Category: Devotions

The king Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the greatest power on earth and in heaven when he was king over the vastest empire on earth – The Babylonian Empire. In the height of his glory, God humbled him by consigning him to live like a beast for 7 years. At the end of the 7 years, his senses returned to him. He made this testimony – Daniel 4:37 “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”

The word “despised” is a compound word consisting of the preposition “from” and the noun “to bring to naught”, meaning “treat with scorn, jeer at, look down on”. Those whom the people in the world disregarded, God regarded them. They are precious in God’s sight.

The National Geographic magazine July 1997 in the article “The Power and Glory of the Roman Empire” written by T.R. Reid, it is observed interesting the spread of the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire, “In the empire where human life was held so trivial, we should perhaps not be surprised by the rapid growth of a new religious cult centering on a young man executed as a criminal in an unimportant province. When Jesus of Nazareth and a minor procurator named Pontius Pilate came face-to-face in the basilica of Jerusalem – it was around A.D. 30 – all the power lay on Pilate’s side. But Jesus had the power of an idea. His message, that every life was precious, addressed a human need that the caesars could not fill. Assisted greatly by the ease of travel and the general tolerance of new religions within the empire, the early Christians gradually converted the entire Roman Empire. The historian Eusebius tells of the civil war of A.D. 312, when two Roman leaders, Constantine and Maxentius, battled for control of the empire. Gazing up into the noonday sky, Constantine saw a brilliant flaming cross above the sun. Emblazoned on it were the words “In hoc signo vinces” – In this sign you will conquer…Emerging victorious, Constantine issued his famous edict of toleration. Much later, as he lay on deathbed, he was baptised, becoming the first Christian emperor of Rome.”

The foolish, the weak has nothing inherently to boast because they are generally overlooked in a world where the wise and mighty rules the roost. It is interesting, the Apostle Paul observes, the vessels of God’s saving grace come upon the foolish and weak. Jesus gives us a clue in the Beatitudes how a man finds blessings with God when He teaches in Matthew 5:3-4 “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

The foolish and the weak realizes their inability and inadequacy. God is able to mold and reshape such to conform to His image. They are yielded to His molding hands. When God commands Joshua to enter the Promised Land, He instructs Israel to first conquer Jericho. And God’s strategy for tearing the fortress of Jericho is laughable to the army of Jericho. And the army of Israel is ill-equipped and hardly pose any threat to the great armour and strength of the army in Jericho.

The message of the gospel is God’s infinite wisdom presented in an infinitely logically and simple way so that men can be saved from sin and misery and death. It is a message that has brought comfort, strength, joy and peace to the seeking soul, distraught and at its wit’s end. The power of God shown through in the heart of such bringing healing to the aching soul.

The gospel is the power and wisdom of God to save. Despise not the gospel for it is the only hope, the only cure for sin and death. The Apostle Paul is exhorting the church in Corinth to press on in sowing the seed of the gospel. He made a relative comparison driving home the point that even the least of God’s wisdom bordering upon “foolishness” as fallen man would interpret God’s ways, is still superior to man’s wisdom.

The Apostle Paul was quoting Scripture taken from Isaiah 29:14 “Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” He was alluding to the truth that God shall intervene by His power to save man by confounding their “wisdom”.

The Apostle Paul has personally experienced liberation from the bondage of sin when he received Jesus Christ at his Lord and Saviour. He was confronted by Jesus through a bright light from heaven on the road to Damascus for persecuting Christians. He was blinded for three days. He realised that the Jesus whom he was persecuting is the living and true God. He asked Jesus to forgive his sins. Jesus restored his sight. He was a changed man from that day onwards. He understood the power of the gospel, the preaching of the cross, indeed, saves!

The Apostle Paul’s focus is to preach the gospel in its simple entirety without garnishing it with any of man’s intellectual wrangling whom man calls “wisdom”. He sees it as a danger because it stands to twist and distort the gospel message. The gospel loses its power to save!

He forbade that the Christians in Corinth have a wrong notion of the mission of the church. If it becomes a holding place for man’s ego, it will fail. Christ has not sent him to baptise although this is a part of the Great Commission. He was to make disciples so that God’s kingdom will be advanced. He is an instrument in God’s hand. The gospel work is not done in his name. He cannot save. Therefore, his preaching has always been to point men to Christ.