1 Corinthians (last one for Chapter 1)

1:26-29 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.

- "wise according to the flesh" is being wise by human standards
- "mighty" means politically powerful
- "noble" are the well-born types
- God doesn't choose very many people who are powerful by the worlds standards to use in His great works because God demands all of the glory. He has chosen things that are nothing so that he can nullify the things that are.
- "No man may boast before God" is a reference to a courtroom setting - we can't go before God and say "see all of the wonderful things that I've been able to do?" because even our great abilities are ones that were given to us by God.

1:30-31 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

- Even if some of us do have great abilities (and we do, He has given them to us - v.7) we only have them because God has given them to us. We have no room for boasting because we belong to the Master and everything that we do have ultimately belongs to Him.

We are slaves of God! Our salvation is only based on what God has given us and He even did that through the humblest possible means. On the day of judgment when His slaves are glorified iw till be that much more humiliating to the world's "wise." We have no basis for being proud, not of ourselves. God has called us to humiliation, but through that humiliation people are saved. We are no better than the worldly or the person in the next seat - glory totally belongs to God. Everything a slave accomplished was attributed to his master.

God has commanded us to share the gospel. He knows that it is hard and that it is humiliating - He made it that way. He knows that we will be made fun of and shunned when we share His humiliating message - He put it right here in His word. It doesn't matter if we are scared to do it, God has givien us all of the abilities and He expects us to use those gifts like He has commanded us to use them. When the master comes back and He has court with His slaves, our judgment will be based on how well we have followed his command. In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus sheds some light on this judgment. Whenever the master came back from being gone on business he had a Bema Seat judgment with his slaves where he would hear their cases and pass judgment on how well they handled his orders. Are you going to keep God's command and multiply the treasure that He has given you? Or are you going to be afraid and tell God "I didn't want to risk messing it up! I know that you are a powerful man and I didn't want to make someone's situation worse by muddying the waters...so I left that for you. I kept your message buried though and see! Here it is!" God's responses to both of these situations are right there in Matthew for us to see, it's up to you what type of slave you want to be.