Flexing in a Mirror

When I was a kid, I used to stand in front of the mirror and flex. I imagined that I was this guy with large muscles and I sure hoped that I would grow into a guy with large muscles.

I became a teenager, and I started thinking that perhaps I was turning into this guy with large muscles, as I flexed in front of the mirror.

Unfortunately, I was not. The older I get the more I realize that I will not be turning into Arnold Schwarzenegger anytime soon.

When I began to realize this fact, I started learning humility that much more.

Don’t get me wrong: God taught me humility in many different ways. But, this was one of them.

As humans, we can tend to think too highly of ourselves, what we look like, what we can do, how we can reason.

We can think so highly of ourselves that we forget God. We are adequate for ourselves for the tasks of today, and maybe tomorrow.

In the face of our pride and our self-sufficiency, we are urged to pray: Lord, give us humility.

The Corinthians as a church thought a great deal of themselves. The culture said that one’s value was based upon which teacher you were following. So the Corinthians split into factions, depending on which teacher they were following. They thought that their wisdom and ability in picking good teachers gave them a higher importance than the other people in the church who picked a different teacher to follow.

This was just their pride. Their self-centeredness. How can I advance? How can I look better? Look what I can do with my vision!

They are standing flexing in the mirror, thinking that they are all that. But, they are not.

Lord, give us humility.

Paul writes to these Corinthians who are obsessed with their own wisdom and their teachers:

1 Corinthians 3:18–23 NIV

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

Pray

Paul prays for himself and the Corinthians: Lord, give us humility.

He urges us to do two things in answer to that prayer.

Don’t pursue wisdom

He says: don’t pursue wisdom.

In case you didn’t catch what Paul said, he said:

1 Corinthians 3:18 NIV

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.

The world around us has a standard on what is wisdom. This standard, unfortunately, is always moving.

People will say: you better get good grades in school. If you do, you are wise.

People will say: you better have a good career. Don’t waste your resources by majoring in art history. That’s not wise.

People will talk about wisdom when it comes to whom we marry.

People will talk about wisdom in politics, both in whom we elect and which policies we pursue.

People will talk about priorities and choices. People will talk about which furniture to buy. Which car to drive. Which clothes to wear.

Everyone has an opinion about everything, and they couch it in terms of what is wise and not wise.

We bring that understanding to church. People have an opinion about everything from the color of countertops to the proper application of Revelation 4.

And we think that we can know what that wisdom is.

Disney has popularized the phrase: Follow your heart. And the non-denominational church can very much have popularized the phrase: follow your mind.

The world says: if you want it, do it. And the Biblical church says, if you have reasoned it out, it must be true.

But, most everything that is felt or reasoned boils down to human wisdom: what we can achieve.

Lord, give us humility.

We should not pursue human wisdom.

Paul says,

It has no worth

Paul says:

1 Corinthians 3:19–20 NIV

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

The pursuit of human wisdom does not have worth in the scheme of eternity.

Human wisdom is about how I can advance. How I can learn enough. How I can reason. How I can make sense of this world and act in a way that is accepted by others? What should I do in this situation? What should should I say? It is about me.

God says that all that wisdom is foolishness.

As Paul had said in 1 Corinthians 1:20

1 Corinthians 1:20 NIV

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Human wisdom does not have worth. We cannot reason our way into salvation. When we stand before the judgment seat of God, God is not going to look at all the decision that we made and say: you know, according to what culture and the world says, you did a pretty good job, enter into glory.

I’ve said this before: God is not going to look at our grades either and say: you were a straight A student! Welcome home good and faithful servant.

Our pursuit of human wisdom has no worth, and if we are proud of how wise we are, we should probably take care. We are proud of something that has no worth, that is vanity, a chasing after the wind.

Lord, give us humilty.

Paul says that human wisdom does not have worth because

We don’t need it

He wrote:

1 Corinthians 3:21–22 NIV

So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,

If we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, trusting in him for our salvation, not in anything we do, whether it is our baptism, our good works, our church attendance, our communion, our families, faith. If we have trusted in Jesus alone for our salvation, God has given us everything we need.

He gives us identity.

John 1:12 NIV

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

He gives us endurance and encouragement.

Romans 15:5 NIV

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,

He gives us hope. He gives us love. He gives us peace.

And, yes, he gives us wisdom.

He gives wisdom when we have the humility to say that we don’t have it.

Proverbs 11:2 NIV

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

When we admit that we don’t know, and we turn to God, he will give wisdom.

