many rather than not any, which is a small kindness in the sentence. There were a few. But if you had walked into that room looking for the people most likely to change the world, you would have kept walking.

Then Paul explains why, and the language he uses is deliberately blunt. God chose the foolish things. The weak things. The lowly things. The despised things. The things that are not.

Read that last one again. The things that are not. Paul is describing people the world does not even count.

So this is not God settling for whoever showed up. It is a strategy. Verse 29 gives the reason in eight words: "so that no one may boast before him."

If God built his church out of the most talented people available, the church would be a monument to talent. Everybody would look at the results and correctly identify the cause, and the cause would be human ability. So he does the opposite on purpose, and the result is a group of people who cannot possibly explain themselves.

Here is where this gets personal, and it is worth being careful about. This is not God insulting you. Paul is not saying you are worthless. Every one of those descriptions is about how the world ranks people, not about what you are worth to God. The world's ranking system is exactly what he is dismantling.

What this means practically is that the reasons you have been giving yourself for staying quiet are the wrong kind of reason.

I am not the one people listen to. I am not the one with the big personality. I am not from a family anybody respects. Everything on that list is a reason from the world's ranking system, and Paul just told you God has been recruiting off a different list this whole time.

Look at where you fall on his list instead. Weak. Ordinary. Overlooked. Not counted. That is not a rejection letter. In this passage it reads like a job description.

And notice this happened to the people reading it before they were impressive. He chose them as they were, in the middle of being nothing anybody was paying attention to, and then he went to work.

So if you have been waiting to become someone God could use, you have the order backwards.

What would you actually attempt this week if being unimpressive was never the obstacle you thought it was?

Apply

Cross one reason off – If a night like this depended on the most confident students, a full room would only prove that confident students are good at talking. God chose the weak and the overlooked on purpose, so that when something happens nobody can take the credit. Write down the reason you believe you are the wrong person to invite your friend on September 30. Ask whether it comes from the world's ranking system or from God's. Then do one thing today that you would only do if that reason were not true.

Pray

God, I have been ranking myself by a system you do not even use. I keep disqualifying myself for reasons that never mattered to you. Thank you for choosing people like me on purpose. Help me stop waiting to be impressive and start being available. In Jesus' name. Amen.