God’s upside-down value system

A book offered lists of character traits and abilities. Readers are told to circle at least ten that are true for themselves, then go through those ten with considerable thought. Since great strengths can be sources for great temptation, how were these positive traits causing problems in their lives?
 

One of my ‘strengths’ is a creative imagination. While this can be used for good, it can also take me down garden paths that I should not visit. Another strength is determination, but that one easily turns to simply being stubborn. One would easily assume that being a Christian involves learning how to avoid the weaknesses and live by our strengths, but that is a human concept, not a biblical one.

When God gets hold of a life, He isn’t interested in our strengths because His people must learn to function in His strength. Consider Paul. He was first Saul, a strong Pharisee with much religious training and zeal. To him, Jesus was not the Messiah and Christians were in sharp denial of the God that he understood, so he persecuted them.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1–2)

On that trip to Damascus, Saul met the Lord Jesus Christ and was converted, reborn, redeemed, made a new man. His understanding of Jesus changed, as did his attitude toward His followers.

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. (Acts 9:22)

Paul also explained the change in his attitude about weaknesses and strength. He talked about a problem that he had, but didn’t name it. He wanted that problem to go away and said,

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:8–10)

 These thoughts have me thinking about my weaknesses and the reality that I have two options. Unless God takes them away, they can be sources of temptation to sin in some way or another, or they can be reasons for choosing the power of Christ, of letting His strength be perfected in me, of even boasting about them.

Paul went from persecutor to prayer warrior, from darkness to light, from murderous to missions. Jesus does that to people. He takes the sin that seems to control us and washes it away, replacing it not with more power, but with Himself and His godliness.

That is not all. God also takes the strengths that we seem to rely on, and changes our attitudes toward those strengths, making us glory in our weaknesses. After listing all his “qualifications” for good, Paul said. . .

For we …worship the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also… circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… (Philippians 3:3–8)

This morning I’m thinking about what it would be like to glory in my weaknesses. Yikes, this is not normal for me. I can easily glory in my strengths and discard those weak areas as if they were my worst enemies. Paul did the opposite. He tossed his strengths on the trash heap and boasted of His weaknesses.

I’ve been in this classroom before, which means I’ve still not learned this lesson. Even though I know that God’s thoughts are higher than mine, and that He wants this change in my values, this is still a huge challenge.

Hope looks forward, not over its shoulder

And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:75)

And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, (Judas) departed, and he went and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:5).

Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison…. still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, (Saul) went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 8:3; Acts 9:1–2)

The two great preachers of the Gospel were destined to be Peter the denier of Christ and Paul the persecutor of Christ. Why didn’t Judas the betrayer of Christ make up a third?

All three of them had strong I-wants, which is a sinful focus that excludes faith. Everyone has been there, myself included, yet the faith of Jesus is greater than all our sin. Judas never took his sin to Jesus. He dealt with it himself in the only way he thought would work.

Yet the biggest difference between Judas and the other two is more about his inability to face the future. All three failed. All three had to look God in the eye and move on, but Judas could not. His failure consumed him because hope had eluded him.

Hope knows something is real even though you cannot see it. I wrote a class paper about hope using the smell of cinnamon buns as a descriptor. Every day I parked my car in the lot far from the college kitchen, yet as soon as I opened the door, I could smell them. Each breath brought greater anticipation. My mouth still waters at the memory. Hope is a delicious smell!

Even without experiencing the things hoped for, hope keeps the heart from total despair. Hope reflects God’s mercy, echoes His love. Hope gives me energy, strength to go on. Without it, sorrow for sin would cripple me. The hours move relentlessly and my energy is not what it used to be. Brooding over my past errors is a waste of time and effort, doing nothing for me or for the kingdom of God.

I have been tempted, have yielded and sinned. It is right to do what Peter did, weeping tears of repentance before God, but even more right to return to Christ and be sent to strengthen His lambs. Hope moves me to active love and devoted service. Hope safeguards me against remorse and its suicidal nudges.

Hope produces zeal. It puts the past beyond recall, behind me. Hope sees magnificent opportunities, makes me energetic, even courageous. Jesus’ voice whispers things like, “Let the dead bury their own dead”—dead opportunities, dead regrets, dead failures, yes, even dead sins—and “follow me” (see Matthew 8:22).

Judas had no hope. He looked at himself and what he had done instead of at Jesus, instead of waiting to see what Jesus would do. This sinful and hopeless man took matters into his own hands and never saw the astonishing good that God brought out of the evil that he had done. He forgot (if he ever knew) the grand redemptive program of God that began before the foundation of the world. Instead, Judas zeroed in on “poor me” and put himself outside of God’s plan and into the hands of Satan. Without faith and hope, he never knew what God could do or what he could have been.