James writes:

James 1:5 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

He gives us his wisdom through his word. He gives us wisdom through life. He gives wisdom through the teachers that we are following and those that we are not. Through the teachers that we agree with and those that we don’t.

I find it telling that here in verse 19, Paul quotes Job. This is one of two quotes from Job in the New Testament. The first is in Romans 11, quoting one of God’s speeches to Job, which makes sense.

Here Paul quotes Eliphaz, one of Job’s bad friends, who normally is giving Job bad theology. At the end of the book, Job has to sacrifice for his friends to atone for their sin in telling horrible things about God.

But here, Paul quotes this Eliphaz guy, as accurately presenting God in at least this sentence.

Paul says to the Corinthians that all things are theirs, whether it is the teachers on both sides of the faction or life happenings or the confidence of a future with Christ. God has given all of that to us for our edification and our growth and confidence in him.

As we humbly turn to God, instead of trusting in our heart or our mind, saying “God, I don’t know. Teach me”. He will.

Lord, give us humility.

After Paul says: don’t pursue human wisdom.

He says Pursue Christ.

Pursue Christ

The very last verse he writes:

1 Corinthians 3:23 NIV

and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

He is worth everything.

What did he do for us?

He saved us while we were still sinners. When we were enemies, wanting everything but him, he died on the cross that we might be forgiven, that we might have an amazing eternity waiting for us, and that we might have a personal relationship with him.

Paul says: pursue Christ, instead of everything else. Why?

We are his

Earlier, Paul talks about redemption. He says

1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Redemption means that Jesus looked at us when we were slaves. He paid the price for our freedom. And, then, we transferred our allegiance over to him.

Paul will later say:

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NIV

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

I love how the author of Hebrews puts it:

Hebrews 9:12 NIV

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

How would you react if you were at a slave auction, horribly beaten, doomed to work for your master until you die a painful death at his hands.

Then, this man comes, with the kindest eyes you have ever seen. He says: “I want to that one.”

The slave auctioneer says, “you can’t afford it.” And the man says: “I give myself so that that one can go free.” He pays with his very life.

That’s what Jesus did for us. He died that we might go free.

How would we react? We should react by saying and living the words of Isaac Watts:

See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

But, too often we don’t: We say “God thanks for saving me! I’m going to live my own life now.”

Lord, give us humility.

Paul says that we should pursue Christ because we are his.

He says: pursue Christ because he gives us what we need.

He gives all things

Paul said:

1 Corinthians 3:21 NIV

So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours,

We don’t have to boast about human leaders because we have Christ. He provides everything we need.

Paul wrote to the Philippians:

Philippians 4:19 NIV

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Peter wrote:

2 Peter 1:3 NIV

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Too often, we are caught up in needing to provide for ourselves. That is one reason why we seek wisdom from everything except from God.

That is why we make decisions without praying.

That is why we live our life full of priorities in education, financial security, safety. We try to control life.

That is why we protect our churches through denominations or theological preferences.

We get so that we feel like we have to protect God through our own provision or our own skill set or our own mental ability.

We don’t truly believe that Christ will supply everything that we need for life and godliness. We don’t truly believe that he can do that in the face of pain, chaos, and evil people.

We don’t truly believe that he is powerful enough to use anyone and anything for his purposes and our good.

We believe that it is all up to us.

As Gordon Fee wrote:

But God is full of surprises; and he may choose to minister to us from the “strangest” of sources, if we were but more truly “in Christ” and therefore free in him to learn and to love.

This does not mean that one should not be discriminating; after all, Paul has no patience for that teaching in Corinth which had abandoned the pure gospel of Christ. But to be “of Christ” is also to be free from the tyrannies of one’s own narrowness, free to learn even from those with whom one may disagree.

Lord, give us humility.

In Christ, we have everything we need. Do we believe that?

Paul says: Pursue Christ, not human wisdom.

Paul is calling us to a radical change from self-sufficiency to Christ-dependency.

These might be great words. But, let’s be honest: they are just words.

How does one practically live this concept of humility? Of pursuing Christ instead of human wisdom?

Application

Too often, if we looked at our day, we would be like the little kid helping prepare for a Christmas play, building the manger scene. He was very excited to be part of it and he was walking back and forth in front of the stage, looking at everything, seeming to be searching for something.

His teacher asking him if anything was bothering him. He said, “no”. Are there any questions you would like to ask?” “Yes, I’d like to know… where does God fit in?”

If we looked at our day, and we were honest, how often would we be asking: where does God fit in.

So, let’s look at our day and reflect on where God fits in.

