DO NOT BE ASHAMED, BRETHREN

We tend to be ashamed of many things – our weaknesses, our appearance, our ethnicity and race, our education... I had been so ashamed of myself that it was difficult to be around others. I always felt so self-conscious and was obsessed with what others thought of me.

However, our Savior doesn’t want us to look down on anyone. Nor does He want anyone to look down on us:

·       that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:25-26 ESV)

Consequently, we should regard each other as beloved and of great value, even if we don’t see them that way. We should also regard the brethren as family, so interconnected that if one mourns, we will also experience a sense of mourning.

So that we would regard one another as equals, He has balanced out the Body of Christ – that’s us:

·       On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it. (1 Corinthians 12:22-24)

This means that those we’d ordinarily look down on have been given great gifts. James tells us that Our Lord has made the poor rich in faith:

·       Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? (James 2:5-7; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

Consequently, I’d rather have the poor pray for me than a CEO. I have been more deeply touched by their prayers than the prayers of many church leaders.

I have also found that the Lord has also given them a great wisdom through their contemplation of His Word:

·       At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” (Matthew 11:25)

It is not to “little children” literally to whom Jesus has given wisdom, but to those who are regarded dismissively as “little children”:

·       and they said to him, “Do you hear what these [who were crying out “Hosanna”] are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:16)

Jesus referred to those who were glorifying Him on Palm Sunday as “infants.” I have found more understanding among such infants than among university professors.

I say these things that you might not be ashamed but, instead, to know who you are in our Lord, beloved and precious.