6:30

Let’s start at the beginning of the day. For the sake of universality, we will say that we wake up at 6:30. I wake up at 5 or 5:30, but that is beside the point.

What does it look like to wake up and pursue Christ instead of human wisdom?

So often we start the day rushing around. There is so many things that we have to do. We have to take a shower, brush our teeth, make breakfast. If we have kids, we have to get them ready of the day. Perhaps we have animals and we have to get chores done. Maybe there are tasks at work to be done and we are already planning those tasks out, how we are going to accomplish them.

All these things that we have to do. Unfortunately, that rushing around has already tainted our day, forcing us to think about the things we do in our own strength according to our own wisdom.

Lord, teach us humility.

What if we woke up just a tad bit earlier, like 10 minutes. Cracked upon our dusty Bible for a few minutes and spent 5 more minutes praying acknowledging that we are not capable of the tasks for the day, confessing our pride and selfishness and asking God to help us accomplish his priorities instead of our own.

Immediately, our day switches, instead of rushing around accomplishing everything by ourselves, in our own strength, in our own priorities, we are practicing being dependent on God.

8:00

8:00 hits. We are now entering our school day, work day, chaos at home with small kids day, errand running while we hope we don’t forget anything day.

At this point, we start hitting auto-pilot again. We are interacting with people, checking things off our list, trying to reschedule our day because invariably something happened.

At this point, we are also starting to make choices based upon what we and others think are wise. These choices have to do with school, or work, or everyday life. They have to do with how we treat siblings, spouses, parents, friends. They have to do with the things we say and how we react.

And the choice we make in the moment is tied with what we think is wise. And what do we do in the moment when we make the choice?

We have two phones in front of us. We have the Human Wisdom Phone and we have the Pursue Christ phone. 9 times out of 10, we pick up the human wisdom phone.

We don’t stop to say, “God I need you.” Goodness, no! The decision needs to be made now. We don’t have time to pray.

Goodness, I know what God will say, and I will be a laughing stock if I do it.

Goodness, I am emotional right now, and my emotions are telling me this is right.

Lord, give us humility.

We should not deceive ourselves. We are not wise. We need to pursue Christ at 8:00 in the morning.

Noon

Wow! Time has flown! Noon has hit. Lunchtime!

Let’s stop this and eat some food. But, wait…Human wisdom says, eat we are hungry. Don’t be a fool and cause everyone to think that we are weird.

But, we are pursuing Christ today. And the pursuit of Christ demands that we acknowledge his blessing, that we spend some time praising him for his provision.

Many people say that they “pray without ceasing” that they are praying all day. But how often is that prayer a constant cry of God help me! God fulfill my needs that I think I have! And how much of it is: God you are amazing thank you for these practical blessings that you have given me. Forgive me for my selfishness for not acknowledging them and my pride for thinking that I provided these things myself.

So, what would it be, if you turned to whoever was near you at that time and said:

“I am so grateful that God has provided me this meal, would you join me in thanking him?”

Praying before meals is not about asking God to bless the meal, but thanking him for providing it. It is about pursuing him, acknowledging that all we have is from him.

If we get used to it and carried away, our prayer at noon could last all lunch break, because there is so much that God has given us that we need to thank him for.

5:00

Clock out. Pack up the books. Set the table. The day is almost done. 5:00 is here.

How do we pursue Christ in the evening instead of pursuing human wisdom?

I’ve been talking this whole time. You tell me!

9:30

Put on our PJ’s. Crawl into bed. I’m exhausted. Let’s sleep.

Wait… My wife wants to talk..Oh, just go to sleep....

Even here, we are to pursue Christ instead of human wisdom.

A little bit of transparency. Maggie and I pray together as we are laying in bed. Sometimes, we fall asleep while the other is praying. Sometimes, I pray really short because I just want to sleep.

But, it is important to pursue Christ. To acknowledge what he has done for us, and to beg him to help in all the ways that went wrong, in the sins that we are still struggling with, in what is laying heavy on our mind and our heart for the next couple of days. To pray about our kids and grandkids, our nieces and nephews, our spouses, our future spouses, the ones who have left, or the marriages we are surrounded by.

At the end of the day, we need to remind ourselves that we should not deceive ourselves. We are not wise. We are followers of Jesus Christ, because we need him. We cannot live this life on our own.

Lord, give us humility.

Instead of standing in the mirror, convincing ourselves that we are okay, trying to convince others that we are okay. Let’s shatter the mirror, turning away from ourselves and our self-sufficiency, and pursue Christ.